Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The Salinger Contract by Adam Langer

The Salinger Contract by Adam Langer


Original title: The Salinger Contract
ISBN: 1453297944 (ISBN13: 9781453297940)
Edition language: English
Book formats: Kindle, Nook book, Paperback
Publishing date: September 13th, 2013
Purchase links: Amazon Barnes & Noble

Amazon book blurp: An enthralling literary mystery that connects some of the world’s most famous authors—from Norman Mailer and Truman Capote to B. Traven and J. D. Salinger—to a sinister collector in Chicago
Adam Langer, the narrator of this deft and wide-ranging novel by the author of the same name, tells the intertwining tales of two writers navigating a plot neither one of them could have ever imagined. There may be no other escape than to write their way out of it.
Adam is a writer and stay-at-home dad in Bloomington, Indiana, drawn into an uneasy friendship with the charismatic and bestselling thriller author Conner Joyce. Conner is having trouble writing his next book, and when a menacing stranger approaches him with an odd—and lucrative—proposal, events quickly begin to spiral out of control.
A novel of literary crimes and misdemeanors, The Salinger Contract will delight anyone who loves a fast-paced story told with humor, wit, and intrigue.

REVIEW When an author can climb into my head and read my thoughts, knows what I want, from the get go, the book will be ravished, giving up everything near and dear to make it a one-sitting experience. This book was one of those.
The book is an experienced view of the current publishing world - the plummeting book sales, the blogging phenomenon, the influence of online reviews being often less forgiving than the printed versions, the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes. This book combines it all in a riveting tale of people connected to this world in various ways. From a sinister book collector, to down-and-out authors desperate to get their books published and sold. Throw in a murder or two and the plots gets thicker and thicker. The ending is down-right gob-smacking, hitting the reader where it counts!
Two ingenious tales are snaked through the narrative, involving two authors with both their families being trapped in an existential panic. They are basically honest people pushed to their limits forced to make choices they wouldn't have made under ordinary circumstances.
Books can safe or destroy lives.
Sometimes in fiction you had to mute reality in order to make it seem more believable.
Five flashing stars for this brilliant story! There is not a single dull moment anywhere in this book. I could not stop reading it until it was all finished. I am definitely an Adam Langer fan after reading this book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Langer is a journalist, author, playwright and filmmaker.
His work have been featured by: NPR's Selected Shorts, in The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2000, and The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2000, Chicago Reader's Fiction Issue, literary magazine Salt Hill, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Mother Jones, the Chicago Tribune, Men's Journal and Rolling Stone. .
Other work from this author: 
Writer and director of the film The Blank Page 
Novels: Crossing California, Ellington Boulevard, The Washington Story, The Thieves of Manhattan 
Nonfiction reference books: CitySmart Guide to Chicago, Film Festival Guide, The Madness of Art .
Memoir: My Father's Bonus March. 
Plays: various, including Coaster 
Feature writer and theater critic for the Chicago Reader 
Langer holds a B.A. from Vassar College and an M.A. from the University of Illinois. He was a playwright-in-residence at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and was a winner of a National Arts Journalism fellowship at Columbia University (2000-2001). He has lectured on writing and journalism at Northwestern University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College, and Pace University. He has been a frequent radio and television guest in Chicago and New York and has been featured on such stations as WGN-TV, CNN Headline News, Fox News, E! Entertainment Network, and National Public Radio, among others.
He lives in New York City

No comments: