Seven Modes of Uncertainty

“Seven Modes of Uncertainty makes major contributions to our understanding of the ethics of the novel and of the eight novels it analyzes. Serpell is not only well-informed about the relevant scholarship, but she also treats it with impressive intelligence as she carves out her own fresh and appealing approach to narrative ethics. She proves herself, again and again, to be a marvelously insightful reader and an engaging and accomplished writer.”—James Phelan, The Ohio State University

“Seven Modes of Uncertainty is quite an extraordinary accomplishment. Serpell is impressively learned and original; she writes with conspicuous ease, wit, elegance, and force. She brilliantly presents detailed readings of a series of novels and stories—from Nabokov’s Lolita to Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49 to Ellis’s American Psycho—as well as amazingly comprehensive accounts of the previous essays and reviews on those works. This book is consistently fascinating, page after page.”—J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine