The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual

by Alan Rifkin

“A delectable tour de force through our fractured culture—witty, wise, memorable, and touching.”—Richard Bausch

A reporter’s cherished past collides with his mentally ill millennial son’s anguished attempt to claim his own season in the sun in this striking new novel about the rapids of the 21st century.

Richard Leviton is an aging romantic, twice divorced, with visions of literary grandeur. Beginning in the 1980s, a golden age of magazines and a period of unmatched freedom in Los Angeles, and continuing through the convulsions of the 2010s, Leviton faces a harrowing crucible of circumstances—romantic chaos, home loss, cultural transition—all while attempting to anchor his son Philip's precarious security. Meanwhile Philip, coming of age, intermittently homeless, and yearning to retrofit his existence into a generation he believes had it all, begs to experience his father’s LA, the essence of which he’s convinced lives embodied in Leviton’s eternally youthful longtime editor Bailey Kavanagh—perhaps the only woman to ever love Richard Leviton.

Both prequel and sequel to the author’s Signal Hill, which Kirkus Reviews called “what might have happened had Nathanael West lived on and been even more talented,” the linked episodes comprise one bittersweet, sometimes funny, deliciously messy journey through a personal past so seductive the protagonists nearly stay there, until they can’t.

227 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 29, 2024

Reviews

[Tree · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a well written novel, honest and heartfelt, featuring the character Richard Leviton, who throughout the book looks back on his past while dealing with the chaos of his present. Homeless, divorced, the father of three children including his oldest son who struggles with schizophrenia, this is at times a deeply sad story.
The depiction of mental illness as well as the struggle to find care and a home for the son is very real and written so skillfully so that all of the characters have dignity and thankfully don’t drown in pathos. Throughout the novel the character Richard finds meaning in everyday moments that provide him the ability to keep moving forward.
Ultimately, the book is a meditation on how we navigate life, especially the complex and difficult times, while finding human connection and meaning along the way

[Fara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alan Rifkin's book " the drift that follows will be gradual" was so absorbing that once I started, I stayed up until I finished. Every paragraph was so well constructed, a writer writing about a writer! Mr. Rifkin's work is about Richard Leviton, a writer, making a living but never reaching the pinicle in his field but living the best of the 80's through the early aughts in Los Angeles, the happening city and maybe also the middlepinnings of the city, not the elusive but not too much of the dark. The locations and times were so familiar to this reviewer. Through this the happiness and the angst the loves and the marriages the failures, but always just making it. Meanwhile, Richard's son Steven suffers from a mental illness but worships his father's early life in a picture of the times that both see as perhaps better than the reality. For any Angeleno who lived through this era the story is especially riveting.
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Alan Rifkin's book "The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual" was so captivating that I couldn't put it down until I had finished it. Each paragraph was masterfully crafted—a writer writing about another writer! Mr. Rifkin's work delves into the life of Richard Leviton, a writer striving to make a living but never quite reaching the pinnacle of his field. Set against the backdrop of Los Angeles from the 1980s through the early 2000s, it captures both the vibrancy and the undercurrents of the city—not too elusive, nor excessively dark. The locations and times felt incredibly familiar to me.

The narrative navigates through happiness and angst, love and marriages, and the constant struggle to get by. Meanwhile, Richard's son Steven, who suffers from a mental illness, idolizes his father's early life, seeing it as a better picture than the reality.

For any Angeleno who lived through this era, the story is particularly engaging.

[Nancy L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was deeply moved by Alan Rifkin's book about a writer,Richard Leviton, navigating life in LA. Over the course of his life, he has many experiences that are shaped and nuanced by the times that our Country and culture was going through from 1985 to pre-Covid 2019.

The book has two constants and journeys in Richard Leviton's life; his friendship with his editor, Bailey and his son Philip who suffers from psychosis and schizophrenia. All the other characters are facets in the diamond of Richard's life.
I recommend this book to be read as it was written, in non sequential chapters, and to take time with each section especially for readers who are younger than Gen X. That way one can understand the feeling of the culture at the time, and the perspective that was prevalent during those times. It may seem disjointed to read it this way, but it will come together well in the end.

I found Rifkin's sentences are gorgeous and breathtaking in their descriptions; one will come out of nowhere having you grab your pencil to mark it so you can revisit it later! Truly, he is a master with word pictures.

I look forward to reading this again about mid 2025.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very good!
It's about a loving father whose going through ups & Downs with his children and ex-wife's.
I love how he becomes very close to his eldest son who has some mental problems.
this book would be a great Book Club read.