Like It Matters

by Lee Klein

Every Bloomsday, six male writer reader drinker friends meet at a South Philly bar to talk about life and literature and to celebrate the idea of the masterpiece. All are frustrated to the point of desperation. But this Bloomsday is different: one of the most celebrated younger writers in the world is expected to join them.

It’s about ambition, creation, delusion, success, failure, submission, acceptance, rejection, idiocy, anger, idealism, persistence, and the excessive consumption of exceptional beer. It’s also about walking and reading, the gestation of literary and literal offspring, and the joys and sorrows of writing with intent to publish.

*

“Forges in the smithy of its soul the uncreated conscience of the disillusioned fiction writer.”

—Lao Guardian, author of One with Nature

“Sui generis! Condenses, in an expansive way, a lifetime’s reflections on reading, writing, drinking, and being stuck in one’s head while out in the world.”

—Addison Oates, author of Death by Jacaranda

“Riffage FTW. Almost funny at times. Surprisingly loveable characters (especially that poor boy from the Great Northeast).”

—Kevin Snare, author of Shattering Windows with Rocks

“Audacity, authority, execution, oomph, and—when it comes to the bit about quitting writing—maybe even some heft.”

—Francis Gibson, author of A Birth at Home

“Undiscourageably diffuse.”

—John England, author of Restoration Road

“Not much happens until the end but it’s worth the wait.”

—Jonathan David Grooms

Genres: Fiction

244 pages, Paperback

Published June 16, 2024

About the author

Lee Klein is the author of Like It Matters, Chaotic Good, Neutral Evil ))), JRZDVLZ, The Shimmering Go-Between, Thanks and Sorry and Good Luck: Rejection Letters from the Eyeshot Outbox, and Incidents of Egotourism in the Temporary World. His translation of Horacio Castellanos Moya's Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador received a 2015 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Award and was recognized by the New Yorker's James Wood as one of four favorites of 2016. From 1999 to 2014 he edited Eyeshot.net, one of the first weird little lit sites, and in May 2007 he started using Goodreads. He lives in the Philadelphia area with his daughter and wife.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seeker of the sentence sublime, princeling of the premium paragraph, and the man who put the OG in Goodreads, Lee Klein is back with a masterly novel that captures the raptures and ruptures of being a writer and reader in this troubled half of this century. Throop Roebling (not played by Peter Cook) has libambulated twelve miles for a Bloomsday bacchanal with his brethren of the book—an alcoholic ritual of writerly mumbles, fumbles, and tumbles fuelled by severe German beers—in anticipation of the arrival of successful middlebrow writer Jonathan David Grooms. Across the course of the day, Roebling spars with writers on the cusp of quitting, those compelled by agents to sand down their exuberant masterpieces, those lamenting their MFAs (Might Find Agents), those embattled by their limited talents, and those seeking a mere whisper of indifference toward their recent unpublished manuscripts. Like It Matters is a full-bodied pleasure from beginning to end—the literary equivalent of that first golden slug of an ice-cool beverage as it soothes one’s sundown parchedness. A cascade of shimmering prose brimming with passionate pleas for the furtherment of the written word, for the continual bulking of bookish brilliance atop the tower of Babel. A novel that celebrates the throbs, the yawps, the pleasures, the kicks, the blows, and the pricks of moulding the messiness of the thing-called-life into whatever wordy shapes that tingle your literary nerves. A flurry of references, musings, and sage-like insights. A thoughtful, excoriating, painfully accurate, seriously funny, and compassionate novel of the writing life. A novel that in happier times would sit pristinely between the hardcovers of a Harcourt Brace or a Calder & Boyars. An absolute triumph to be read with a crate of Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen that will lift the spirits of the most embittered of writers. Skol!

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lee’s books tend to be excellent. I've read seven of them - greatly enjoyed the majority of them - and this is, I think, his best. Keep an eye out for it this June.

[Marc Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Video review https://youtu.be/d9fkTjija4Y

[Anna da Silva Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a blisteringly brilliant book and worth anyone’s time.

I can’t believe how well Klein writes about writing in such a deeply personal yet all-encompassing way. As a classical musician I couldn’t help but relate to the many ideas, feelings and strong opinions about the art form, warts and all. He covers everything from the religious devotion one feels to upholding a writing habit to the alarming amounts of bullshit that goes on in the industry… Several times during my experience reading this, “writing” and “composing”/“performing” became synonymous. I think many musicians and writers might even find parts of the book offensive, and that’s a great sign.

Side note: I had never seen another person walking and reading in my life and thought I must be a weirdo for doing it. How bizarre and nice it was to read about that only 30 or so pages in.

[Avner Landes · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only I could share a photo of my copy, which has dozens of post-its sticking out from it. There's no book I return to right now with greater frequency, sneaking in a couple of random pages whenever I have a few minutes and need a lift. Recently, I shared a section with a workshop I lead because we were discussing successful riffing, and when I thought to share it, I didn't even have one particular riff in mind. I simply opened the book and found, within seconds, one that was sure to entertain and make my point, which was that the writer can do anything as long as they delight the reader. Can't wait for Bloomsday 2025, so I can reread this one start to finish.

[Kristian Winther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really unbelievably good.

[Dave M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent novel, and a seriously good how-to guide book for writers at all stages; some excellent advice and thoughts on the practice. Klein is one of the best literature guides on this site - complete your karma cycle by reading and reviewing a few of his books. Personally, I loved his Egotourism novel the most, but have enjoyed all his novels, all ranked at 4-5 stars. They’re all very relatable and well done, and are funny, intelligent, and full of decency even when offering criticism of all kinds.

[Dave Fecak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Lee's books for a few years now and this one did not disappoint. The book should appeal to anyone who loves writing, writers, and the pain of trying to succeed in the literary world. The story builds over time and Lee crafted a great ending.

After reading it, I couldn't help but wonder how much of the story was true. Could be pure fiction, could be entirely true.

Highly recommended!

[Caleb Michael Sarvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a book written for me to exacerbate my nostalgia for grad school and reassure my habit of writing for the sake of writing.

it's also a well-captured glimpse or our pockets of literati, the kind that sustain us and keep this stupid religion of ours intact.

here, here

[Micaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this novel and the discourse it sparked in my household. I ended up reading a number of the passages to my boyfriend, who is in the process of writing a kind of screed novel of his own. He speaks frequently about what Klein wrote about in Like It Matters—getting published, not getting published, Music for Airports, etc. Like It Matters is highly engaging and touches not only on the current state of the literary world, but also how one may define a life well-lived. And beer! Huzzah! Well worth the read and I look forward to my boyfriend getting his own copy of the book and resuming the conversation once more.

[Nita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. At first I gave this novel side eye but it REALLY gets going and the end was extremely satisfying in the way that great books are, leaving you a little sad to have to say goodbye to your new friends. And after reading this the back cover writhes with life. Possibly his best yet.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Engrossing. Not just because it addresses all of my lifelong writerly hangups and concerns and insecurities and struggles, which it certainly does, thoroughly and wisely and generously in both senses of the word, and by means of some subtle unexpected meta tricks no less. Recheck the back cover. Which honestly would be good enough on its own.

Better yet, it also shows you how and why to transcend them, their ultimate meaninglessness and meaningfulness, with a surprising and vivid major twist that really lands the whole thing in a private profound playful and pithy way.

Bra-fucking-vo

[Jay Sandover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. I enjoy Klein's style, strongly consistent with his other recent books I've read (Chaotic Good and Neutral Evil). The consideration of writing and reading as a way of life is worth everybody's time and attention.

I wrote a review here: https://tinyurl.com/srvwk878