"Grub," by Elise Blackwell

“Grub” (Toby Press, 2011) is a compelling and convincing satirical novel, an “updating" of George Gissing’s satire,"New Grub Street" (1891). It draws on it, borrows from it, and could never have been written without it,” author Elise Blackwell says in her acknowledgements. Note that one does not have to have read Gissing’s book to enjoy “Grub.” Blackwell also thanks her fellow writers who have told her some of their worst stories about the writing world. “Grub” features five main characters, all young, aspiring writers. They all struggle to various degrees with the writing itself, with figuring out which kind of writers they want to be, with wavering self-confidence, and with how much they are willing to compromise in order to succeed (in the cases of three of the five characters, they compromise quite a bit). Blackwell employs all the usual stereotypes about writers, with humorous effect. There are set pieces about MFA programs, writing conferences, MLA Conference job interviews, obscure literary journals, writers' jockeying with and backstabbing each other, has-been writers and critics, hangers-on, poverty, alcoholism, and more. There are roman a clef aspects as well, such as allusions to “the Jonathans,” and in particular to one of the Jonathans who refused to go on the top-rated television show, as in real life Jonathan Franzen some years ago famously refused an invitation to appear on Oprah Winfrey’s show. There are discussions of literary versus commercial novels, and of categories such as “chick lit.” The two writers who do not compromise are Henry, who believes in “New Realism” and the “open novel,” and who lives in poverty (almost starving himself) because of his purity of focus, and Margot, who writes because she loves writing, and is unwilling to do what she needs to do to become well-known (e.g., book tours, networking, self-promoting). The other three characters are most interested in success, fame, and money, and are willing to write whatever they need to in order to gain those goals. All of these characters and conditions seem quite believable, albeit exaggerated for satirical effect. The one truly unrealistic aspect is that all five of the main characters do publish at least one book each, and in some cases several, while they are quite young, unlike the legions of would-be writers, often with completed novels in hand, who are never able to do so. All of us who love literature have read and enjoyed novels about writers; this purposeful and cheerfully cynical lampoon takes all the stereotypes a bit further, producing a novel both hilarious and at times sad. The repeated recognitions it induces also let readers feel like insiders who know the real scoop…always a heady feeling! I recommend “Grub” to anyone who loves the world of literature and writers, and also has a sense of humor about the absurdities sometimes found there.