{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1951213726?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1951213726","authors":["James Elkins"],"book_id":"9781951213725","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781951213725","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781951213725.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","description":"\" Weak in Comparison to Dreams ... is the most courageous and fascinating debut I have read since Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves .\" — Full Stop Magazine For years, Samuel Emmer has monitored bacteria levels in drinking water for the small city of Guelph. He is content to focus on dangerous life-threatening single-celled organisms as his grasp on his own life recedes—and with it, family and friends. To be sure, it is more than a little surprising when Samuel learns that he has been appointed to the city’s Zoo Feasibility Committee. Even more so, that he is being tasked with interacting not just with animals, but human beings. His assignment: travel to zoos around the world and gather information on the stereotypical behavior of animals in their enclosures—the city of Guelph aspiring commendably, if naively, to a cruelty-free habitat for its animals. It is in Tallinn, Estonia, that the dreams start for Samuel. He is in a vast wooded landscape; there is a fire burning in the distance; and it is coming his way… Weak in Comparison to Dreams , by the historian and art critic James Elkins, is like no other novel you have ever read, even as certain inspirations, from Sebald to Tokarczuk, are clear. With an astounding breadth of knowledge and playful courage, Weak in Comparison to Dreams reignites our love for the ambitious novel with experimentation that never lacks intention, and whose empathetic scope explores the deepest aspects of our individual humanity.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781951213725","publication_date":"20231215","publisher":"The Unnamed Press","slug":"weak-in-comparison-to-dreams","subtitle":"","title":"Weak in Comparison to Dreams"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"LIT024050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"20th-Century Literary Criticism","score":0.7297,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT024060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"21st Century Literature","score":0.7285,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT025020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Nature in Literature","score":0.7221,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"LIT024050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"20th-Century Literary Criticism","score":0.7297,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT024060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"21st Century Literature","score":0.7285,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT025020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Nature in Literature","score":0.7221,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"ART050000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Art Themes","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"ART050030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Animals & Plants in Art","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"FIC019000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Literary Fiction","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"20th-Century Literary Criticism","score":0.7297,"slug":"20th-century-literary-criticism"},{"label":"21st Century Literature","score":0.7285,"slug":"21st-century-literature"},{"label":"Nature in Literature","score":0.7221,"slug":"nature-in-literature"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy 20th-Century Literary Criticism","Good for readers interested in literary","Good for readers who enjoy 20th-Century Literary Criticism and 21st Century Literature."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Jeremy Rosen"],"book_id":"9781503644625","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781503644625.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":13.4457,"title":"Genre Bending","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781503644625"},{"authors":["Mark McGurl"],"book_id":"9781839763854","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781839763854.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":11.1426,"title":"Everything and Less","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781839763854"},{"authors":["Edward W. Said"],"book_id":"9780593687901","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593687901.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":11.125,"title":"The World, the Text, and the Critic","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593687901"},{"authors":["Mark Bould"],"book_id":"9781839760471","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781839760471.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":11.1018,"title":"The Anthropocene Unconscious","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781839760471"},{"authors":["Erin James"],"book_id":"9780803243989","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780803243989.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":11.0879,"title":"The Storyworld Accord","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780803243989"},{"authors":["David Damrosch"],"book_id":"9780593299883","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593299883.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":11.0602,"title":"Around the World in 80 Books","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593299883"},{"authors":["Daniel Hartley"],"book_id":"9781608468287","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781608468287.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":10.831,"title":"The Politics of Style","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781608468287"},{"authors":["Samuel R. 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