June 23, 2008
Big buzz on Rivka Galchen's first novel
It's not every day that a writer has their first novel reviewed in The New Yorker — by James Wood, no less.
But that's the kind of critical reception Rivka Galchen has received for her debut novel, Atmospheric Disturbances. She's already being compared to Pynchon and Nabakov.
Here's more from Wood's review:
Rivka Galchen’s first novel, “Atmospheric Disturbances” (Farrar, Straus; $24), is being praised as Borgesian and Pynchonian, and certainly clutches at the frills of that lineage. (It is set partly in Argentina and makes reference to something called “the 49 Quantum,” or just “the 49.”) But it is more naturally seen as a contribution to the Hamsun-Bernhard tradition of tragicomic first-person unreliability. Like “Lenz,” the story opens simply and then, superbly, flakes.
Later, Wood tells us the novel is 40 to 50 pages too long. But, he goes on to praise Galchen's efforts:
… Galchen has written an original and sometimes affecting novel, one that knows how to move from the comic to the painful, as the antic twilight of Leo’s insanity gives way to the darkest night.
For a taste of Galchen's writing, here's a link to a short story of hers that appeared in the March 24, 2008 issue of The New Yorker.
Atmospheric Disturbances is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (256 pages).
For more news about Jewish books, sign up for Jewish Literary Review's email alerts.