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What is it about shiny, clean, contemporary New York that inspires writers to evoke it wrecked, dangerous and falling apart? Does a certain sickness settle in at the sight of another branch bank? An anomie at the word “artisanal” or the discovery of an undercover J. Crew? Gotham is expensive, clean, incredibly safe and full of Chipotles. Without anyone quite catching the switch — here’s the fear — rock ’n’ roll has become middle management.
Bill Clegg’s Debut Novel Is Did You Ever Have a Family
The literary agent Bill Clegg is renowned in the publishing world as a ruthless negotiator who routinely wrings fat six- and seven-figure advances out of editors for experimental debut novels from unknown authors.
But he still gets a pit in his stomach every time he sends out a manuscript. “Until there’s actually an offer on the table, I’m a nervous wreck,” he said.
His anxiety became especially acute last year, when the book he was shopping was his own debut novel, “Did You Ever Have a Family,” about a middle-aged woman struggling to recover from an accidental explosion that destroyed her home and killed her family.
This time, the master salesman was selling himself. And to Mr. Clegg, the odds seemed as long as for some of the other debut novels he had pitched over the years. Mr. Clegg, 44, had never published a work of fiction before, and the book had taken him seven years of sporadic but obsessive work squeezed around his day job as a superagent.
Despite his success raking in million-dollar deals for other writers, he wasn’t certain that anyone would buy it.
“It doesn’t make you any more confident — if anything, it makes you less confident,” Mr. Clegg said. “I represent great writers, and I couldn’t carry their glove on the field. When the bar is set that high, it’s daunting.”
Did You Ever Have a Family comes out September 2015.
The musician and author of the new picture book "Outlaw Pete” talks with The New York Times about music, cosmology, and, of course, books.
Outlaw Pete by Bruce Springsteen is available November 4th, 2014.
More and more people worldwide are living in countries not considered their own. Writer Pico Iyer -- who himself has three or four "origins" -- meditates on the meaning of home, the joy of traveling and the serenity of standing still.
Check out The Art of Stillness, a fascinating follow up to Pico Iyer’s essay “The Joy of Quiet" from The New York Times. Available November 2014!
