tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851264164198134050.post3914440260088485932..comments2024-01-31T23:13:22.565-05:00Comments on Flying Houses: The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. - Adelle Waldman (2013)JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16199023801433187878noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851264164198134050.post-75121272829222929972014-07-13T16:24:54.436-04:002014-07-13T16:24:54.436-04:00I'll definitely check out the Harbach book - a...I'll definitely check out the Harbach book - a few others are in the pipeline but i should get around to it before the end of the summer. It sounds interesting. I'm on the verge of resuming my "hobby" of fiction writing and would like to digest a good example of a book that got a big advance that was justified.<br /><br />I've heard of Jennifer Egan before--feel like I saw her at Printer's Row lit fest a few years back so I'd be surprised if she's only in her mid-thirties--but i could be confusing her with others. <br /><br />I haven't heard about the Granta story but I'll check it out. Thanks for the tips as always. And while I'm not sure the compliments are justified, they are very gratifying. JKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16199023801433187878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851264164198134050.post-17888769931193359972014-07-10T21:19:21.035-04:002014-07-10T21:19:21.035-04:00Sorry, I have been traveling and just saw this rev...Sorry, I have been traveling and just saw this review now. I'm glad you liked the book, and your comments, as always, are interesting and perceptive. I guess I would say that since I am the one who recommended it you, I did so very soon after reading it, and it seems now like a decent book, but it's fading away in memory.<br /><br />Also, since then, I've read several novels by young or youngish writers that I thought were more significant. I was totally blown away by Chad Harbach's <i>The Art of Fielding</i>, which I had up until then avoided, partially because the size of the advance and the publicity inherent had turned me off a bit.<br /><br />But I found the Harbach truly amazing. It's not exactly like Waldman or Lin, in that while it's about young people by a relatively young person, it's set in a bucolic campus and one of the major characters is an older man (the college president). I don't see either Waldman or Lin ever creating a believable older character, but you can't compare Harbach's novel to theirs because they are looking at a small but very interesting slice of American life and his is more "big picture."<br /><br />You may have read it already. Let me know if you have because I am sure you have said intelligent things about it. If not, I think you would like it -- it's more a "guy's" book, very Midwestern in some respects, and it paints things on a really broad canvas. You can sense the author was trying to do something ambitious, like a telescope whereas Lin and Waldman use, effectively, a microscope.<br /><br />The other book that totally blew me away was Jennifer Egan's <i>A Visit from the Goon Squad</i>. I guess she's mid-thirtyish (but I guess even Tao Lin is about 32 now?), but man, she can do incredible things.<br /><br />As far as Lin, I think his <i>Granta</i> story is the best fiction he's written even if he calls it an essay. I think he does that because he uses "I" but it seems like fiction to me. It reinforced my opinion that the third person handicaps such an interesting personality as Tao Lin when he bases the main character on himself. The first person is like a breath of fresh air, to use a cliche he would hate -- but it opens up his work, gives it room to breathe, at least in my reading of it. I would encourage him to write in the first person and not worry about people confusing him with the "I" character. He may be too overly concerned with keeping the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction.<br /><br />Anyway, thanks for this intelligent review. You are a smart man.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com