J R

Winner of the 1976 National Book Award, J R is a biting satire about the many

ways in which capitalism twists the American spirit into something dangerous,

yet pervasive and unassailable. At the center of the novel is a hilarious eleven

year old—J R—who with boyish enthusiasm turns a few basic lessons in capitalist principles, coupled with a young boy’s lack of conscience, into a massive

and exploitative paper empire. The result is one of the funniest and most disturbing stories ever told about the corruption of the American dream.