...to privileged New York writers writing about privileged New York writers, and getting published by privileged New York editors (writers). Gosh, I wonder if it will be favorably recieved by privileged New York reviewers (writers)?

Chucky, Claire doesn't live in New York (and, I don't believe, ever has). She lives in Cambridge. While I think you may have a relevant point about the publishing industry's inclinations, you're over-generalizing. You're also failing to acknowledge that Messud--an incredibly gifted writer--has toiled in relative obscurity for most of her career, and her previous books have sold relatively few copies. She's a genuine writer who works her butt off and this book happens to have gotten the attention of a lot of people who happen to love it. Rather than present a well-thought out commentary or critique about the book publishing industry in New York, you come off sounding bitter and disillusioned, and make it seem like it's the writer's fault--the last person you should be blaming.

i'll definitely check the book out, but the review just starts off on the worst kind of east-coast navel-gazing: "a dazzling tale of that rarified nexus of lavish literary flux betwixt a wealthy family and the private libraries and chic parties of..." blah new yorker blah...

and there is no kind way of putting this-- I am fed to the back teeth with both 9/11 and New Yorkers. This may be a good book, but right now I'm just not interested.

I have read this novel...or started to, anyway. It was so obvious, so oblivious, so terminally dull and unrewarding that I did something I rarely do with a novel: About one-third of the way in, I put it down and, as yet, haven't picked it back up. Maybe it gets better, but honestly, I wasn't drawn to find out.

It is exactly what it seems and another letter writer suggests: More NYC navel-gazing, whether its author lives there or not.

Maybe there's a reason (NYC as undisputed navel of the world?) this book attracted so many critics' eyes...and maybe there's a reason the writer has previously toiled in obscurity.

that it was bad form of me to blame the writer. I wish her success in her work. I am, I confess, more than a bit jaded with New York-centricity in the arts - and the incestuousness, nepotism, self-acclamation, logrolling, and just plain old snobbery that goes along with it.

By the elite about 9/11. First Jay MacInerny, now the wife of a famous critic who, I must point out, has not been toiling in obscurity, but has had several books out by major publishers and enjoys the best of connections.

Where are the memoirs by people who worked in the World Trade Center and survived the attack, the non-elite, who experienced this trauma first-hand and had to keep putting one foot in front of the other and earn a living? These people's stories would make interesting reading for me, because I live in their world, not among the elite. But I wonder if the literary gatekeepers realize that.