Isn’t it funny how, just two weeks after his debut novel, Indecision, got front-page coverage in the NYTBR–heralded as “the funniest and smartest coming-of-age novel in years,” no less–Benjamin Kunkel makes the cover again with an essay on “the American terrorist novel“? On the very same day that A.O. Scott celebrates “the next-gen literary intellectuals” in the Magazine, leading off with…you guessed it, Kunkel?*
At this rate, I’m beginning to think that cute little character could take America by storm. Or at least W. 43rd Street. Well, all of Manhattan, really, since the Daily News, Sun, and Voice all give wildly enthusiastic raves, while Newsday contributes a supportive profile–although I still for the life of me can’t figure out what Michiko was trying to say.
(In all fairness, good on the n+1 and Believer crowd for scoring the attention. Scott doesn’t give mention any other new-ish magazines on the scene, but there’s Small Spiral Notebook and Land-Grant College Review, for starters…)
* Scott then writes through nearly three-quarters of the 5,000-word piece before deciding “now is probably the time to disclose that Kunkel’s literary agent… is also mine.”