WActress in the House is Joseph McElroy's eighth novel. Lawyer Bill Daley follows up an unusual phone call from stage actress Becca Lang by attending her show. Daley is appalled when Becca is slugged rather brutally in what was clearly supposed to have been a stage slap. He stays afterwards, and she moves into his life.
WAncient History: A Paraphase is Joseph McElroy's third novel, published in 1971. It presents itself as a hastily written essay/memoir/confession. The character Dom is sometimes described as a fictionalized Norman Mailer.
WCannonball is Joseph McElroy's ninth novel. Set in Southern California and Iraq, it tells the story of Zach, a young and naive military photographer who stumbles upon a secret network of underground water pipes in Iraq used to smuggle what are apparently scrolls containing the original prosperity Gospel, an interview with Jesus peddling free market doctrine.
WHind's Kidnap: A Pastoral on Familiar Airs is Joseph McElroy's second novel. Ostensibly it is a mystery concerning a six-year-old unsolved kidnapping, one that the 6'7" protagonist Jack Hind had tried to solve at the time. His marriage falling apart, Hind obsessively follows a treasure hunt of planted clues that lead him around New York and New England, but he finds nothing helpful concerning the kidnap. Culminating in his wife, she delivers a long monologue, and Hind then obsessively tries to reverse the hunt.
WThe Letter Left to Me is Joseph McElroy's seventh novel. A letter from father to son is delivered to the son shortly after the father's death. The letter receives wider and wider circulation, and its continued effect on the son's life is described.
WLookout Cartridge is Joseph McElroy's fourth novel, published by Knopf in 1974.
WPlus is Joseph McElroy's fifth novel. Set in some unspecified future, it tells the story of Imp Plus, a disembodied brain controlling IMP, the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform, in earth orbit. The novel consists of Imp Plus's thoughts as he tries to comprehend his limited existence, while struggling with language, limited memories, and communicating with Ground Control. The plot is driven by Imp Plus's recall of fragments of his past and of language, his improving comprehension of his present, all while his medical condition gradually deteriorates.
WA Smuggler's Bible is Joseph McElroy's first novel. David Brooke—who talks of himself in a split-personality manner—narrates a framing tale that consists of him "smuggling" his essence into eight autobiographical manuscripts, although their connection with Brooke is not always clear. Brooke seems to deteriorate, while his fictions become more real.
WWomen and Men is Joseph McElroy's sixth novel. Published in 1987, it is 1192 pages long. Somewhat notably, because of its size, the uncorrected proof was issued in two volumes.