I hate to admit it, but after the chapters of the private misery of Reardon’s impossible literary pursuit, it’s refreshing to have Milvain back in the book, bringing with him the ridiculous and disheartening news of the publishing world in such a cheery way.
Mrs. Boston Wright and her three marriages would make a great novel. She is one of the more fascinating characters so far.
“A man who can’t get anyone to publish his own books makes a living by telling other people how to write!”
There is so much one can comment on about this new business. However, I refrain. With this chapter we come to the end of the first part of the triple-decker.
Join us on December 13 for a virtual discussion of New Grub Street with Yiyun Li.
'You lament that I can't write in that attractive way. Well, I lament it myself—for your sake. I wish I had Milvain's peculiar talent, so that I could get reputation and money. But I haven't, and there's an end of it. It irritates a man to be perpetually told of his disadvantages.'
Edwin's mounting jealousy of Jasper with respect to Amy's admiration of the latter is excruciating to behold. But the poor fellow is so muddled.
Shouldn't writing in an "attractive way" be the objective regardless of whether it's literary, "commercial", popular, genre, non-fiction, essay, whatever writing?
Edwin's refusals of Jasper's efforts to help him get published and make more money is what my mother would call "cutting off your nose to spite your face."
The Reardons’s marriage seems doomed by the recency effect - the most recent events are more at the fore. If only the Reardons could remember what brought them together. wouldn’t Amy, whose need to keep up appearances, and Edwin, whose need to write against outward popularity, know what would transpire? thinking of Flaubert, Kafka, and even Kay Ryan, who found muses, I’m also wondering where the sparks come from, and why for people, it’s the recent past. The search for origins can also be very seductive.