Keith Gessen

I'd heard a lot in recent months about Keith Gessen's All the Sad Young Literary Men - and so decided, finally, to read it myself.

Reviews were mixed:

New York Times

NYRB

The American Scene

It seems to me too much to compare this book with those of Salinger or Bellow - and yet, there is something indelible, profound even, about Gessen's portrait of that generation raised on The Internet. Despite shaky, at times forgettable prose, and despite a tendency to focus on a very particular (educated, urban, Jewish) demographic, I found myself moved by several scenes in this novel. In the end, I'd suggest it - if only because there has, indeed, emerged in recent years a large cadre of sad, young, literary men. What's behind this? Gessen sheds some light...