Blurbs are rolling in. Rolling, rolling, rolling…
The one on the front cover is from Douglas Coupland: “Waiting for the Man is a strangely engrossing, meticulously written allegory of the present moment.”
This is from Jonathan Goldstein (host of one of the best shows on radio, Wiretap) and a great writer himself: “With Waiting For The Man, Twitter phenom Arjun Basu breaks free of the 140-character box to pen a novel full of yearning, soulfulness, cool wit, and precise social commentary. It’s the expansive work that the Twitter faithful have been waiting for. And their man delivers”
From Stephen Marche, writer, wit, all around smarty pants, and blogger on esquire.com: “Arjun Basu is a master of writing tiny narrative jewels, with surprises built into every single sentence. Waiting for the Man is, somehow, a whole novel full of such surprising and perfect delights.”
And this from Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall: “For a novel in part about the cynicism of marketing, this would be hard to pitch in an elevator. How do you ask someone to imagine Waiting for Godot written by an internet-addicted Joseph Heller – or, even less likely, a warm-hearted Brett Easton Ellis? This book is wonderfully hard to pin down. You’ll just have to read it for yourself.”
Blurbs are a funny thing. You send a book out to people you respect and you hope they respond. Years ago, the late great SPY magazine had a feature called “Logrolling in our Time” that showed two writers praising the hell out of each other’s work. It was funny and in SPY fashion a clever way to show you what kind of bullshit blurbs (think of a movie campaign without critics’ praise…just try) can be. And I’ve always kind of believed that. But… I know the four people who have blurbed my book so far. And that doesn’t negate how proud each one made me, or the sincerity of what they said. Because they were sincere. I mean, come on.
So far, two mention my Twitterness, and two don’t. As more come in, this will be an interesting bit of math to watch.
