In the New York Observer, Leon Neyfakh recently named this summer’s “status galleys,” the ones you get pick-up lines and publishing cred for reading on the subway. And over at Neyfakh’s former home, Gawker’s Foster Kamer sprays the mystique off one of them, Joshua Ferris’s The Unnamed (due to publish in January 2010), in this first installment of the Status Galley Book Club. He gives the novel a very positive review, but notes that the mainstream buzz anticipating its publication is too loud (and its galleys too widely distributed) for its status to be Truly Hip. Silly as it may sound, there is something to this whole galley mania (hey, getting to peek at anything before it’s for sale is exciting), but I never considered its possibilities as a hot accessory in the New York dating scene. Move over, dogs!
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I didn’t think you got ANY cred for riding on a subway…perhaps street cred? But what would I know: I currently have the misfortune of living in Illinois.
P.S. Am enjoying “Delicate Edible Birds.” Groff is more thematically varied than L.M. I love intergenerational writing, too, which is not a strong feature in L.M. Groff isn’t as witty, but seems much more in tune with those around her than our sullen muse. One general comment I have is that many of you seem too young to have the gravitas requisite for the sort of literature that I prefer. Hopefully you’re not the literary equivalent of MBA’s who get all the necessary technical skills to run a company and then, thinking they’ll make tons of money, torpedo the economy. I’m entering my old codger phase and like to think that experience counts for something.
The status of galleys are yet another reason to review for this site! I’d love to get my hands on the Dan Chaon galley. Anyone? And I read the second HUNGER GAMES galley on an airplane last weekend. (A wildly bestselling YA series and good!) I think this would make me cool in some circles – though probably not this circle. In any case, no one hit on me on the plane.