KEITH GESSEN

One of the sad young literary men

By TAYLOR SEIDLER

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Keith Gessen, co-editor of New York City’s n+1 magazine, has published his first novel. Dubbed part biography and part fiction, All The Sad Young Literary Men makes you take another look at our literary world, the ordinary failure and struggle behind those who find themselves in the unfortunate position of being writers.

Gessen shares the stories of Mark, Keith and Sam over the course of the last decade—surviving on women and history in Cambridge and New York. Mark compares himself to the Mensheviks. On the Palestinians, Sam contemplates: “In their ability to fuck up a late lead they were truly the equals to the Boston Red Sox.”

Though the characters seem to be different versions of each other, it’s still easy to find pieces of yourself in them. After all, isn’t that what often draws us to books in the first place? And in the spirit of these characters (and as the passing years have weakened my drive to dissect what I read) my thoughts have boiled down to the fact that maybe in college, if I had been more interested in world politics and had a sock in my pants, I might have had a life similar to these guys.

KEITH GESSEN

WED. 4.23

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