Tepper Isn't Going Out - Paperback

by Calvin Trillin (Author)

Murray Tepper would say that he is an ordinary New Yorker who is simply trying to read the newspaper in peace. But he reads while sitting behind the wheel of his parked car, and his car always seems to be in a particularly desirable parking spot. Not surprisingly, he is regularly interrupted by drivers who want to know if he is going out.

Tepper isn't going out. Why not? His explanations tend to be rather literal: the indisputable fact, for instance, that he has twenty minutes left on the meter.

Tepper's behavior sometimes irritates the people who want his spot. ("Is that where you live? Is that car rent-controlled?") It also irritates the mayor--Frank Ducavelli, known in tabloid headlines as Il Duce--who sees Murray Tepper as a harbinger of what His Honor always calls "the forces of disorder."

But once New Yorkers become aware of Tepper, some of them begin to suspect that he knows something they don't know. And an ever-increasing number of them are willing to line up for the opportunity to sit in his car with him and find out.

Tepper Isn't Going Out is a wise and witty story of an ordinary man who, perhaps innocently, changes the world around him.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Calvin Trillin's Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin.

Front Jacket

Murray Tepper would say that he is an ordinary New Yorker who is simply trying to read the newspaper in peace. But he reads while sitting behind the wheel of his parked car, and his car always seems to be in a particularly desirable parking spot. Not surprisingly, he is regularly interrupted by drivers who want to know if he is going out.
Tepper isn't going out. Why not? His explanations tend to be rather literal--the indisputable fact, for instance, that he has twenty minutes left on the meter.
But once New Yorkers become aware of Tepper, some of them begin to suspect that he knows something they don't. And an ever-increasing number of them are willing to line up for the opportunity to sit in his car with him and find out what it is.
Tepper Isn't Going Out is a wise and witty story of an ordinary man who, perhaps innocently, changes the world around him.

Author Biography

CALVIN TRILLIN

Calvin Trillin has been acclaimed in fields of writing that are remarkably diverse. A staff writer for The New Yorker for forty years, Trillin has been called "perhaps the finest reporter in America." His antic commentary on the American scene and his books chronicling his adventures as a "happy eater" have earned him renown as "a classic American humorist."

Trillin was born and raised in Kansas City, MO. He graduated from Yale in 1957, served in the army and then joined Time magazine. After a year covering the South from the Atlanta bureau, he became a writer for Time in New York.

In 1963, he became a staff writer for The New Yorker. From 1978 to 1985, Trillin was a columnist for The Nation, writing what USA Today called "simply the funniest regular column in journalism." From 1986 through 1995, the column was syndicated to newspapers. His columns have been collected in five books: Uncivil Liberties; With All Disrespect, If You Can't Say Something Nice (1987), Enough's Enough, and Too Soon to Tell. From 1996 to 2001, Trillin did a column for Time.

Since 1990, Trillin has written a piece of comic verse weekly for The Nation. In 1994, he published Deadline Poet, his account of being a commentator-in-rhyme on the news of the day.

Trillin's books have included three comic novels, a collection of short stories, a travel book and an account of the desegregation of the University of Georgia. His three antic books on eating -- American Fried, Alice Let's Eat and Third Helpings -- were compiled in 1994 into a single volume called The Tummy Trilogy. His memoirs include Remembering Denny and Messages from My Father, both New York Times bestsellers.

Trillin lives in New York City.