Keith Gessen’s novel, All the Sad Young Literary Men, was recently published. As a result, it stirred up scathing critiques as well as praiseworthy remarks. From the host of reviews I’ve found (both on the internet and elsewhere), no one has responded in a purely lukewarm manner. Nope. Mr. Gessen is either adored or reviled, and that’s where the critiques about his book stand too – all the contributing voices are absolutely opposed to one another.

So who is this Mr. Gessen anyway? Who cares? Mr. Gessen is a M.F.A. drop out from Syracuse University, and the editor for N + 1. As a literary magazine N + 1 exposes all the hackneyed writers of the world. Yippee. Gawker.com mockingly describes it as the “most important literary magazine of our time.” N + 1 sees itself as such, i.e. “mind blowingly intellectual,” and Gawker simply can’t help but invert such a problematic claim. Gessen’s personality, as well as this literary magazine, is throwing a wrench into my earlier comments that relate to Mr. Neyfakh’s article about Ms. Crosley’s supposedly fresh presence in the New York literary scene. Read More »

Before writing about Keith Gessen, how Sloan Crosley’s cooler than him, and why I’m a bona fide loser, let’s back track a bit. (Oh, and please make note: this not a review of their works, as a colleague at CollegeCandy has already been kind enough to write about Crosley’s work. Moreover, I have yet to read these two recently published books).

Once upon a time, in a beautiful castle high above NYC, Mr. Leon Neyfakh wrote a piece about Ms. Crosley in The New York Observer…

In part, the piece publicized her novel, I Was Told There’d Be Cake, but the primary focus of Mr. Neyfakh’s article praised Ms. Crosley’s aura of exuberant “niceness.” Not surprisingly, such a personality trait is all but absent, if not extinct, among the effete New York literary crowd. But is that really true? If one were to believe Neyfakh’s claims, embrace Ms. Crosley’s genuine goodness in contradistinction to the scene of blobby, degenerate, self-absorbed New York literati, the picture – in my mind – is plain boring and problematically monolithic.

For all intents and purposes, these literati types are just exhausted, absolutely exhausted from their own ennui, the same old schmoozing fests that they must endure; exquisitely over-expensive cocktails either in swanky bars in Manhattan or at some boring, obligatory party in the “country.” It’s the same ol’ picture we Kansans (and everybody else outside of/excluded from the cherished and sought after New York City publishing scene) are hand fed. Read More »