Viking Adult
Price: $24.95
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KEITH GESSEN reads from All the Sad Young Literary Men
Harvard Book Store and Harvard Hillel are excited to present n+1 founding editor KEITH GESSEN to read from his praised first novel, All the Sad Young Literary Men. “A debut novel from Russian-born translator Gessen that skewers the literary and romantic ambitions of three well- educated, tightly wound young men… Gessen strikes a marvelous balance between pitilessness and affection toward these young men, and manages the impressive feat of being simultaneously savage and tender. A fiercely intelligent, darkly funny first novel.” —Kirkus (starred review) A charming yet scathing portrait of young adulthood at the opening of the twenty-first century, All the Sad Young Literary Men charts the lives of Sam, Mark, and Seth, as they overthink their college years, underthink their love lives, and struggle through the encouragement of the women who love and despise them to find a semblance of maturity, responsibility, and even literary fame.
Heartbroken in his university town, Mark tries to focus his attention on his graduate work concerning Russian revolt, only to be lured again and again to the free pornography on the library computers. Sam binds himself to the task of crafting “the first great Zionist epic” even though he speaks no Hebrew, has never visited Israel, and is not a practicing Jew. Seth, thwarted by inherited notions of greatness and memories of his broken family, finds solace in the arms of the selfless woman who most reminds him of his past. At every turn, at each character’s misstep, All the Sad Young Literary Men signals the arrival of a brave and trenchant new writer.
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Keith Gessen was born in Russia and educated at Harvard and Syracuse. He is a founder of the magazine n+1 and translator of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Voices from Chernobyl. His work has also appeared in the Dissent, the New Yorker, and the New York Review of Books. All the Sad Young Literary Men is his first book.
Photo credit: Suzanne Goldish.
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