Rachele Dini is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Roehampton, UK. She is the author of Consumerism, Waste, and Re-use in Twentieth-century Fiction: Legacies of the Avant-Garde (2016) and founder of the International Literary Waste Studies Network.

A welcome addition to the field of Literary Objects Study. The lavish illustrations, mostly commercial ads, may present the “good life” as a universal right, but the reader finds out that literary representations of electrical appliances tell a different story.

• AcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: Time-Saving Appliances & the American Century: A Case for the Significance of a Literary Trope1. “Everything in the Icebox”: Domestic Energies in Jack Kerouac and Beat Culture, 1950–76 2. “The Lamentation of a Vacuum Cleaner”: Appliance Disappointments in John Cheever & Richard Yates, 1947–813. “‘I’m a Toaster with a Cunt’”: Time-Saving Appliances & Errant Women in Marge Piercy’s Early Fiction4. “I’ve Never Been Able to Get Another Girl as Efficient or as Reliable”: Time-Saving Appliances in Black American Fiction, 1952–20035. “Ever Think About Being Attacked by a … Vacuum Cleaner”: Time-Saving Appliances in Sci-Fi, 1950-19786. “The Angel of Death Pushes a Vacuum Cleaner”: Retrospective Appliances in Kurt Vonnegut & Don DeLillo, 1950–97 7. “You Can Overdo Remembering Stuff”: Anti-Nostalgic Appliances in Postmillennial FictionConclusionBibliographyIndex

Rachele Dini is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Roehampton, UK. She is the author of Consumerism, Waste, and Re-use in Twentieth-century Fiction: Legacies of the Avant-Garde (2016) and founder of the International Literary Waste Studies Network.

A welcome addition to the field of Literary Objects Study. The lavish illustrations, mostly commercial ads, may present the “good life” as a universal right, but the reader finds out that literary representations of electrical appliances tell a different story.

• AcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: Time-Saving Appliances & the American Century: A Case for the Significance of a Literary Trope1. “Everything in the Icebox”: Domestic Energies in Jack Kerouac and Beat Culture, 1950–76 2. “The Lamentation of a Vacuum Cleaner”: Appliance Disappointments in John Cheever & Richard Yates, 1947–813. “‘I’m a Toaster with a Cunt’”: Time-Saving Appliances & Errant Women in Marge Piercy’s Early Fiction4. “I’ve Never Been Able to Get Another Girl as Efficient or as Reliable”: Time-Saving Appliances in Black American Fiction, 1952–20035. “Ever Think About Being Attacked by a … Vacuum Cleaner”: Time-Saving Appliances in Sci-Fi, 1950-19786. “The Angel of Death Pushes a Vacuum Cleaner”: Retrospective Appliances in Kurt Vonnegut & Don DeLillo, 1950–97 7. “You Can Overdo Remembering Stuff”: Anti-Nostalgic Appliances in Postmillennial FictionConclusionBibliographyIndex

Rachele Dini is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Roehampton, UK. She is the author of Consumerism, Waste, and Re-use in Twentieth-century Fiction: Legacies of the Avant-Garde (2016) and founder of the International Literary Waste Studies Network.

A welcome addition to the field of Literary Objects Study. The lavish illustrations, mostly commercial ads, may present the “good life” as a universal right, but the reader finds out that literary representations of electrical appliances tell a different story.

• AcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: Time-Saving Appliances & the American Century: A Case for the Significance of a Literary Trope1. “Everything in the Icebox”: Domestic Energies in Jack Kerouac and Beat Culture, 1950–76 2. “The Lamentation of a Vacuum Cleaner”: Appliance Disappointments in John Cheever & Richard Yates, 1947–813. “‘I’m a Toaster with a Cunt’”: Time-Saving Appliances & Errant Women in Marge Piercy’s Early Fiction4. “I’ve Never Been Able to Get Another Girl as Efficient or as Reliable”: Time-Saving Appliances in Black American Fiction, 1952–20035. “Ever Think About Being Attacked by a … Vacuum Cleaner”: Time-Saving Appliances in Sci-Fi, 1950-19786. “The Angel of Death Pushes a Vacuum Cleaner”: Retrospective Appliances in Kurt Vonnegut & Don DeLillo, 1950–97 7. “You Can Overdo Remembering Stuff”: Anti-Nostalgic Appliances in Postmillennial FictionConclusionBibliographyIndex