Grub (ISBN 1592641997)

Clever comedy of errors with wry undertones:
A great find and well worth picking up. Reading this book was like hanging out with a whole new group of friends, and the insights on the writer's world were spot-on. An engaging and delightful read, all the more so because it is written with such compassionate intelligence. Highly recommended.

Great Read:
I really enjoyed this book. I often find it confusing to read novels with multiple POVs, but Blackwell did a marvelous job of juggling the many perspectives. After reading one too many awful novels, I'd lost interest in fiction. This was the first novel I'd read in months, and I just ate it up! Even though I know very little about the world of publishing, I still found the characters hilarious and honest.

Fast-paced and Hilarious!:
Really enjoyed this book. Loved the pace created by short chapters in alternating points of view, the silly but realistic predicaments the characters find themselves in, and most of all, the author's keen sense of humor and sharp observations about today's literary pop culture.

Only "sortof" deserving all the hype:
I am torn in my praise and criticism of this book. As a novel about writing, it was clever, witty and insightful. The different characters that moved in and out of the book were fully developed for most of the story (with the exception of Henry, who never really felt like a full fledged character) and the plot itself was immediately engaging. It is, however not that great metaphor or social comment that many reviews will attempt to sell it as. Just as some of the critics of the novelists in the book comment, the balance between character development and plot were not always equal in "Grub." The plot moved at a steady pace for a majority of the novel. But at the end of the novel the plot suddenly picks up speed and sprints to the finish line, determined to convince the reader that the unsatisfactory end of the novel is actually what we wanted. After so much character development the end is shallow and lacking of real closure. I felt that I was being forced to accept the end as just and fair, almost as if Blackwell was saying "look even those people treated abominably by the actions of other characters are happy at the end" when clearly they were not. All of a sudden characters whom the reader felt they knew with excruciating detail are summed up in a paragraph ending, stating rather than showing that they are happy. The final chapter itself, ending with a clichéd meeting of two main characters reaching a shallow and completely unbelievable reconciliation, was the most insulting. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this novel for the most part. Many of the main characters were ugly, deliberately hurtful, hopeless and without loyalty. The character study of what people are capable of doing to one another because of greed and the desire for fame was very well written and constructed. But this novel seemed to want to suggest that the hurt caused by characters in the novel was the right thing to do and that all were happier by the end, while this might have been true, the novel itself did not create that. This novel relied so heavily on character development to justify and explain plot, that the abandonment of that focus by the end purely to wrap up plot seemed disingenuous and contrary to that underlining principles of the plot itself. Characters that the reader fell in love with, like Margot and Eddie were forgotten and given quasi "happily ever after in spite of adversity" non-descript endings. Instead we are left to glory in the success of the ugly characters. I understand that this is part of the plot and indeed human nature, but I for one am tired of reading novels that glorify the disloyal and morally questionable characters simply because they repeatedly admit that they are disloyal and morally questionable. Even the most cynical of us must admit that in real life such people are not always successful or happy, yet a general browse through any modern "light" literature section of a bookstore will turn up book after book which argues that this is the exception rather than the rule. On the whole, I would recommend this book; it is nice way to spend an afternoon during the summer. But take the novel as it is. Despite all the reviews that claim "Grub" is some amazing comment on American society and hilariously funny I found neither of these to be true. The tongue in cheek comments about what people consider literature today are witty, and "Oink" is pretty funny but not truly hilarious and the characters lack the depth to be a true representation of a cross section of American anything. Arguably Jackson and Amanda could be seen as clichés for American capitalism, but such a conclusion could only be drawn if you choose to read that in the novel. The story itself lacks the subtlety to truly become a metaphor for American culture in the 21st century. If you are looking for a novel that starts what it begins and attempts to pass a message on to its reader try something else.

Great story - lousy title.:
This is a novel written about the author's Field: Writing. (Write what you know.) The Author is a professor who teaches creative writng. (I assume.) The ironies are too many to mention all. The book tells an ugly story of the 21st Century literary world--writers, agents & editors, publishers and professors. None of the characters are admirable save one, a young woman who is the daughter of a horrid publisher/professor. (I'm going to take a guess and say the model for the character is the author.) It's all in here - if you want to take the current, conventional path to writing for a living. (My advice? Don't.) The author writes in a way that she is critical of in the novel (Did she intentionally do that?) I loved the ending ... which is rare: A married couple, both writers, divorce and decide to tell the story of their relationship in novels - with very different views of just what that story is ... perfect!