Well I haven't read this (is it even out yet?) but it sounds interesting. I'll definitely pick it up; I've had so much difficulty in the past few years discovering quality new American writers. (I'm pursuing my PhD in Comparative Lit with a focus on contemporary European novel, so a lot of reading time is devoted to that.)

I appreciate the swipes at James Frey and all the others. I think one of the important things that has gone unsaid in a lot of the discussion about Frey and his indiscretions is a discussion about this recent flurry of memoir fiction (or autobiographical fiction or whatever.) Because it seems like it's all any Americans want to write anymore. Even when I enjoy it, like in the case of Dave Eggers (who I know many people loathe), I feel a little squeamish about the genre. For one thing, I often suspect that my enjoyment is directly proportional to the degree that the events of the book-- or the emotional response of the protagonist of the book-- ellides with my own experience. In Egger's memoir, for example, I saw echoes of my own experience of being orphaned at a young age (significantly younger than Eggers, actually.) Those echoes really made the book resonate with me. But I always suspect that maybe thats a lesser connection than with a simply superb novel; shouldn't part of the reaction be universal?

Anyway, back to the subject at hand...

I know better than to question the references out of context. But I do wonder about the Proust and Gatsby references. I wonder what good can come of challenges of the sort the article author is suggesting. I'm not a defeatist enought to suggest that Nunez just can't write a novel as good as Proust-- but the bar is incredibly high, and I don't like inter-literary competition anyway. I don't think it serves writing to try and make it a competitive venture. (And Gatsby has been called out often enough.) Still, I'm impressed she has the guts to drop those names at all, and like I said, the context is everything.

The only thing that really concerns me is the notion that life is like a novel. To me, thats the huge problem with many many people: they've allowed storytelling to pervade their life to the extent that they expect narrative arc to their lives. I'm always depressed when people react to particularly intense or enjoyable experiences by saying "It was like a movie!" Because life isn't a movie, and it's not a book, and it doesn't have an arc or dramatic flow or artistic meaning. I think most people who look for that end up disappointed.

Still I'm eager to see how she pulls it off. Can't wait.

-Freddie deBoer

"the wacko fringes of early-'70s radical activism"

kind of a fierce indictment with no explanation

what do you suppose mr. o'hehir is referring to?

I know, I know, it's unfair of me to criticize a book I haven't even read yet, and honestly it looks like a good read and I will most likely give it a cursory glance. I'm just so tired of reading about this generation. , I found the same kind of college kids in the late 80's and early nineties. These characters aren't unique to the Boomers. I knew the radical zealots that had dread locks, smelly army clothes and renamed themselves SunFrog and got arrested for burning down new housing developements, I knew the sufferin artist types that dressed all in leather and never changed, even in summer. I knew the heavy drug users/musician/students who never graduated and lost some teeth and are either dead from heroin chic, or became religious freaks. I guess what my point is that I wonder if my generation, with the exception of Douglas Coupland, are either routinly ignored, or if the writing just isn't there. I've opended myself up to all kinds of nasty and rude troll baiting, so to those of you who have fingers twitching in typing anticipation to lacerate me with your razor sharp barbs, please go eat breakfast and beat up your cat. To the animal lovers: I have two cats. To the cat haters:I had them declawed. Thank you.

The Ann character sounds like Hillary Clinton.

Ann Drayton (she has dropped her original über-WASP given name, Dooley)

Dooley is an old Irish name. It's Gaelic for "dark hero".

By changing her name from Dooley to Drayton, she made herself sound more WASP, not less.

Don't they have fact checkers at Salon? It me five seconds on Google to check this one.

The boy's name Dooley is of Irish and Gaelic origin, and its meaning is "dark hero." In the early 20th century author Finley Peter Dunne wrote popular newspaper essays that saw the world through the eyes of Martin Dooley, a fictitious Irish bartender on Chicago's West Side.

It's a real shocker to see a man named O'Hehir fail to recognize a Gaelic name.

I guess what my point is that I wonder if my generation, with the exception of Douglas Coupland, are either routinly ignored, or if the writing just isn't there.

You just spent 221 words complaining about a novel about boomers. You could have spent those 221 words on the first page of your own novel about your own generation.

Damn those evil boomers! Will their insidious influence on the world never end?

First, I have never heard of a WASP named Sophie. Sophia is a Greek name associated through the Byzantine era with Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. Such a name would have been despised in Protestant England as signalling support for the Pope, or some other form of Protestant blasphemy or ethnic hatred.

Second, I can't imagine an uber-WASP couple giving their precious privileged white daughter a Gaelic boy's name like Dooley, which means "dark hero" and points to a dark complexion.

Perhaps the author was attempting to paint Ann as a hypocrite from the very start, someone who changed her own funky Irish name to a good English Protestant name like Ann, so she could be a more credible prosecutor of WASP privilege, and at the same time, enjoy some of it for herself?

Or maybe the author wants to point out that Ann is ignorant of her own class origins?

Interesting. I guess I'll have to read the book to get the real story.