1,001 Novels Collected: New Jersey

 1,001 Novels Collected: New Jersey

  Yo I straight up forgot about collecting the New Jersey chapter of Susan Straight's 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project.  New Jersey has 13 titles on the list.  The top three titles are all books I'd read before, Clockers, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Yao and American Pastoral.  Clockers I actually re-read for the 1,001 Novels project since I think I originally read a tattered paperback copy during my college days.  I question the idea that you would only pick one Philip Roth novel for a list of New Jersey lit.   I'm just going to say that I'm using AI for the first time ever here:

Goodbye, Columbus (1959): This novella explores the social and class tensions between Neil Klugman, a working-class Jewish man from Newark, and his affluent girlfriend, Brenda Patimkin, from the suburb of Short Hills.

Portnoy's Complaint (1969): The famously controversial novel, told as a monologue to a psychoanalyst, focuses on the life and upbringing of Alexander Portnoy in Newark.

The Counterlife (1986): A novel that explores alternative narratives for its protagonist, Nathan Zuckerman, and includes episodes set in Newark.

I Married a Communist (1998): As part of Roth's "American Trilogy," this book is set in postwar Newark and chronicles the rise and fall of radio star Ira Ringold.

The Plot Against America (2004): An alternate history novel that follows the author's family during a fictional fascist takeover of the U.S. in the 1940s. The story is centered on the Roths' experiences as a Jewish family in Newark.

Indignation (2008): This novel features a young Newark man in the 1950s who flees his family for college in Ohio to escape his overbearing father.

Nemesis (2010): Roth's final novel is set during a polio epidemic in Newark in the summer of 1944.

  In particular I think The Plot Against America should be on any list of American Literature, New Jersey specific or not.  Within the category of books set there it seems like a clear number one to me, personally.  

Published 5/23/24

One for the Money (1994)

by Janet Evanovich

Trenton, New Jersey

New Jersey: 1/13

     To be fair, New York state has a huge number of titles going on.  Any project like the 1,001 Novels project is going to break down if you spend too long in any one place, even if that place is New York City.  13 books to cover New Jersey is going to be a more usual situation once New York is wrapped up.  I accidentally checked out the 3 hour abridged version of this Audiobook instead of the full 9 hour version.  The version I checked out was narrated by Lori Petty(!) and produced by Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone fame.   I decided not to go back and read the full version or listen to it because this is a detective novel and three hours of Lori Petty voicing the iconic character of lady bounty hunter (at least in this book) Stephanie Plum.  Plum was played by Katherine Heigl in the poorly received (2 percent on Rotten Tomatoes!) movie version, but Lori Petty, I think, does a better job of conveying her moxy-filled style.

  I wasn't previously familiar with Evanovich or Plum beyond recognizing the series from seeing it in Airport newsstands and the just-released library shelf.  Evanovich has the sort of Wikipedia page that just makes you shrug- she's like a full-on book publishing industry these days, with several series post-Plum that she has "co-authored" with various other people.  It's not an unusual practice for authors whose names are regularly at the top of bestseller lists, put the name on the cover and the book should sell, is the idea.  Like many of these authors, she doesn't seem particularly concerned with her literary legacy.  I would think all of these super rich, best-selling novelists would at least give a work of serious fiction a try. post-fame, but they rarely do. 

  Although Trenton New Jersey is nobodies idea of a good time, it was a relief to read a book set somewhere besides the outer boroughs of New York City. Those lives are so cramped, and compressed, it doesn't make for breezy books that are easy to read. 

Published: 7/9/24

Election (1998)

by Tom Perotta

Winwood, New Jersey

New Jersey: 2/13

     Election is an interesting novel- the publication rights were sold before publication, and the movie was actually shot and completed before the novel was published.  The novel was published to muted acclaim but the film was a hit and also the second (after Citizen Ruth) in a run of films that would establish Payne as a notable filmmaker of his generation.  In fact, given the sequence of events, with the book being sold for film before publication and the film debuting while the book was still on shelves, a year after the book was published, it is fair game to just say that, like the Godfather by Mario Puzo, the movie is simply better than the book.

   The irony of that sequence in the context of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America is that the biggest change Payne made, besides adding a scene of Matthew Broderick getting off to pornography in his basement, is moving the location of the novel from New Jersey to Nebraska.  In that sense, specifically,  the book and movie are totally different.  

 

    Election is a particular kind of literary fiction, the "comic novel," that manages to occupy  a rung below "serious" literary fiction but above genre fiction.  Less, the 2017 novel by Andrew Sean Greer, is an example of this category that received a major literary award (2018 Pulitzer) though you'd be hard to find many on the Booker Shortlist (and some on the Longlist).  Similarly you'd have to go back to never to find a comic novel on the National Book Award for Fiction winners list.  Perotta is clearly aiming at a target beyond the tawdry facts of his tale about the manipulation of a Student Body President election at a nothing-interesting suburban public high school.  Provided you know the underlying history, it's impossible not to consider the influence of the Bush-Gore election dispute- which happened a couple years AFTER Election was published and the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, which happened a couple years BEFORE Election was published. 

 I was reminded while I was writing this post that Perotta actually published a sequel to Election a couple years ago and the Amazon Product Page tells me it's soon to be a major motion picture starring Reese Witherspoon. 

  It's hard to contemplate a time when Reese Witherspoon had some edge, but the movie trilogy of Election along with Freeway (1996) and her turn in American Psycho (2000) remind us all that there was a time before Legally Blond. 

    Listening to the excellent Audiobook edition in 2024, it is also fair to observe that Election stands up a generation later as a more-or-less timeless morality tale and you don't have to know the contemporary history to appreciate the tale. 

Published: 7/19/24

House of Wonder (2014)

by Susan Healy

Harwick, New Jersey

New Jersey: 3/13

    New Jersey is another literary territory that raises low expectations in terms of anticipated merit.  If you wanted me to make an argument for the best art that has come out of New Jersey I'd probably say the Sopranos television show, which is as New Jersey as it gets and lightyears better and more entertaining than any of the novels from this state of the country.   These low expectations were brought into sharp focus by House of Wonder which is a New Jersey variation on the "city girl comes home the country/suburb/etc" to resolve outstanding childhood issues.   Here, the outstanding childhood issue is her Mom and her twin brother, who is autistic but lives in a place and time before that was something that people acknowledged.  I had to keep glancing at the publication date- 2014- although I assume she is talking about a time period from decades ago, to convince myself House of Wonder wasn't actually written in the 1980's instead of just taking place there-ish. 

  House of Wonder also has a strong storyline about the Mom and generally speaking the theme is that of inherited mental illness/disability and the way that history is often disguised and occluded over time, often on purpose to avoid someone not wanting to have children with someone else.  It's a theme that hits pretty close to home, so I didn't really have to read a book about this boring lady, her poor life choices (she gets knocked up by a New York City chef, has the kid and then he leaves her to open a restaurant in Tokyo, so she has to move back to her hometown where she makes a living as a corporate interior designer or something similar), and her boring family problems.  

  House of Wonder is another in what feels like a plurality of titles inside 1,001 Novels: A Library of America where every important character is a member of the same nuclear family.  I can't think of a single book so far that is substantially about a work environment, and few that are set at a school.  Based on the books selected by Susan Straight, editor of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America it is clear that she thinks family relationship are essentially the only thing worth reading about in fiction.

Published: 7/24/24

The Sportswriter (1986)

by Richard Ford

Haddam, New Jersey

New Jersey: 4/14

   Two things to know about Richard Ford:  He won the Pulitzer Prize for the next book in this career-long series about Frank Bascomb, Independence Day.  Second, he is a huge asshole, having 1) Sent Alice Hoffman a copy of HER newest novel with the middle shot out by his guy after he didn't like her NYT review of this book and; 2) SPAT on Colson Whitehead for a review of his collection of short stories that Ford didn't appreciate.  It seems like BOTH those things would get you cancelled or at least charged with a crime but neither seems to have happen.  Presumably Alice Hoffman and Colson Whitehead, who both turned out to be more succesful than Ford over the courses of their respective careers, were big enough to move past their affronts at Ford's hand and mouth.  Third, Ford is one of these white male writers in the grand tradition of the United States suburbanite, dissatisfied with the anomie of the American suburbs while seemingly at a loss to do anything about it.

  Bascomb, the narrator and protagonist (and really the only fully drawn character in the entire book- which refers to his ex wife only as "Mrs. X" and alludes to the premature death of his son with as little explanation as seems humanly possible.) has, at the age of 38:

1.  Been married, fathered two children, one of whom is dead and been fully divorced.

2.  Written a well regard book of short stories

3.  Given up on "serious" writing and found work as a sports writer for a New York Times type newspaper in Manhattan.

  This character, who is a decade younger than me, sounds like a senior citizen, the whole book through. Is what thirty eight year old men were like in the 1980's?  I guess so.  I checked out the Audiobook from the library which was a good pick because the entire book is just Frank Bascomb ruminating, and occasionally having portentous conversations with friends, lovers and strangers in various locales between New Jersey, Manhattan and Michigan. 

  

  Published: 7/29/24

Dear Edward (2020)

by Ann Napolitano

West Milford, New Jersey

New Jersey: 5/14

   Here is an observation about the psycho-geography of New Jersey:  It is the area "west" of the New York City monolith where people go to break semi-free of the high pressure environment and replace their fifth story walk-up apartments with spacious ranch-style homes on cul-de-sacs.  This psychic landscape was made possible by the automobile, and it is worth noting that any Jersey-ite and light out from any point in New Jersey and simply drive west and end up in California.  There is also a southern section for the Philadelphia/Trenton era that serves as a mirror to the northern New York focused area, and then there is the rest, which includes some tourist areas and farm country.

  Dear Edward is the northern most of the northern New Jersey cohort, taking place on the border between New Jersey and the beginning of the southern reaches of upstate New York. It is clearly suburban environment, and the ties to New York are dim.  Dear Edward is a cross between domestic lit and a thriller.  Edward is a young boy who is the sole survivor of a domestic flight that goes down over the United States flying between New York and Los Angeles.  He has to go live with his (childless) Aunt (mother's sister) and her husband in the suburbs of New Jersey.  None of these characters are interesting, from the baby-hungry Aunt who has suffered a miscarriage, to her husband, a nerdy stock character out of touch with his feelings, to Edward himself.  A real significant moment comes when Edward sneaks into his Uncle's private study and finds racks full of...western novels by Louis L'amour. Sheesh!

  I listened to the 13 hour audiobook- huge mistake since the whole book is portions told from a variety of perspectives of the passengers on the airplane before they die alternated with chapters about Edward's life after the crash.  As interesting as life as a sole-survivor of an airplane crash might sound, Edward manages to bring no interest to his part in the book. One minute into the Audiobook, you know we are going to be listening to sad Edward mope around for the rest of the book.

  There is some relief in the portions narrated by the passengers on the doomed flight, but I thought it was pretty risible that all of the profiled characters who were people FROM the New York area who were ALL travelling to Los Angeles for various reasons having to do with work or family.  Anyone who has ever been on New York to LA flight knows that many, if not a majority of the people on that flight are people from LA going back there, and that another huge group is foreign tourists, none of whom, apparently, were on this flight.

  Like many of the low-stakes works of domestic fiction on the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America list, Dear Edward has an almost claustrophobic level of myopia about the world it portrays.   I would also add "children suffering from extreme PTSD" as another category on the list of the dim-bulb narrators of American fiction: Nothing wrong with being poor or even illiterate but it does make an interesting book harder to write.

Published 7/31/24

Jernigan (1991)

by David Gates

Trenton, New Jersey

New Jersey: 6/14

  Jernigan was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1992.  It was the first novel by author David Gates, who went on to publish one additional novel and two collections of short stories, most recently in 2015.  It's pretty crazy to read a novel by an author who made it to the last three of the Pulitzer Prize with his first book and then basically quit. Like the protagonist of The Sports Writer, he did parlay it into a journalism career, where he was a writer and editor at Newsweek until 2008.   Jernigan is an example of a sad dad, suburban New Jersey type, vice: alcoholic, issue: PTSD from wife's dramatic death(running drunk out of their suburban pool party, getting behind the wheel of her car and backing out of the driveway into the path of an oncoming truck, which hits her car and kills her). 

  Like all substance abuse narratives, I found the character rather self-dramatizing. Substance abusers are all similar in that they act like they are the only people to grapple with a particular problem and uncaring of the fact that their particular failure also impacts other members of their community who often are suffering from the exact same issue.  Picking up in the aftermath of his wives death, Jernigan suffers another trauma when his famous-painter dies in a house fire, which also destroys all his unsold paintings. This double trauma sends him into a real spiral, where he falls in bed with the singlish mom of his son's girlfriend, and finds himself living in her "suburban survivalist" home, where she brews moonshine and raises rabbits in the basement to eat. 

  Single mom and her daughter have their own issues, and the whole situation can only be described as a god awful suburban mess. At least, though, Jernigan is an interesting, articulate guy, and there was enough incident in the plot to keep me from crying tears of boredom. 

Published 8/1/24

Eddie and The Cruisers (1980)

P.F. Kluge

Berkeley Heights, New Jersey

New Jersey: 7/14

    Editor Susan Straight called Eddie and The Cruisers an "iconic novel of 1950s rock-and-roll," and I was surprised to find out the book itself is hugely out of print (a copy costs 100 at Amazon) AND unavailable to check-out from the Los Angeles Public Library.  It is also unavailable from the library as a Kindle book, forcing me to read Eddie and The Cruisers on the native Libby app on my cell phone.  Reading a 300 page book on my phone is possible but unpleasant because the screen is so small: So much flipping of virtual pages that it becomes a distraction and at times simply unbearable.  There is also the distraction of other things to look at on ones phone, making it hard to focus on reading a book.

  Even so I feel like I'm not being overly negative when I observe that Eddie and The Cruisers, iconic though it might be, is not actually a good book, in the sense of how it is written, the plot or any other themes the author may be trying to express.   I did look up the movie and specifically the sound-track, this being a solid piece of IP even if it isn't a great book.  The band they found to perform the music of Eddie and The Cruisers was an east-coast bar band that essentially functioned as a Bruce Springsteen cover band in fact if not in name.

  That got me thinking about the New Jersey bar-rock scene, which this book somewhat describes.  While at some level I know that artists as disparate as Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi came "from" New Jersey, I didn't know what that meant, and Eddie and The Cruisers gave me some idea of the milieu.  In that regard it's a great pick for the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America, New Jersey chapter, but otherwise not worth the effort to dig up.  I do want to see the movie after reading the book. 

Published: 8/6/24

American Pastoral (1997)

by Philip Roth

Newark, New Jersey

New Jersey: 8/14

  I read American Pastoral in December, 2017 for the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die project.  'Twas a simpler time, ha ha.   I wouldn't say I "discovered" Roth through the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die project, but I certainly conquered his bibliography thanks to the start 1,001 Books gave me.  Roth amazingly placed eight books on the 1,001 Books project- a truly astonishing amount and even including  a lesser work like The Breast, among its selections. If you want to pick one major difference between the construction of the two lists (besides the obvious difference in area covered), it's the decision by 1,001 Books editors to include multiple picks for MANY authors, while so far editor Susan Straight hasn't done it once.  

  As I said back in 2017, American Pastoral was from his series of Nathan Zuckerman novels- his suburban everyman character, though in this book he is merely the narrator and the book is about a his neighbor and his 60's radical-bomber daughter.  Roth is a great pick for New Jersey but personally I would have preferred The Plot Against America which, like many of Roth's books, is also set in Newark, New Jersey.

Published 12/19/17
American Pastoral (1997)
by Philip Roth

  Man, the hits keep coming for late career Philip Roth. American Pastoral won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and even though he inevitably seems to write about weird old guys from New Jersey, he never writes the same book twice, dabbling in meta fiction, speculative fiction and the roman a clef despite having established his initial literary reputation on the back of realistic portraits of urban life in the northeast.   American Pastoral is also one of Roth's Zuckerman novels, about Nathan Zuckerman, successful novelist generally assumed to be the alter ego of Roth.

  Despite American Pastoral being narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, the book is about Seymour "Swede" Levov, a Jewish-American student athlete of vast renown, grown old and successful, but tormented by the 1960's radical inspired bombing of the local postal office by his 16 year old daughter.  Although Zuckerman narrates from the present, most of American Pastoral takes the form of Zuckerman imagining Levov's life, culminating in the bombing, but moving back and forth within different periods in the past.

  I thought it was a little strange that this was the book that won Roth a Pulitzer.  By 1997 he had been a prospective Nobel Prize for Literature winner for a decade, and he still had not won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  Ultimately, American Pastoral derives its strength from the well observed horror of a parent at the choices made by a child.  That is under developed literary territory.

Published: 8/7/24

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) 

by Junot Diaz 

Paterson, New Jersey

New Jersey: 9/14

  Another Pulitzer Prize winner out of New Jersey.  The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is also another 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die/1,001 Novels: A Library of American cross-over book.  I read it in 2015- I think I read my girlfriend's copy that she kept on the shelf of her apartment when we first met.  It's a good pick for 1,001 Novels list- about Dominican immigrants, and a prize winner and all that.  I was pretty critical in 2015.

Published 4/28/15
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007)
 by Junot Diaz

  Junot Diaz is one of those contemporary authors who I managed to miss over the past decade.  I knew that Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2008.  I noticed the Audiobook edition was read by none other than Hamilton the musical writer Lin-Manuel Miranda- another cultural phenomenon I've missed.  Which is all in the way of saying I had long suspected that I wouldn't like this book, but I wanted to give it a fair shot, especially since so many other people love it.

  I'm sure there isn't a lot of advantage to be had in trashing a decade old Pulitzer Prize winner.  Diaz isn't the first person to tackle the Trujillo Dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, and this book often references The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa.  The travails of  life under the Trujillo regime are similar to the travails suffered by others under Third World dictators- or the mid twentieth century totalitarian dictators of the World War II era. 

   The other part of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao involves the life of young immigrants in America, Oscar and his older sister.    I can't remember a book I've enjoyed less.  I think it was probably the combination of Diaz' "street smart" jargon- which I believe is a major reason people love it- and the voice of Lin-Manuel Miranda who I clearly do not appreciate in any way shape or form.  I'm not saying this book or Miranda is not good, the popularity of both and the general universal critical acclaim would indicate that they are both excellent at they do. but no, not for me. I'm also going to take a pass on Diaz' other books because I just don't think I could take it.

Published 8/16/24

The Last Open Road (1994)

by Burt Levy

Passaic, New Jersey

New Jersey: 10/13

  The Last Open Road is about the world of auto racing in the era when rich white guys could just drive to some backwoods locale and close off all the streets and race around in their Jaguars, MG's and Ferrari's.  If you are like me, you didn't know that this world even existed, ever, so in that regard it is an interesting novel.  Burt Levy, I gather, is telling the tale from a fictionalized version of himself, the son of Union chemical plant worker in Passaic, New Jersey who catches the "racing bug" while starting his career as a mechanic at a Sinclair filling station.  Along the way he befriends a local scrap metal dealer who is rich and the owner of a Jaguar which is in need of constant attention.  Seeking guidance, he falls in with a lower Manhattan foreign car mechanic/car salesman, who show him the ropes and provide his entree into the world of dilletante car racing in the early 1950's. 

   But beyond that appeal there isn't much going on here besides the uninteresting bildungsroman of a New Jersey foreign-car mechanic. 

Published 9/3/24

The Final Club (1990)

by Tobias Wolff

Princeton, New Jersey

New Jersey: 11/13

I just assumed Tobias Wolff attended Princeton but that does not appear to be the case. This book was received so poorly it is left off his Wikipedia page- which I've never seen before today.  It's what I assume is a biographically based bildungsroman about a half-Jewish student who attends Princeton University in the 1950's.   At times it is hard to believe this is a book written about the 1950's, with the characters sounding like college students circa the Roaring 1920's.  The major theme is the narrator's attempts to fit in, or not, in the semi-hostile, semi-welcoming environment of Princeton.  Princeton itself is a major player- almost beyond the bounds of believe.  Speaking as someone who went through a private high school/private non-elite college/public law school experience in the minimum amount of time, I've found people who fetishize their college experience to be just as ridiculous as the small-town "peaked in high school" character, and there is nothing in The Final Club to change my mind.

 As a representative of the geographical area of Princeton it is a good pick, since the characters spend most of their time there, in terms of the 350 pages of the book.

Published: 9/6/24

After Moondog (1995)

by Jane Shapiro

South Orange, New Jersey

New Jersey: 12/13

   After Moondog is a sad divorced suburban mom novel.  The back flap says that three of the chapters first appeared as short stories in the New Yorker, and she's only written one novel since then, The Dangerous Husband, in 2000.   I frequently read novels about divorce, particularly divorces with young children involved, and ask myself what is wrong with these people.  You mean to tell me that you can't stick it out in your cold but comfortable relationship for 15 years to spare your children a lifetime of trauma?  Sure, I understand spouses who flee domestic violence or other, non-physical kinds of abuse, but usually in the world of literary fiction divorce is about one partner who is desperately unhappy for literally no reason, and another partner who either doesn't care or can't help the first partner. 

  People in these books move out to the suburbs, have kids without questioning why and then five years later they wonder why they are unhappy.  That's not just the characters in After Moondog, it describes at least 20 novels I've read for the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project.

  At least it means I'm almost finished with this chapter.  The only book left is Clockers by Richard Price.  I'm actually excited to re-read Clockers, even though I forgot that it is a 600 page book.

Published 9/11/24

Clocker (1992)

by Richard Price

Jersey City, New Jersey

New Jersey: 13/13

  HUZZAH it is the end of Chapter 3 of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project, edited by Susan Straight.  Chapter 3 is called "Empire State and Atlantic Shores," or you might just say NY/NJ. Like the last chapter (New England), Chapter 3 is a culturally and geographically cohesive area. You could make an argument that far upstate New York is more contiguous with New England geographically speaking, but there is no denying that upstate New York is still New York state.   New Jersey, meanwhile, is essentially a suburb of New York City- though Southern New Jersey, with it's urban proximity to Philadelphia, is like the converse of upstate New York: It's part of the state of New Jersey, but there are argument for lumping it with Pennsylvania.  

   The last book in this chapter is Clockers, the 1992 crime verite novel about a crew of cocaine dealers working out of Jersey City, and the cops who stalk them.  Clockers was a hit in its own right, spawned a generally well received 1995 movie version courtesy of Spike Lee AND was the direct inspiration for HBO's The Wire, which Price also wrote for, in 2002.   I'm sure I read Clockers around the time it was first published- I would have been in high school when it was published and I'm sure I read it either then or while I was in college- probably the paperback edition.   Landing at close to 600 pages, Clockers is really two novels interwoven, the novel about the cocaine seller, Ronald 'Strike' Dunham, who favors yoo-hoo to self-medicate his ulcer and the novel about Rocco Klein, a police investigator working for the District Attorney homicide squad.   Their paths intertwine when Strike is tasked by his boss to kill Darryl, his second-in-command, and assume his position.  The murder happens outside the fast food restaurant where Darryl works, and Klein gets involved when Strike's younger, hard-working brother, confesses to the crime and claims self-defense. 

  The confession doesn't sit right with Klein, who spends the rest of the book trying to get the bottom of the murder and what he believes to be a false confession.  Strike embodies the "tortured drug dealer" archetype, though reading Clockers reminded me of the insanity of the economics of inner-city cocaine street level dealing.  As an experienced criminal defense lawyer I can say that the only thing dumber than selling drugs on the actual street is bank robbery.   It's funny because Clockers is chock filled with Strike reflecting on the impossibility of working a "straight" job, and I often think how, personally, working a shitty fast-food job would be WAY better than working as a street-level criminal.

  I'm so glad to be done with NY/NJ.