I'm yet to buy The Wayback Machine - though I will! - but if you like the sound of this, the author's published some excellent short fiction, for free, on his Substack. This one, part 1 of 4, is very, very good: https://danfalatko.substack.com/p/alone-and-illegal-in-moscow-1999
Great review. I’m curious about the rest of the prose but the podcast excerpt is hilarious. Also remember visiting Brooklyn in 2012, so probably a bit later than we’re talking about here, and seeing a bunch of DIY shows in seemingly abandoned buildings.
M.I.A. was and is the most beautiful woman in the world. I'm definitely reading this now.
As a counter-example to this book, people should check out Kings County, also set in the indie music scene in the Williamsburg era. One of the worst novels I've ever read, unfortunately. I'm interested to see how The Wayback Machine will compare.
Hilarious to see you rag on Kings County; the author was a friend of a friend who I always found pretty insufferable and never more so than after I read (tried to read) his first book. He was very into Exley, which is funny considering how the very put on hostility to autofiction, now that it is mostly seen as women's writing, has arisen in hipster literary circles.
This seems funny and fizzy enough, from the review. Not convinced it's much more than nostalgia dressed up to seem serious, but sure, diverting enough. Curious why you reference See Friendship (which I admit to not having read) and not the surely-more-lauded (although, to my defective taste actually good, at least in terms of that nuts and bolts of plotting ,pacing, style, and some attempt at significance) I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai. Seems more on-point as a podcast novel referent, to me, anyway.
If you’re reading this, just go buy it.
I'm yet to buy The Wayback Machine - though I will! - but if you like the sound of this, the author's published some excellent short fiction, for free, on his Substack. This one, part 1 of 4, is very, very good: https://danfalatko.substack.com/p/alone-and-illegal-in-moscow-1999
Well this sure convinced me to snag the book! Sounds like it’s pandering to me specifically.
Great review. I’m curious about the rest of the prose but the podcast excerpt is hilarious. Also remember visiting Brooklyn in 2012, so probably a bit later than we’re talking about here, and seeing a bunch of DIY shows in seemingly abandoned buildings.
M.I.A. was and is the most beautiful woman in the world. I'm definitely reading this now.
As a counter-example to this book, people should check out Kings County, also set in the indie music scene in the Williamsburg era. One of the worst novels I've ever read, unfortunately. I'm interested to see how The Wayback Machine will compare.
Hilarious to see you rag on Kings County; the author was a friend of a friend who I always found pretty insufferable and never more so than after I read (tried to read) his first book. He was very into Exley, which is funny considering how the very put on hostility to autofiction, now that it is mostly seen as women's writing, has arisen in hipster literary circles.
Someone please invent a new sound and subculture and make rock and roll dangerous again.
This seems funny and fizzy enough, from the review. Not convinced it's much more than nostalgia dressed up to seem serious, but sure, diverting enough. Curious why you reference See Friendship (which I admit to not having read) and not the surely-more-lauded (although, to my defective taste actually good, at least in terms of that nuts and bolts of plotting ,pacing, style, and some attempt at significance) I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai. Seems more on-point as a podcast novel referent, to me, anyway.