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Michael Zadoorian

Goodreads Author

Born

Detroit, Michigan

Website

http://www.michaelzadoorian.com

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Member Since

April 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/michaelzadoorian

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Michael Zadoorian is the author of five works of fiction. His second novel, The Leisure Seeker was recently made into a feature film starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland.

His most recent novel is The Narcissism of Small Differences. Set in bottomed-out 2009 Detroit, it’s the story of Joe Keen and Ana Urbanek, an unmarried Gen X couple with no kids or mortgage, as Midwestern parents seem to require. Now on the cusp of forty, both work at jobs that they’re not sure they believe in anymore, yet with varying returns. Ana is successful, Joe is floundering—both caught somewhere between mainstream and alternative culture, sincerity and irony, achievement and arrested development. The Narcissism of Small Differences tells of an aging creati Michael Zadoorian is the author of five works of fiction. His second novel, The Leisure Seeker was recently made into a feature film starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland.

His most recent novel is The Narcissism of Small Differences. Set in bottomed-out 2009 Detroit, it’s the story of Joe Keen and Ana Urbanek, an unmarried Gen X couple with no kids or mortgage, as Midwestern parents seem to require. Now on the cusp of forty, both work at jobs that they’re not sure they believe in anymore, yet with varying returns. Ana is successful, Joe is floundering—both caught somewhere between mainstream and alternative culture, sincerity and irony, achievement and arrested development. The Narcissism of Small Differences tells of an aging creative class, doomed to ask the questions: Is it possible to outgrow irony? Does not having children make you one? Is there even such a thing as selling out anymore? By turns wry and ribald, kitschy and gritty, poignant and thoughtful, The Narcissism of Small Differences is the story of Joe and Ana’s life together, their relationship, their tribes, their work, and their comic quest for a life that is their own and no one else’s.

His third novel was Beautiful Music. Set in 1970’s era Detroit, Beautiful Music is about one young man’s transformation through music. Danny Yzemski is a husky, pop radio–loving loner balancing a dysfunctional home life with the sudden harsh realities of freshman year at a high school marked by racial turbulence. When tragedy strikes the family, Danny’s mother becomes increasingly erratic and angry about the seismic cultural shifts unfolding in her city and the world. As she tries to keep it together with the help of Librium, highballs, and breakfast cereal, Danny finds his own reason to carry on: rock ‘n’ roll. Beautiful Music is a funny and poignant story about the power of music and its ability to save one’s soul.

Zadoorian’s second novel, The Leisure Seeker was an international bestseller and translated into over 20 different languages worldwide. John and Ella, two eighty-somethings, decide to kidnap themselves from the doctors and grown children who run their lives for a final adventure in their ancient Winnebago. In a starred review, Booklist wrote "The Leisure Seeker is pretty much like life itself: joyous, painful, moving, tragic, mysterious, and not to be missed." The L.A. Times said: Zadoorian is true to these geezers. He draws them in their most honest light. I hoped for a book that would make me laugh during these tight times, and I was rewarded." And the Sydney Morning Herald stated: "This is a sad, sweet love letter to a fading America… sharp humour about aging and a quietly shocking ending.”

Michael Zadoorian's first novel, Second Hand is about love and loss for a Detroit-area junk store owner. The New York Times Book Review said “Second Hand may be a gift from the (Tiki) gods” and called it "a romantic adventure that explores what Yeats called 'the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.'" Selected for Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers Program, Second Hand also received the Great Lakes Colleges Association prestigious New Writers Award. Translated into Italian, Portuguese and French, it's still a cult favorite.

His short story collection The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit follows characters coming to terms with the past and the present in a broken city. Lansing Journal called them "…stories that grab you, shake you and slap you upside the head." The Ann Arbor Observer called the stories “sometimes wildly funny and more than a little crazy, yet they have a heart-breaking affection for the battered lives they portray."

Zadoorian is a recipient of a Kresge Artist Fellowship in the Literary Arts, the Columbia University Anahid Literary Award, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, the GLIBA Great Lakes Great Reads award, and two Michigan Notable Book Awards. He lives in the Detroit area. ...more

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Michael Zadoorian’s books

Average rating: 3.9 · 9,447 ratings · 1,686 reviews · 11 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Leisure Seeker 3.94 avg rating — 7,418 ratings — published 2009 — 58 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Beautiful Music 4.02 avg rating — 878 ratings — published 2018 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Second Hand 3.60 avg rating — 699 ratings — published 2000 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Narcissism of Small Differences: A Novel 3.56 avg rating — 247 ratings — published 2020 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit (Made in Michigan Writer Series) 3.78 avg rating — 159 ratings — published 2009 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bob Seger's House and Other Stories (Made in Michigan Writer Series) by Michael Delp (Contributor), Charles Baxter (Foreword), Ellen Airgood (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.34 avg rating — 35 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On the Clock: Contemporary Short Stories of Work by Jeff Vande Zande (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Josh Maday (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Pete Fromm (Goodreads Author) 4.20 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Beautiful Music: A Novel by Michael Zadoorian (Goodreads Author), Alexander Thompson (Narrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	קרוואן בשניים by Michael Zadoorian (Goodreads Author), מאיה לוי (Narrator), ימימה עברון - translator 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Leisure Seeker: A Novel 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Michael Zadoorian's Blog

Author Swap with Josh Malerman

Looking forward to doing this FB Livestream event. AUTHOR SWAP with Josh Malerman author of BIRD BOX. Josh will read from The Narcissism of Small Differences and I’ll read from his just-released and brilliantly horrifying Malorie Friday, September 25th at 7pm EST. Streaming link: https://lnkd.in/eyUUMbM Read more of this blog post »

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Published on September 21, 2020 08:42

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Michael Zadoorian added a status update: I just posted a new essay on Medium. https://medium.com/@michaelzadoorian/...
Jan 09, 2024 12:33PM · 3 likes · like · see status

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Quotes by Michael Zadoorian (?)

“You spend your life so worried about what others think, when in reality, people mostly don't think. On the few occasions when they do, true, it is often something bad, but one has to at least admire the fact that they're thinking at all.”
― Michael Zadoorian, The Leisure Seeker

14 likes

“…this is the problem with photographs. After a while, you can’t remember if you’re recalling the actual memory or the memory of the photograph.
Or perhaps the photograph is the only reason you remember that moment. (p.85)”
― Michael Zadoorian, The Leisure Seeker

tags: aging, memories, memory, moments, photographs, time-passing

11 likes

“You worry about your parents, siblings, spouses dying, yet no one prepares you for your friends dying. Every time you flip through your address book, you are reminded of it---she's gone, he's gone, they're both gone. Names and numbers and addresses scratched out. Page after page of gone, gone, gone. The sense of loss that you feel isn't just for the person. It is the death of your youth, the death of fun, of warm conversations and too many drinks, of long weekends, of shared pains and victories and jealousies, of secrets that you couldn't tell anyone else, of memories that only you two shared.”
― Michael Zadoorian, The Leisure Seeker

9 likes

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Polls

February BoTM Side Read Nominations ~ 1st Poll
Top 5 Books move onto final poll

The Last One at the Wedding

by Jason Rekulak

7 votes, 26.9%

The Briar Club

by Kate Quinn

4 votes, 15.4%

Here One Moment

by Liane Moriarty

4 votes, 15.4%

The Fox Wife

by Yangsze Choo

3 votes, 11.5%

The Outsiders

by S.E. Hinton

3 votes, 11.5%

Pony Confidential

by Christina Lynch

2 votes, 7.7%

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

by Helen Simonson

1 vote, 3.8%

Signal Fires

by Dani Shapiro

1 vote, 3.8%

A Council of Dolls

by Mona Susan Power

1 vote, 3.8%

Beautiful Music

by Michael Zadoorian

0 votes, 0.0%

26 total votes

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