The Franchiser
- Author: Stanley Elkin (United States)
- Book type: American novel, roadnovel
- First edition: 1976
- Publisher: Dalkey Archive Essentials
- Released: 9 September 2025
- Length: 400 pages
- Format: paperback
- Prize: €16,95
- Order book from: Amazon / Bol
Stanley Elkin The Franchiser review
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Blurb of the 1976 novel by Stanley Elkin
A tragicomic journey across America as one man attempts to create a fast food empire, and a legacy to leave behind.
From the prolific and peerless Stanley Elkin, The Franchiser follows Ben Flesh—one of the men “who made America look like America, who made America famous.” He collects franchises, traveling from state to state, acquiring the brand-name establishments that shape the American landscape. But both the nation and Ben are running out of energy. As blackouts roll through the West, Ben struggles with the onset of multiple sclerosis, and the growing realization that his lifetime quest to buy a name for himself has ultimately failed.
Stanley Elkin was born on 11 May 1930 in New York Ciry. He was an award-winning author of novels, short stories, and essays. Born in the Bronx, Elkin received his BA and PhD from the University of Illinois and in 1960 became a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis where he taught until his death. His critically acclaimed works include the National Book Critics Circle Award-winners George Mills (1982) and Mrs. Ted Bliss (1995), as well as the National Book Award finalists The Dick Gibson Show (1972), Searches & Seizures (1974), and The MacGuffin (1991). His book of novellas, Van Gogh’s Room at Arles, was a finalist for the PEN Faulkner Award. Other novels he published are: Boswell: A Modern Comedy (1964, debut novel), A Bad Man (1967), The Magic Kingdom (1985) and The Rabbi of Lud (1987). He died at the age of 65 on 31 May 1995 in St. Louis, Missouri of a heart attack.