In his first book of essays, Garrett Stewart demonstrates and reframes his formidable powers as a close reader of a vast range of texts: novels, films, songs, book art, digital media, and more.

Among the most prolific and exacting readers of his generation, Stewart is renowned for his virtuosic interventions across a number of humanistic fields, including prose narrative, screen studies, and literary theory. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010 and winner of the International Society for the Study of Narrative’s prize for Novel Violence...