Grub by Elise Blackwell is perfect lunchtime reading. The chapters are short allowing one to read several during a lunch break instead of getting stuck in the middle of a long chapter. The chapters also alternate between characters which allows for a little suspense as well as change of scene. The book is also a nice blend of smart but not taxing so you can both read and concentrate on eating and digesting without any problems. And best of all, the book is entertaining.
The story is an update of George Gissing’s New Grub Street and follows a handful of writers and their trials and travails as they write or don’t write, get published and rejected, live in proud poverty or flamboyant expense. There is Eddie who published a critically acclaimed novel and now can’t seem to write the second one. Or rather, he wrote the second one but no one wants to publish it because it has zero plot. Eddie is married to Amanda who set her sites on him as they were graduating from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop together. But Amanda didn’t want Eddie for himself, she wanted him because he was going to be a famous writer. Now that his star is falling she takes up her own pen to try and write their way out of debt.
No book of this sort is complete without a threesome and Jackson, who graduated from Iowa with Amanda and Eddie, fills the bill. He decides to throw all literary pretensions to the wind and write a book for a mass audience in order to make as much money as he can. Of course, Amanda finds herself wondering why she married Eddie.
There’s also Henry who starves for his art. And there’s Margot who “accidentally” finds herself writing a novel. Then there is Whelpdale, the man who makes a living writing books and giving seminars to writers on how to publish their fiction who himself has never published any fiction. And what would the book be without dueling critics? Andrew Yarborough, old school Harold Bloom type versus Chuck Fadge, postmodern, cutting edge, irony is the thing. Their battles could have come right out of the literary papers. And of course, every writer who is any writer lives in New York City.
Grub is written in a light, easy style that pokes fun at writers and the literary community in general. Here’s a sample passage that tickled my funnybone:
Eddie scratched the stubble on his cheeks. “I should have lived a quiet life, working some day job and married to some unambitious girl who’d never even been to New York. But I made the mistake so many of us make. We think we’re writers and so we have to live in New York. The art, the libraries, the concerts, the museums, the plays. The truth is that I never go anywhere but the bar. Hell, I might as well live in Idaho or somewhere. I mean if I wrote specifically about New York, it might matter. Otherwise it’s a disaster. Writers come here to be degraded or to perish. It would make a lot more sense to live somewhere remote if you want to write.”
Henry nodded. “And somewhere cheaper.”
“We should go be expatriate writers somewhere.”
“The Midwest?”
“No, a real other country.”
Ha! I suppose to folk from the left or right coasts the Midwest might seen like another country, but not a “real” country. I’m allowed to laugh and smirk at this since I grew up in California and now live in the Midwest.
The book does get a bit slow at times and on occasion I got tired of all the complaining about agents and publisher rejections. But overall it was a fun read, one bookish folk are sure to find amusing. I can’t say whether you writers out there might like it or not, depends on how sensitive you are. Some parts might hit a little too close to home.
I really liked this book–thought it was good satire as well as being a fun read. I think my favorite thing about it was that she made me want to read the books her characters were writing, which I think is a really hard thing to pull off.
Here’s my review, if you’re interested:
http://superfastreader.com/grub-by-elise-blackwell.htm
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I just love the sound of this and that quote did make me laugh. I’ll be looking out for it over here!
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This does sound like fun — a fictional glimpse into writers’ worlds would be intriguing, I think.
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Annie, yes, very good satire. Thanks for the link to your review!
Litlove, there’s lots of quotes like that one. Hope you can get your hands on a copy over there.
Dorothy, it is a fun glimpse into a different world and I am very glad I am not in that world.
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lol! Those last three sentences in that quote are hilarious and perfect.
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Have you heard of Grub Street, the nonprofit writing center in Boston? They run workshops / classes / events / readings and have an incredible staff.
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For a moment I thought I was going to see more pics of cupcakes! Yes, I’m still craving one.
I hadn’t heard of this book but it sounds fun and that bit you quoted made me laugh. I’ll have to put this on my list.
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Love the quote! Sounds like a very amusing read. Going straight on my list 🙂
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Sounds very good. I love that quote, too. And I’m with Iliana: that cupcake in your previous post was crave-worthy.
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Heather, aren’t they though? 🙂
Dan, I have not heard of Grub Street. What a great name for a writing center!
Iliana, sorry, no more cupcake pictures. We still have some if you want to drop by. I’ll even make a fresh pot of coffee. You’ll need it to counteract the rich chocolate.
Gentle Reader, amusing it is. I think you would enjoy it.
Emily, there’s just enough cupcakes left for you too if you show up with Iliana 🙂
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GRUB is a fantastic book, must read for everyone who is writing or considers writing a book! Heard Elise Blackwell, the author, is touring the coming months, one of the venues will be the KGB-Bar in NY (she will read the scene in which Amanda reads from her book in the CIA-Bar…) on 10/7/07
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Love 4 books, that’s excellent that Blackwell will be reading at the KGB bar. I wonder if she will dress up Clarice-like? That would be funny.
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