My Salinger Year

Joanna Rakoff
My Salinger Year

Bloomsbury Circus, 2014

In the mid-90's 23-year-old Rakoff returnes from London, where she graduated from the university, to her native New York. Young graduate, she changes her plans to go to California, remains in New York, where she lives with her Marxist boyfriend Don in an inferior apartment, and gets a job in an old-fashioned literary agency which the book will be referred to simply The Agency.

Joanna was hired after one interview just before Christmas. She expects that her literary agent assistant duties will include reading manuscripts and search for literary talents, but mostly (at least in the early part of the book) she is doing what usually secretary does: return calls, typing documents, making decryption of recordings, answers to readers’ letters. The Agency, where Rakoff works, still does everything the way it was done in the 40s, when The Agency was established. All documentation is printed on a typewriter, a prehistoric dictophone with foot pedals is used, fax and xerox will appear in the office not soon, computer with internet access in the office will be put towards the end of the first year of Joanna’s work.

Rakoff’s boss, whose name we do not know, is an old woman who is antique as everything in the office. Besides Joanna’s boss, The Agency’s stuff includes several such old women, one of them resigns over the book course - lung cancer. The boss has several clients and talks on the phone with the same range of people, including a Jerry and another man, in which Joanna guesses her boss’s lover.
Joanna’s boss gives her some guidelines: not to give the address and phone number of Jerry to anyone, politely say generally everyone who calls about Jerry to stop calling, do not engage in conversation with Jerry, immediately switch him to the boss’ line. Rakoff does not immediately guess who Jerry in question is until she looks closer at the backs of books, standing in the office, and only then she realizes that Jerry is Salinger.

Rakoff’s memories partially can be attributed to the category of what is called "tangential memoirs." Writer of memories considers it his ot her duty to inform the world about his acquaintance, tangentially, pointing to some famous person. Accordingly, it often happens that the story of the memoirist has no value if it were not for this brief moment of crossing paths with the famous.
In this case, it is true, but not quite so. Salinger here really is included to attract attention. Rakoff did not read his books until she meets Salinger alive in The Agency office and essentially she had nothing to say about him as a writer. In the finale, the author begins an attempt to analyze the works Salinger, tells how they grabbed her soul, but it is not quite interesting to read and it gives a sense if not moralizing, the author’s just trying to impose her views.

Yet to dismiss My Salinger Year as a memoir of another writer trying to sunbath in the glory of someone else would be wrong. Because this book has its value and its charm, just from a different perspective. My Salinger Year is great memoires of the life of the literary agency, of bohemian life in New York of mid-90s. Rakoff's voice there has a passion, wisdom and measure. Her memoir is a sad notes with punching satire. If Salinger here had fictitious name, and you’d get a charming novel about a 20-year-olds. Rakoff has all the makings of the novelist. The book doesn’t have a pronounced plot (the intrigue with the publication of the book is not so clingy), but it is not a thriller, just a fragment of life of a young graduate.

Building up the image of Salinger and his readers (whose letters we read in the course of the book), Rakoff writes without snobbery, but with a bit of humor. Part of the humor stems from the fact that Rakoff first enters into adulthood and she doesn’t succeed at everything.

These failures, "moderate unhappiness", are rooted in the life style of the author. Her society is bohemian young people, with dreams of exhibitions and publications. Accordingly, the problems of the Brooklyn youth are quite peculiar. For these young bohemian people the book is designed primarily for, and that does not make it worse.

My Salinger Year is a voracious read, and its reading is accompanied by a healthy laugh.

& Sons

David Gilbert
& Sons

Random House, 2013

The sons in the title of the novel are the children of the fictional writer A.N. Dyer, who has, in the novel, the status of Salinger. His debut «Ampersand», the same ampersand from the title, since its publication has sold more than 45 million copies, and Dyer for the rest of his life has been trying to write something that can outdo the success of the debut (tried but failed). Dyer has become a hermit, ceasing to talk to the media and even his own children.

The three children are two from his wife Isabella, and the third, the youngest, illegitimate, whose appearance destroyed the family of the writer. The eldest son, 45-year-old Richard, is a Hollywood screenwriter and former drug addict. The middle son - Jamie – is four years younger than Richard. He is more comfortable with the father. The youngest, 17-year-old Andy, is a consequence of a short affair between Dyer Sr. with the young Swede (Dyer was 62 at the time of birth of Andy). After the birth the mother died and the father had adopted his son. The wife almost immediately left the writer, later married a second time. Now, Andy attends to the same college, where his father and brothers did, and also writes fiction.

Father and sons get together for the first time after many years at the request of the father. The novel opens with the Dyer’s closest friend 's funeral - Charles Topping, a lawyer and a prototype of many heroes of Dyer’s novels. After speaking at the funeral of the friend (and the funeral gathered a lot of people just because of the fact that everyone knew that Dyer would be present). Having a feeling that the time has come to make peace with the whole family and make an important speech, Dyer invites the family come to New York.

Dyer invites to live with him a while the son of the dead friend (and Jamie’s college classmate) Philip Topping, the narrator of this story.

David Gilbert tried to write the Great American Novel. Theme of fathers and sons (a nod to Turgenev and Dostoevsky), a great reclusive writer, broken families, the power of literature - all the signs of a big novel are evident. This is a novel about writers, but is it for readers?

Gilbert writes baroque, with a flourish, sometimes rambling. No wonder I mentioned Dostoevsky: Gilbert simply can write a three-page sentence, just like the Russian classic did. Narrator Philip Topping, it seems, did not succeed as a writer because of that, he can’t say a word without overcomplications. One can cite as an example many scenes, when Gilbert begins some scene that branches and branches, as long as it becomes hard to remember what this was about. Emotional intensity of a scene disappears, and it remains only kind of praise Gilbert-stylist (“son of a gun can write!”) but chide Gilbert-narrator. Gilbert fills up his novel with fragments of Dyer’s novels, letters, drafts, but in all of this it is unlikely to see the talent of Dyer- writer. And these fragments obviously slow down the novel’s plot.

Gilbert tried to write a satire - on Hollywood, the literary scene, great writers, and & Sons does have a few funny scenes, but it will not make you laugh out loud. There are only two really funny and witty scenes here. The first scene is the interview of Richard in Hollywood with producer and actor, the second one is about Andy and his nephew Emmett search in a park for a seller of hot dogs, which for some reason is not on his usual place. These scenes have it all: originality, poignancy, subtle humor, lively dialogues - baroque style does them no harm.

But the key scene, the main twist of the novel, is frankly baffling. Dyer-writer gathered the whole family to make a confession, but the confession was nonsense, and the consequences of the confession is quite doubtful. Of course, the sci-fi twist can be attributed to the satirical device, narrator’s cruel joke, so be it. But why then so much noise, if this confession later led to nothing? Sons reacted poorly to the revelation of the father, and in the novel there was no shift, which could be hoped for. Even the final death has low impact.

& Sons looks smarter than it actually is. Too much to cram into it, and too much that leads nowhere. Gilbert had to either cut his novel 200 pages or to expand on the same 200 to complete all that was started and abandoned.

Childish Loves

Benjamin Markovits
Childish Loves

Faber & Faber, 2011

This quasi-novel (quasi-memoir?) is written from the point of view of the writer Benjamin Markovits. With the real Markovits they share many biographical points, from his wife Caroline and children to the authorship of several novels. Childish Loves, it turns out, closes the trilogy, the first two of which were written by, of course, the real Markovits. But in this novel, the real authorship of these books belongs to Peter Sullivan. Two novel about the life of Lord Byron had been written by a private school teacher Sullivan, but during his lifetime his manuscripts were not published, and before his suicide Sullivan sent two complete unfinished manuscripts and a third to his former colleague Markowits in the hope of publication, because Markovits published several books himself.
Markovits character is Sullivan’s literary executor. After reading the two manuscripts, Markovits finds novels about Byron strange but strong and ready to see the publication. Markovits sends the manuscripts to his editor, and soon some publishing house releases a novel, the first, and then the second.

Markovits plays in this novel with reality and does it very skillfully. Conventional, as it seems, memoir of how a book is written, disguises as pseudonovel with "Benjamin Markovits" the character, but when this pseudonovel breaks out of the shell, inside it is the novel with a different protagonist, also a writer, who hides under the guise of a third writer, Byron, and he is not the original as well, but also a fictional character, as his diaries are just something like a novel simulation. Does this play with reality prevent the reader from the joy of reading? Not one bit.

Markovits is an experienced writer, able to control the situation. If he built a complex structure for the novel, he would do so that this structure would hold. Metaphysics of the book is that ordinary logic does not apply here. What is important is Markovits tells seemingly complicated story so with graceful and intelligible style that everything is transparent. It will not confuse even the most inexperienced reader.

Usually, if the main character in the book is a writer, then you can expect an endless stream of complaints about life or something like that. In Childish Loves there is minimum of whining, since the writer Markovits here is researcher, archivist, as first, and only then a writer, as second. Therefore, those who need plot in their reading will necessarily be satisfied: plenty of action in the book, there is a change of scenery, there is a mystery, of the man and the book.

But if part of the novel, written about "Markovits", is almost flawless, the insertion of Byron's diaries seem artificial. Fictional diaries written by Byron suffer haste, and characters abound, too numerous, many of them play cameo roles. The style of the diaries is easy, and because of this it is clear that they are written in our time, not in the XIX century. The diaries here is optional appendage, the more to that that you do not empathize to Byron, he is the hero of the episode, not a full-fledged personality.

Definitely it is worth reading novel, stylishly written and extraordinary constructed.

Selling rights to a Russian publisher? Make a right choice

Since I'm based in Russia, I know some internal information about publiishing business there. If you're a writer and have a possibility of being published in Russian translation, be careful and pay attention.
Bad and barbarian times when Russian publishers published translated works without copyright permission are gone a long time ago. (Once a publisher denied to send me a review copy afraid of a book will be xeroxed and copied and sell cheaply. There never have been there such cases. English there is not first and even not the second language. Most people barely read in English. It would be unprofitable.) Now it's all legal. You or your publisher (in case the publisher owns the rights) is approached by a Russian press and a Russian press wants to buy rights and publish a book. And it's mutually profitable. A writer gets payment for the rights and royalties, and if a book sells well, a writer may sell rights for his other books. A Russian press as well gets money selling newly translated book. All happy? Well, maybe. But before selling the rights, a writer have to do the right choice.
Yes, you can sell the rights to any publisher or the one who offers the highest sum. It's usually a big publisher. It seems everything's fine. You receive the money and spend them on whatever you need. But highest sum is not always the right decision. Big publishers there in Russia usually make no publicity, no ads, don't care about selling a book. They just make an awful cover, bad translation within a month or two, pushing a book in faceless series. You'll get no reviews, no readers, and your book will stop its way in stock. The only thing you'll get is you payment for the rights.
But if you think better and make right choice, you'll get good publicity, good translation, pretty cover, new readers and possibility of selling rights of your other books. Yes, you can get $500-1000 less on the start, but then you get a chance of decent sum of royalties and new readers who will love your books.
I recall a recent example of good change of publisher. Craig McDonald, author of Head Games, Print the Legend, One True Sentence etc etc, in 2009 had published Head Games in Russian translation. It was a big publisher. The book had no success at all. It gets no reviews and no readers. I plugged the book on my Russian blogs, it helped a little, but that was all.
Then this year in May the translation of Print the Legend had been published. The novel has different publisher, small press. The novel already got 3 reviews in major newspaper and culture magazines. The book got 5000 copies' print run (against 3000 of Head Games). The book sells well. And it will sell more and more.
And that was just a right choice. So be careful. If you like not only money but your readers, think twice and make a right choice.