Where Do You Stop?
About the Book
by Eric Kraft, as Peter Leroy
A Brief Description from the Publisher

“Where do you stop?” is the question posed by Miss Rheingold, the intoxicating new teacher of Peter Leroy’s junior high school science class. That question forms the basis of a science paper that Peter spends thirty years trying to complete—along the way exploring quantum physics, entropy, epistemology, principles of uncertainty and discontinuity, and a range of Life’s Big Questions.

Deceptively simple and warmly engaging, Eric Kraft’s novel is an ingenious portrait of a small American town in the 1950s, when the atom seemed to hold the key to the mystery of creation, as well as the power to utterly destroy it.

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YOU CAN READ THE FIRST THIRD
OF THE BOOK HERE,
ONLINE, ONSCREEN.

YOU CAN BUY THE
PICADOR USA
PAPERBACK EDITION AT
AMAZON.COM
OR
BARNES&NOBLE.COM

Very Brief Excerpts from the Reviews

A magical, funny, healing journey.
Publishers Weekly (starred review) 
Warm . . .thought-provoking . . . charming . . . delightful.
Library Journal (starred review) 
Mr. Kraft is a splendid, smart, funny, slyly sexy, and insightful writer.
Michael Z. Jody, The East Hampton Star
A book designed to leave its readers--and it deserves many of them--as happy as clams.
Walter Satterthwait, The New York Times Book Review
Luminously intelligent fun.
Time
Goofy and thoroughly enjoyable.
Timothy Hunter, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Nothing less than an attempt to comprehend the nature of the universe itself.
Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times & Post-Intelligencer
Hilarious.
Bruce Allen, USA TODAY
Kraft gets better all the time.
Alicia Miller, Chagrin Falls Currents

RECOMMENDED BY THE READER’S CATALOG

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Where to Find It

Where Do You Stop? is published in paperback by Picador, a division of St. Martin's Press, at $10.00.

You should be able to find Where Do You Stop? at your local bookstore, but you can also order it by phone from:

Bookbound at 1-800-959-7323 
Book Call at 1-800-255-2665 (worldwide 1-203-966-5470)
You can order it on the Web from Amazon.com Books.
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Not-So-Brief Excerpts from the Reviews

Fans of Eric Kraft's Peter Leroy series will unequivocally delight in this latest installment of Peter’s adventures growing up in post-WWII Babbington, the “clam capital of America.” Readers unfamiliar with this masterful storyteller’s pellucid prose will equally enjoy his account of Peter’s momentous and treacherous initiation into junior high school . . . a magical, funny, healing journey that features familiar and unusual memories . . . without lapsing into mere nostalgia.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Kraft’s humor is always warm and sometimes laugh-aloud, his characters are wonderfully sketched, and his themes are as thought-provoking as his efforts are charming. Delightful.
Library Journal (starred review)

From the in-depth examination of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, to the inner workings of the drive mechanism of a windup record player, or the perfect proportions for a beer and lemonade shandy, the young Peter leads us on a merry investigation and exploration of his (and our) world, and, in the process, invests it with a great deal of warmth and humor and charm. . . . Mr. Kraft is a splendid, smart, funny, slyly sexy, and insightful writer . . . and Mr. Kraft continues to be a pleasure to read.
Michael Z. Jody, The East Hampton Star

The title of this sly and extremely funny book is also the title of a paper that Peter is assigned by his science teacher, the luscious, leggy Miss Rheingold. We—and Peter—learn quite a bit about Miss Rheingold, although nowhere near as much as Peter would like. We also learn about epistemology; the boundaries of the self; the building of backyard lighthouses; terrazzo floors; Chinese checkers; American education; the restricted vision of children (and their parents); and the design of such exquisitely intricate gadgets as the phonograph, the scanning tunneling microscope, the universe, and the novel. . . . In what other novel this year will you find the instructions, complete with diagram, for constructing a flour bomb? Or a discussion, by a gum-chewing seventh-grade girl, of Zwischenraum, the empty space between the components of an atom? Or a canny analysis of racial prejudice proffered by Porky White, the entrepreneur behind the phenomenally successful Kap’n Klam Family Restaurants? 
Like childhood itself, Where Do You Stop? is filled with wonders. It is a book designed to leave its readers--and it deserves many of them--as happy as clams.
Walter Satterthwait, The New York Times Book Review

While most readers have been looking the other way, writer Eric Kraft has turned out a series of whiz-bang novellas about a kid named Peter Leroy who does a lot of neat stuff, like thinking, squidging for clams with his toes, and noticing the fantastic legs of his new science teacher, Miss Rheingold. . . . His books are good, luminously intelligent fun.
Time

The giddy excitement of expanding scientific consciousness is coupled with the awakening of sexual desires in this goofy and thoroughly enjoyable novel . . . . You won’t want this charming little exercise in learned whimsy to end.
Timothy Hunter, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Working on a vast scale but serving up the components of his ongoing saga in tasty morsels, Kraft has managed to create a 1950s world that is both wildly eccentric and universal in its appeal. His young protagonist, earnest screwball Peter Leroy, is the narrator of these “adventures, experiences and observations” . . . and he’s as winning a character as any to have appeared recently on the American literary scene. Where Do You Stop? is the latest installment, and it’s a treat. . . . It’s an enchanting comic meditation on the quirkiness of memory and the joys of daydreaming. At its most ambitious moments, it’s nothing less than an attempt to comprehend the nature of the universe itself. . . . Droll, provocative, and filled with memorable characters, Where Do You Stop? confirms Kraft as a writer who is every bit as inventive as he is entertaining.
Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times & Post-Intelligencer

A hilarious reminiscence of Peter’s pre-adolescent years, his awakening to sexual feelings, and other inchoate confusions . . . .
Bruce Allen, USA TODAY

Kraft gets better all the time, and Peter Leroy’s fondly remembered world grows richer and funnier—more provocative, too—with each new episode. Stay tuned.”
Alicia Miller, Chagrin Falls Currents

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WHERE DO YOU STOP? | CONTENTS | PRELIMINARIES


Copyright © 1992 by Eric Kraft

Where Do You Stop? is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, dialogues, settings, and businesses portrayed in it are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published by Crown Publishers, Inc., 201 East 50th Street, New York, New York 10022. Member of the Crown Publishing Group.

Now available in paperback from Picador USA, a division of St. Martin's Press.

For information about publication rights outside the U. S. A., audio rights, serial rights, screen rights, and so on, e-mail Alec “Nick” Rafter, the author’s earnest agent.

The illustration at the top of the page is an adaptation of an illustration by Stewart Rouse that first appeared on the cover of the August 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions. The boy at the controls of the aerocycle doesn’t particularly resemble Peter Leroy—except, perhaps, for the smile.


ABOUT THE PERSONAL HISTORY
COMPONENTS OF THE WORK
REVIEWS OF THE ENTIRE WORK
AUTHOR’S STATEMENT

LITTLE FOLLIES
HERB ’N’ LORNA
RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED
WHERE DO YOU STOP?
WHAT A PIECE OF WORK I AM
AT HOME WITH THE GLYNNS
LEAVING SMALL’S HOTEL
INFLATING A DOG
PASSIONATE SPECTATOR
MAKING MY SELF
A TOPICAL GUIDE

CLASSIFIEDS
SWELL IDEAS

COMPLETE SITE CONTENTS
WHAT'S NEW?

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