Latent Destinies

“[An] excellent book, a book that breaks new ground in several fields simultaneously: the psychoanalysis of culture, cultural and gender studies, postmodern and cold war scholarship, and narrative analysis, to name but a few.” - Christian Moraru , Studies in the Novel

“[I]nsightful . . . . All the strains of O’Donnell’s argument . . . come together powerfully in his reading . . . .” - Alan Nadel , Contemporary Literature

“[I]nsightful analyses of the texts in question, especially as they apply to symptomatic paranoia.” - Derek Parker Royal , Symploke

“Insights into important contemporary novels and films. . . .” - J. McWilliams , Choice

“Patrick O’Donnell’s study scrutinizes U.S. films and novels of the last three decades as representations of paranoia in contemporary culture, revealing these cultural anxieties as negotiations between postmodern identity and history.” - American Literature

"O'Donnell has made a compelling case for the persistence of American paranoia. For its lucid critical exposition of postmodern theory, particularly that of the now highly fashionable work of Deluze and Guattari, as well as for its canny matching of theory and fiction, Latent Destinies will be crucial reading for anyone interested in contemporary American fiction and the issue of postmodernity." - John N. Duvall, Novel

“Latent Destinies provides a smartly informed paradigm for understanding postmodern U.S. narratives, both aesthetic and theoretical. Examining a representative sample of these, O’Donnell finds that they indulge a cultural paranoia that wags the tail of their late-capitalist bête noire.” - Louis A. Renza, Dartmouth College

“Latent Destinies provides a careful, lucid, insightful analysis of a number of works of contemporary American authors and filmmakers, and situates their work within a complex theoretical matrix of social connections that enhance our understanding not only of the works under discussion but also of the conditions of contemporary American culture in which those works circulate.” - Alan Nadel, author of Containment Culture: American Narratives, Postmodernism and the Atomic Age