Monster in a Box (Picador Books) - Softcover

e now, writer-actor-performance artist Spalding Gray has been carrying around with him a monster: a manuscript of a novel called Impossible Vacation, a book that at last sighting weighed in at about 1,800 pages. Monster in a Box, Gray's latest monologue, is a guided tour between the stations of his writing block, which include a field trip to Nicaragua, a disastrous guest appearance at the Moscow film festival, and a stint in Los Angeles hunting down the fabled few who have never written a screenplay. Hilarious and poignant, Monster in a Box is further proof that Gray has not only captured the dangerous spirit of our age but swallowed it whole.

"Gray fishes up so much of the glory and chaos of our times....Talking about himself -- with candor, humor, imagination -- he ends up talking about all of us." -- Washington Post

"Gray's deepest, most self-questioning piece...wildly, unpredictably witty, wide-ranging and quirky, but also sneakily profound. -- Newsday

"Spalding Gray may be the nation's outstanding storyteller. He has never been better." -- Los Angeles Times

"[Gray is] the perfect raconteur for our times." -- New York Magazine