"Mr. Melvin Levin, I'm going to kill you."

The Threat

tells the darkly comic story of Melvin Levin, a middle-aged man who is dissatisfied with his dull andmediocre life. That is, until he receives a mysterious death threat in the mail. Terrified at first, Levin soon becomesaccustomed to the threat-and then, increasingly, delighted with it, thrilled with his newfound importance as a"threatened man." But as his obsession with maintaining this identity becomes all-consuming, he risks blindinghimself to the twin dangers of the threat itself and-perhaps worse-his own deranged mind. At once absurdist, moving, and savagely funny,The Threatis a timeless parable of the comic lengths to whichpeople go to protect the delusions that validate them.