This story of raging comedy and despair centers on the tempestuous marriage of an heiress and a Vietnam veteran. From their "carpenter gothic" rented house， Paul sets himself up as a media consultant for Reverend Ude， an evangelist mounting a grand crusade that conveniently suits a mining combine bidding to take over an ore strike on the site of Ude s African mission. At the still center of the breakneck action--revealed in Gaddis s inimitable virtuoso dialoge--is Paul s wife， Liz， and over it all looms the shadowy figure of McCandless， a geologist from whom Paul and Liz rent their house. As Paul mishandles the situation， his wife takes the geologist to her bed and a fire and aborted assassination occur; Ude issues a call to arms as harrowing as any Jeremiad--and Armageddon comes rapidly closer. Displaying Gaddis s inimitable virtuoso dialogue， and his startling treatments of violence and sexuality， Carpenter s Gothic "shows again that Gaddis is among the first rank of contemporary American writers" (Malcolm Bradbury， The Washington Post Book World). "An unholy landmark of a novel--an extra turret added on to the ample， ingenious， audacious Gothic mansion Gaddis has been building in American letters" --Cynthia Ozick， The New York Times Book Review "Everything in this compelling and brilliant vision of America--the packaged sleaze， the incipient violence， the fundamentalist furor， the constricted sexuality--is charged with the force of a volcanic eruption. Carpenter s Gothic will reenergize and give shape to contemporary literature." --Walter Abish