David Goodwillie's Blog, page 6

Publish or Terrorist? Random House and Scribner in Violent-Novel Smackdown

The New York Observer

Mike Householder, The Associated Press

"AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE is a political thriller, love story, whodunit and examination of our modern world, all rolled into one. More than anything, though, it's a great read, a captivating page-turner from the first line – 'I am in hiding, someplace cold. Someplace they won't find me, or haven't yet' – to its thrilling conclusion… Goodwillie provides us with a triumphant work of fiction that's every bit as credible as what's happening in the country these days." Read the rest of the review ...

Mike Householder, Associated Press

"AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE is a political thriller, love story, whodunit and examination of our modern world, all rolled into one. More than anything, though, it's a great read, a captivating page-turner from the first line – 'I am in hiding, someplace cold. Someplace they won't find me, or haven't yet' – to its thrilling conclusion."

Seeing Myself All Over the Place

A mention of AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE in the New Yorker Books Department:

"The fact that the book then becomes a genuinely thrilling thriller about a radical young woman makes it even better. I'm only a hundred pages in, but I can't wait to read on…"

- Macy Halford, The New Yorker

American Subversive in Vanity Fair's Bookopticon

Vanity Fair

David Gates, author of Jernigan

"Goodwillie's AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE reads like the unholy spawn of Tom Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It has all the white-knuckle pleasures of the political thriller—combined with a thoroughly postmodern love story. He has an insider's feel for New York's too-knowing new-media culture, and a writer's eye for its emptiness."

Danielle Trussoni, author of Angelology

"AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE is a searing portrait of failed idealism and social unrest. Brilliantly plotted and compulsively readable, Goodwillie's debut novel asks us to re-examine the nature of political action and private life. Unforgettable."

A Concomitant Two-Step: My New York Times Playlist

Here are some songs I listened to while writing American Subversive:

I did something weird while I wrote "American Subversive": I went out of my way to listen to music with incisive lyrics. When I mention this to my book-writing friends they look at me sideways, and I don't blame them. Waltzing with one set of words is hard enough; a concomitant two-step is a recipe for madness….

Groundbreaking Blurb Work…

An excerpt from my Rumpus interview (actually it was an IM) with the very, very funny Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask:

Rumpus: As long as books are still here, blurbs probably will be, too. You're known, along with Gary Shteyngart, as being one of the great blurbers of our time. Are there that many wonderful books coming out? Or are you just a softie?

Lipsyte: I see some good stuff. And I want to encourage it—the work I think is interesting, daring. A little friendly push into the void might...

The Great Recession Novel

I sat down with Adam Haslett to talk about Union Atlantic, his timely first novel about two warring neighbors and a bank on the brink of a meltown. Read the Daily Beast essay here.