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Famous Men: A Novel
From the acclaimed author of Marlena comes a “magnificent” (The New York Times) novel about a young woman looking for a father and finding herself.
“Superb, incendiary . . . Each sentence is diamond cut. . . . Famous Men pleases and provokes from every vantage point, but what is especially remarkable is Buntin’s audacity, her gutsy choices, and her clarity.”—The Boston Globe
A MOST ANTICIPATED The New York Times, USA Today, The New Yorker, Marie Claire, Lit Hub, The Millions, Our Culture
The right book at the right time can change your life.
Will Miles is trapped. Trapped in tiny Greening, Michigan, where a toxic high school rumor has turned her into a social exile. Trapped in the predictable routines of her mother, and under the unrelenting gaze of her mother’s increasingly sinister boyfriend. But when Will stumbles across the early poems of Nathaniel Fellow, a famous writer forty years her senior who also grew up in Greening, she feels she’s found a kindred spirit. A passing comment from her mother only adds to Will’s Is Nathaniel the father she’s never known?
Will orchestrates a plan to track Nathaniel down, following in his footsteps to New York City, where she learns he’s not the answer to her past, not the way she imagined. But their meeting sparks a complicated, consuming relationship that gives Will sidelong access to a world she’s only ever of writers and intellectuals, a financial safety net, and, most intoxicatingly, a glimpse into her own potential. But who is Nathaniel Fellow, off the page? And what will shaping her life to suit his cost her? When a torrent of information about his past threatens not just her life with Nathaniel, but the story she tells herself about him, Will is faced with a choice that will change everything.
A gripping novel about ambition, parents and children, and all the ways women still pay for men’s mistakes, Famous Men traces one woman’s journey to the truth of where she comes from, what she’s capable of, and how she might start again.
“Superb, incendiary . . . Each sentence is diamond cut. . . . Famous Men pleases and provokes from every vantage point, but what is especially remarkable is Buntin’s audacity, her gutsy choices, and her clarity.”—The Boston Globe
A MOST ANTICIPATED The New York Times, USA Today, The New Yorker, Marie Claire, Lit Hub, The Millions, Our Culture
The right book at the right time can change your life.
Will Miles is trapped. Trapped in tiny Greening, Michigan, where a toxic high school rumor has turned her into a social exile. Trapped in the predictable routines of her mother, and under the unrelenting gaze of her mother’s increasingly sinister boyfriend. But when Will stumbles across the early poems of Nathaniel Fellow, a famous writer forty years her senior who also grew up in Greening, she feels she’s found a kindred spirit. A passing comment from her mother only adds to Will’s Is Nathaniel the father she’s never known?
Will orchestrates a plan to track Nathaniel down, following in his footsteps to New York City, where she learns he’s not the answer to her past, not the way she imagined. But their meeting sparks a complicated, consuming relationship that gives Will sidelong access to a world she’s only ever of writers and intellectuals, a financial safety net, and, most intoxicatingly, a glimpse into her own potential. But who is Nathaniel Fellow, off the page? And what will shaping her life to suit his cost her? When a torrent of information about his past threatens not just her life with Nathaniel, but the story she tells herself about him, Will is faced with a choice that will change everything.
A gripping novel about ambition, parents and children, and all the ways women still pay for men’s mistakes, Famous Men traces one woman’s journey to the truth of where she comes from, what she’s capable of, and how she might start again.
Audible Audio
First published July 14, 2026
About the author
Julie Buntin
5 books571 followersJulie Buntin's new novel, Famous Men, is forthcoming from Random House in July. She's also the author of Marlena (Holt, 2017) - a finalist for the NBCC John Leonard Prize - and the co-editor of Notes to New Mothers, a collection of dispatches from postpartum life by sixty writers and artists. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, and the New York Times, among other publications, and has been supported by the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the New York Community Trust. Formerly an editor and director of writing programs at Catapult, she’s an assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Columbia University, Marymount Manhattan College, and the Yale Writer's Workshop.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 178 reviews
July 18, 2026
two of the scariest words in the english language
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
(review to come)
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
(review to come)
August 10, 2026
I was open, is what I’m trying to say. I was bored. I was a teenage girl from a small town, desperate for something to happen to me.
I read this book because I liked Buntin's Marlena, even though the premise of Famous Men felt extremely familiar. How many books have I read about this same thing— a young woman getting caught up in a relationship with an older man and the ensuing power imbalance? Yet, the more I read, the more I felt like Buntin had done something different here.
The writing, for one thing, is very strong and readable. It is easy to get caught up in this book, to think "just one more chapter". Will is telling her story in the past tense, casting back a rueful eye over her youth, foreshadowing the fallout with red flags that seem to be glaring with the benefit of hindsight. The more mature lens adds a tinge of irony or bitterness to the past events.
It's a great novel because the reader can experience both sides of it— frustration at Will, and understanding. I experienced a visceral desire to scream at the page when she justifies:
Nathaniel and I were different. Like everything special and rare, we couldn’t quite be described. Getting the good parts of him meant getting the bad, too.
But, at the same time, it magnificently captures how someone with few prospects and no support network can ignore all the warning signs and lead themselves right into the shark's mouth. Nathaniel opens doors to Will that would have remained shut to her otherwise. She deliberately seeks him out; puts herself in positions where she knows their paths will cross. Is it possible for someone to be not just a victim, but savvy also? To give themselves willingly to a predator in a trade-off that they understand?
I liked this complexity. It is not about blaming Will, or victims in general, but understanding all the dynamics at play. After reading so many books about gullible women being manipulated, it was extremely interesting to explore a character like Will. She is young and vulnerable, but she is not stupid. She understands what Nathaniel is asking for from the very start. Her own insistent denial of her victimhood will eventually come back to haunt her.
A fantastic character-driven work. The span of the novel— and the perspective of the older, wiser Will —add poignancy and suspense, but there is also something deeply sad about how much of her life this relationship and its aftermath have consumed.
July 24, 2026
Incredible. A sticky examination of gender and power, this book about a poet who goes in search of her father and ends up in the thrall of a great man will live in my brain forever. The writing veers from sparse to lovely, elegiac to haunting. The plot builds and when you reach the inevitable points you sigh, not because they're predictable, but because the horror of the situation is one of a culture we're all immersed in and understand in our bones.
Lovely writing, beautiful sentences, complicated and loopy and barbed. I loved this.
Lovely writing, beautiful sentences, complicated and loopy and barbed. I loved this.
April 9, 2026
ADVANCE REVIEW COPY: EXPECTED RELEASE 14 JULY 2026
Wilhelmina (Will for short) grew up in a single parent home in the tiny town of Greening, Michigan. Her mom was (and still is) the cafeteria chief at a boarding school there. During Will’s early adolescent years, she becomes enthralled with the poetry of Nathaniel Fellow, himself a Greening product and now a famous, award-winning author. Her mother mentions an encounter with Nathaniel when she was young, a passing comment that leads Will to ponder whether he’s the father she never knew.
Will goes a little adrift in her teenage and community college years, but when she gets accepted to a small college in New York City, she sees a chance to connect with Nathaniel. He teaches at a major university nearby, and through a little quiet networking, she makes her way into his poetry workshop. Eventually she makes an impression on Nathaniel and becomes his assistant…and maybe more.
It might be best to summarize what happens next with a focus on Will’s two main desires: to become a poet / author / artist, and to discover whether Nathaniel is really her father. The pursuit of both leads her down some icky but meaningful and thoughtful paths. From the outside, you might judge her life as her friends do: what is she doing with this guy? Why is she languishing in a crummy job without health insurance, accepting pay in the form of his credit card, living in his apartment or a sublet studio in the West Village? It’s easy to feel for her, stubbornly in search of something to give her life substance.
See, Will’s early life involves not just the mystery of her father’s identity. She was also shamed in her early high school years for having allegedly engaged in loose activity with a boy at a barn party. She spent those years getting ridiculed and even abused by kids for that fateful night. It hurt her maybe even more than she leads on in her first-person wonderings. Thus, the novel is essentially a journey through Will’s search for an identity.
The central setting for this journey isn’t just New York; it’s Nathaniel’s poetry workshop. Buntin tells us in her Acknowledgements (yes, I almost always read them) that workshopping was an inspiration for her. Thus, Will’s side-door entry into the group of poets and writers is where she grows as an artist, a friend, even a lover. It’s not just the mechanics of writing, however: it’s emotional, tense, even nasty at times. But it’s tight-knit and serious for the participants.
A big side-theme here is the #metoo movement. As Will ages and gets increasingly involved with Nathaniel, other famous men are exposed for their abuses and even crimes. He might be one of them, which makes her relationship with him even more complicated. Go ahead and say you saw it coming with his borderline creepy behavior midway through the novel, but consider Will’s fragile ego. Would we really have expected her to storm out and join the protest line? No, and credit to Buntin for making this situation opaque and gray. Yes, she’s clearly disgusted by the activities of the #metoo men out there, but Will seems in-between, caught between what’s right and what she wants for herself (which itself is murky and ever-changing).
Now, a novel of self-discovery can’t be expected to be a page-turning thriller. The literary setting begets a work of literary consideration. So, the action is slow, deliberate, and heady. Four hundred pages is quite a bit, and all that thinking and flashbacking takes time. Just know what you’re getting into here: it’s meant to be savored and considered.
The writing is crisp and the character development exquisite and expertly done. Buntin has written a strong work of literature involving a very interesting protagonist in a unique situation.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. Famous Men will be released July 14, 2026.
Wilhelmina (Will for short) grew up in a single parent home in the tiny town of Greening, Michigan. Her mom was (and still is) the cafeteria chief at a boarding school there. During Will’s early adolescent years, she becomes enthralled with the poetry of Nathaniel Fellow, himself a Greening product and now a famous, award-winning author. Her mother mentions an encounter with Nathaniel when she was young, a passing comment that leads Will to ponder whether he’s the father she never knew.
Will goes a little adrift in her teenage and community college years, but when she gets accepted to a small college in New York City, she sees a chance to connect with Nathaniel. He teaches at a major university nearby, and through a little quiet networking, she makes her way into his poetry workshop. Eventually she makes an impression on Nathaniel and becomes his assistant…and maybe more.
It might be best to summarize what happens next with a focus on Will’s two main desires: to become a poet / author / artist, and to discover whether Nathaniel is really her father. The pursuit of both leads her down some icky but meaningful and thoughtful paths. From the outside, you might judge her life as her friends do: what is she doing with this guy? Why is she languishing in a crummy job without health insurance, accepting pay in the form of his credit card, living in his apartment or a sublet studio in the West Village? It’s easy to feel for her, stubbornly in search of something to give her life substance.
See, Will’s early life involves not just the mystery of her father’s identity. She was also shamed in her early high school years for having allegedly engaged in loose activity with a boy at a barn party. She spent those years getting ridiculed and even abused by kids for that fateful night. It hurt her maybe even more than she leads on in her first-person wonderings. Thus, the novel is essentially a journey through Will’s search for an identity.
The central setting for this journey isn’t just New York; it’s Nathaniel’s poetry workshop. Buntin tells us in her Acknowledgements (yes, I almost always read them) that workshopping was an inspiration for her. Thus, Will’s side-door entry into the group of poets and writers is where she grows as an artist, a friend, even a lover. It’s not just the mechanics of writing, however: it’s emotional, tense, even nasty at times. But it’s tight-knit and serious for the participants.
A big side-theme here is the #metoo movement. As Will ages and gets increasingly involved with Nathaniel, other famous men are exposed for their abuses and even crimes. He might be one of them, which makes her relationship with him even more complicated. Go ahead and say you saw it coming with his borderline creepy behavior midway through the novel, but consider Will’s fragile ego. Would we really have expected her to storm out and join the protest line? No, and credit to Buntin for making this situation opaque and gray. Yes, she’s clearly disgusted by the activities of the #metoo men out there, but Will seems in-between, caught between what’s right and what she wants for herself (which itself is murky and ever-changing).
Now, a novel of self-discovery can’t be expected to be a page-turning thriller. The literary setting begets a work of literary consideration. So, the action is slow, deliberate, and heady. Four hundred pages is quite a bit, and all that thinking and flashbacking takes time. Just know what you’re getting into here: it’s meant to be savored and considered.
The writing is crisp and the character development exquisite and expertly done. Buntin has written a strong work of literature involving a very interesting protagonist in a unique situation.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. Famous Men will be released July 14, 2026.
July 30, 2026
Famous Men cemented, for me, that Julie Buntin is an author to follow.
A young woman named Will (Wilhelmina) moves to New York with aspirations of becoming a writer—and, underneath that layer, of connecting with a poet whom she believes may be her father.
Though he is not, once she is involved with this individual, the relationship they build is complex, mirrored by the equally tricky writing. Buntin slowly pulls you down with Will, until you can see her choices as if they are your own.
I was deeply impressed by the nuance woven throughout the novel. You can understand Will, even while being frustrated with her. Nothing is black or white, everything and everyone a wash of gray. I’d recommend it to anyone—and plan on doing just that.
A young woman named Will (Wilhelmina) moves to New York with aspirations of becoming a writer—and, underneath that layer, of connecting with a poet whom she believes may be her father.
Though he is not, once she is involved with this individual, the relationship they build is complex, mirrored by the equally tricky writing. Buntin slowly pulls you down with Will, until you can see her choices as if they are your own.
I was deeply impressed by the nuance woven throughout the novel. You can understand Will, even while being frustrated with her. Nothing is black or white, everything and everyone a wash of gray. I’d recommend it to anyone—and plan on doing just that.
June 30, 2026
I am begging more midwestern women to write novels, because this was everything to me. Julie Buntin wrote her absolute head off in this novel, and I was glued to every single page.
Will, the daughter of a single mother, becomes convinced that her real father is Nathaniel Fellows, a writer who “made it” from her tiny northern Michigan town. She molds her life around getting to be in his company, poring over his work, and moving to New York City to be in his company. When she finally meets him, their connection inflates to something completely separate.
Famous Men so perfectly highlights the grey areas and nuance of life. Between life and fiction. Between privilege and talent. Between conscious choice and a forced hand. Wilhelmina is a character that endears and frustrates and I was absolutely riveted by her.
*thank you to the publisher for the advanced reader copy.
Will, the daughter of a single mother, becomes convinced that her real father is Nathaniel Fellows, a writer who “made it” from her tiny northern Michigan town. She molds her life around getting to be in his company, poring over his work, and moving to New York City to be in his company. When she finally meets him, their connection inflates to something completely separate.
Famous Men so perfectly highlights the grey areas and nuance of life. Between life and fiction. Between privilege and talent. Between conscious choice and a forced hand. Wilhelmina is a character that endears and frustrates and I was absolutely riveted by her.
*thank you to the publisher for the advanced reader copy.
February 20, 2026
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. I get what this book was attempting to do but it really missed to mark for me. Nothing really happens in this book and it’s a lot of random events that hold no significance to the main plot in my opinion. The point the author was trying to make about me too was clear but that doesn’t mean this was entertaining or engaging to read. I honestly found myself very bored with everything happening and this book didn’t say anything new or interesting about the me too movement. It started out with so much promise but I honestly should have just dnfed this.
July 28, 2026
Wow. One of my favorite books of the year hands-down. Julie Buntin is so intentional with her language without sacrificing pacing or plot. Every word feels carefully chosen, making it the type of book that makes you a better writer. Now I'm very nostalgic for the Interlochen Writing House!
July 26, 2026
I started out really loving this book. Following the story of a young girl from a small town who thinks a famous writer could potentially be her father was interesting. I loved seeing the ways she was using reading and writing to cope with her difficult situation. When she moves to New York City, meets the writer, learns that he isn’t her father, then becomes involved with him, my enjoyment of the book started to wane. It just felt so repetitive. That was probably intentional from the author to show how the character was stuck and not moving forward in her life. But it became frustrating to read about for such a long time.
The book is engaging in fascinating conversations about art, powerful men, the ways young women are taken advantage of, why they might protect the powerful men, and how they can try to fight back. But ultimately I feel like this type of story has been better explored in other books.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
The book is engaging in fascinating conversations about art, powerful men, the ways young women are taken advantage of, why they might protect the powerful men, and how they can try to fight back. But ultimately I feel like this type of story has been better explored in other books.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
August 11, 2026
Book of the year!!!!!!!! I kinda don’t want to read another #MeToo book again bc this book just does everything you could ever want to understand those sorts of dynamics. Phenomenal writing - I couldn’t put this down! I have sort of been in a reading slump so it was thrilling to get swept away by this book. Cannot recommend enough.
August 4, 2026
I was engrossed in this novel from the very beginning. I love stories that are set in the world of academia and I also love stories about writers. This story lives in both worlds, but brings so much more to it as a whole. The characters are well developed and as a reader, I felt connected to them. The book poses moral and ethical questions, which naturally makes one pause and reflect upon. At the same time, I believe, it shows how things are not always black and white and that every person’s experience with others, can, and often is, different from another’s. This is a book I will be rereading sometime in the future and I want to read Julie Buntin’s other work now as well.
July 6, 2026
I read this book much slower than usual because it was stressing me out so bad, and I do mean that as a compliment. It felt like a very real story, like this could be a friend opening up and sharing her past with me: no great conclusion, just a life to continue living in a (hopefully) better direction. I really enjoyed the writing, the way Nathaniel is allowed to be pathetic and yet understandably powerful when it comes to his students. Having Wilhelmina be a young women who thinks she knows the deal she's making with this older man, who thinks she understands exactly what she's giving and what she's taking, only to grow older and see the bigger picture... I really felt for her as a character, even when she was being very passive or making bad decisions. I don't think this book will be for everyone, but I enjoyed it.
Also SPOILER I would've gotten an abortion so fast it'd make ya head spin
I received this ebook for free via Netgalley. This review is my honest opinion. Famous Men releases on July 14th, 2026.
Also SPOILER I would've gotten an abortion so fast it'd make ya head spin
I received this ebook for free via Netgalley. This review is my honest opinion. Famous Men releases on July 14th, 2026.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2026
I've been a fan of Julie Buntin's since she was publishing essays in Explosion Proof. Her first novel, Marlena, is one of my favorite novels of the century. But she outdoes herself in Famous Men, one of the most ambitious and satisfying novels about the real cost of making art that I've ever read. This novel takes its reader seriously. It is completely unafraid, drifting into thorny moral territory to pose provocative questions that readers are asked to consider for themselves. It's also written with sterling stylistic precision and is genuinely moving. I think it's a true artistic achievement, and a book that I feel lucky to have read.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
LOVED Marlena. It’s THE book that got me back into reading six years ago. This feels like it was written by someone totally different. There’s hardly any prose or emotion or life/events. It was a 400 pg slog, juice not worth the squeeze àt áll. Even though the summary sounded perfectly for me.
Even when it’s not in second or third person it seems as distant/bloodless as some new fourth person narrative. The MC and all the “girls” are about 25 in NYC but act as helpless and passive as spoiled 15y/os. The girl moves there because she’s from the same Michigan town as a writer, Nathaniel, she’s fan of and suspects could be her real father, teaching there. Her mom is so flighty about this, which makes more sense àt the end but still less than I anticipated.
So she pretty immediately realizes he’s not her father and he invites her to be his assistant. It takes like 150 pages for them to hook up so it’s not like he jumped on her. She’s always claiming she’s down for casual relationships/sex but it seems like every single female character is secretly embittered by it. So this seems way less à book about SA and more about how girls need to demand better and announce their intentions, that the desire for more emotional intimacy and respect is not weak, just because serious relationships have become unfashionable.
Yeah, it’s so shallow and gross he’s an old player, but why play along for YEARS. It’s not like they ever said they loved each other, it’s all so transactional to FWB/blurry sugar baby-y. Which fine either way, but this is the worst character to make any point with. It would’ve been waaay more impactful or interesting if we followed the girl he seemed to treat the worst, honking her breasts like a joke. (Other books have already covered the ground of least hurt girl/defender better, like Putney or My Dark Vanessa) Not the one he just brushed her knee àt à reading and somehow that was like heroin? When he’s not even in town half the time, or the most affectionate thing they do together is watch TV over takeout.
He’s 62-70 in the book, persnickety, not good-looking, that nice or that clean. So what’s the draw?? His money, connections? He’s popular but not thaaat famous and most of the time what he writes sounds basic and narrow. Is it like the sunken cost of her wishing he /was/ her dad so she can stop looking for one, so she’s mad he’s not?
Misdirected hate for her real unheard of father and creepy stepfather who’s the one who deserves the actual backlash for taking underage pictures of her?? I know the point of the book is messiness, how there are no perfect victims or perpetrators, but it comes off so meek, meandering, inane.
From their first interaction and almost ever since, she admits her voice sounds mad and whiny, so why persue him? She constantly hears other graduate students can’t stand how pretentious he is, how they drop out over not putting up with his celeb-like lunch requests or some vague fling. Her boring friends are always like, Are you sure you wanna be close to him? So there are constant warnings, no real goals.
She’s like a ghost, no personality, floating through life. It’s like giving áll the million humdrum specifics of say, her rumored “pepperoni nipples” and course credits that do or don’t transfer, weigh her down. Putting scraps on a paper doll, trying to make her real but missing any heart. (Also for a big fan of poetry, she never noticed how punctuation has to do with pausing breath until his workshop?)
Book gets better once they hook up, but it’s abrupt. She comes prob just from taboo of how she used to think he could be her father—but it’s not even disected that interestingly taboo or forbidden. Nothing changes between them. It’s just glossed over how they hook up a couple times, then he says someone complained about her so she can’t go to his workshops? I assumed he was lying or it’s someone jealous she’s the assistant on scholarship, plus ignorant to be in the exclusive setting.
That’s not even a real problem though she starts having panic attacks and he arranges her à free apartment after she conveniently faints like a soap opera heroine (I did like how that was poked fun at). And it was funny how she gradually spends more on his credit card like silent literal payback for him not being more interested or mentory, yet he does relentlessly edit her book until it’s a hit way down the road. Frankly, it ironically showed some integrity, him rejecting her from magazines til she was ready.
She seems to know the whole time he’s a manwhore or lots of girls are as upset as her but she hopes she’ll be the exception. Even she admits she’s so passive. She says she sets out to change it, but how? By getting a MacBook? She’s as vapid and plain as a new England art ho or the Michigan bores she wants to transcend.
The most stand out scenes are when she’s getting pushback from Lily about how she thinks she’s so special or the friendly one. From the start, she deletes his emails from other students. Like she later kinda wishes she could do when other female alums band together like a decade later to call him out for being sleazy, using his class like speed dating/Tindr.
Tension and connections get better àt the end but the point about MeToo was floundering, the daddy issue analysis mostly abandoned early on so feels incomplete. It was okay but not enough to use the MC’s book within this book to explain the framing. I guess the final pages were bittersweet. More could’ve happened with the other father figures in her life. I will give this author more chances, I just really wish this was half the size with more intensity, maybe a first person POV, focus on the personal more than some grander movement or statement. This review wouldve been more articulate if my last two didn’t get deleted.
Even when it’s not in second or third person it seems as distant/bloodless as some new fourth person narrative. The MC and all the “girls” are about 25 in NYC but act as helpless and passive as spoiled 15y/os. The girl moves there because she’s from the same Michigan town as a writer, Nathaniel, she’s fan of and suspects could be her real father, teaching there. Her mom is so flighty about this, which makes more sense àt the end but still less than I anticipated.
So she pretty immediately realizes he’s not her father and he invites her to be his assistant. It takes like 150 pages for them to hook up so it’s not like he jumped on her. She’s always claiming she’s down for casual relationships/sex but it seems like every single female character is secretly embittered by it. So this seems way less à book about SA and more about how girls need to demand better and announce their intentions, that the desire for more emotional intimacy and respect is not weak, just because serious relationships have become unfashionable.
Yeah, it’s so shallow and gross he’s an old player, but why play along for YEARS. It’s not like they ever said they loved each other, it’s all so transactional to FWB/blurry sugar baby-y. Which fine either way, but this is the worst character to make any point with. It would’ve been waaay more impactful or interesting if we followed the girl he seemed to treat the worst, honking her breasts like a joke. (Other books have already covered the ground of least hurt girl/defender better, like Putney or My Dark Vanessa) Not the one he just brushed her knee àt à reading and somehow that was like heroin? When he’s not even in town half the time, or the most affectionate thing they do together is watch TV over takeout.
He’s 62-70 in the book, persnickety, not good-looking, that nice or that clean. So what’s the draw?? His money, connections? He’s popular but not thaaat famous and most of the time what he writes sounds basic and narrow. Is it like the sunken cost of her wishing he /was/ her dad so she can stop looking for one, so she’s mad he’s not?
Misdirected hate for her real unheard of father and creepy stepfather who’s the one who deserves the actual backlash for taking underage pictures of her?? I know the point of the book is messiness, how there are no perfect victims or perpetrators, but it comes off so meek, meandering, inane.
From their first interaction and almost ever since, she admits her voice sounds mad and whiny, so why persue him? She constantly hears other graduate students can’t stand how pretentious he is, how they drop out over not putting up with his celeb-like lunch requests or some vague fling. Her boring friends are always like, Are you sure you wanna be close to him? So there are constant warnings, no real goals.
She’s like a ghost, no personality, floating through life. It’s like giving áll the million humdrum specifics of say, her rumored “pepperoni nipples” and course credits that do or don’t transfer, weigh her down. Putting scraps on a paper doll, trying to make her real but missing any heart. (Also for a big fan of poetry, she never noticed how punctuation has to do with pausing breath until his workshop?)
Book gets better once they hook up, but it’s abrupt. She comes prob just from taboo of how she used to think he could be her father—but it’s not even disected that interestingly taboo or forbidden. Nothing changes between them. It’s just glossed over how they hook up a couple times, then he says someone complained about her so she can’t go to his workshops? I assumed he was lying or it’s someone jealous she’s the assistant on scholarship, plus ignorant to be in the exclusive setting.
That’s not even a real problem though she starts having panic attacks and he arranges her à free apartment after she conveniently faints like a soap opera heroine (I did like how that was poked fun at). And it was funny how she gradually spends more on his credit card like silent literal payback for him not being more interested or mentory, yet he does relentlessly edit her book until it’s a hit way down the road. Frankly, it ironically showed some integrity, him rejecting her from magazines til she was ready.
She seems to know the whole time he’s a manwhore or lots of girls are as upset as her but she hopes she’ll be the exception. Even she admits she’s so passive. She says she sets out to change it, but how? By getting a MacBook? She’s as vapid and plain as a new England art ho or the Michigan bores she wants to transcend.
The most stand out scenes are when she’s getting pushback from Lily about how she thinks she’s so special or the friendly one. From the start, she deletes his emails from other students. Like she later kinda wishes she could do when other female alums band together like a decade later to call him out for being sleazy, using his class like speed dating/Tindr.
Tension and connections get better àt the end but the point about MeToo was floundering, the daddy issue analysis mostly abandoned early on so feels incomplete. It was okay but not enough to use the MC’s book within this book to explain the framing. I guess the final pages were bittersweet. More could’ve happened with the other father figures in her life. I will give this author more chances, I just really wish this was half the size with more intensity, maybe a first person POV, focus on the personal more than some grander movement or statement. This review wouldve been more articulate if my last two didn’t get deleted.
August 23, 2026
Famous Men is a familiar story yet its well-known premise didn’t detract from my reading experience.
Will is a high schooler who feels stifled in her small Michigan town and is exiled, socially, due to a rumor. She feels alive reading the work of Nathaniel Fellow, an older renowned writer who is also from her small town. She can’t help but wonder if he may be her father too. Will organizes a plan to study in NYC and meet him. This sets off a long, complicated, and questionable relationship over several years.
I felt for Will in her search for answers but was also disappointed by several of her decisions. This isn’t a short book but I read it quickly, very engaged in the story, even when a few elements began to feel repetitive.
Famous Men is a coming of age story with themes of family, friendship, power, perception and identity.
Will is a high schooler who feels stifled in her small Michigan town and is exiled, socially, due to a rumor. She feels alive reading the work of Nathaniel Fellow, an older renowned writer who is also from her small town. She can’t help but wonder if he may be her father too. Will organizes a plan to study in NYC and meet him. This sets off a long, complicated, and questionable relationship over several years.
I felt for Will in her search for answers but was also disappointed by several of her decisions. This isn’t a short book but I read it quickly, very engaged in the story, even when a few elements began to feel repetitive.
Famous Men is a coming of age story with themes of family, friendship, power, perception and identity.
August 3, 2026
Extremely disappointed by this one. I loved Marlena, Buntin’s debut novel, but I would be curious to see how it holds up if I reread it now. It’s obvious my reading tastes have changed over the years, so maybe this is something I would’ve enjoyed 6 years ago but not at the current moment.
It honestly started out pretty slow, but once I got around to the groove of the story, everything just kind of fell flat. The writing felt pretty repetitive to me. Lists of things that went on and on and actions being repeated over and over that eventually added no value to the story. I also felt that things ended up being pretty predictable in the writing of the story and found a lot of clichés that I was hoping wouldn't be present in this book.
The New York setting became soooo boring after a while. I can 100% appreciate what New York City has to offer, but did not understand the appeal at all through this book. Maybe that was the point? That Will was making it out to be this fantasyland whereas the reality was excruciatingly painful? Either way, I hated being in that setting for the majority of this book. And when we weren't in New York, we were in Michigan which I felt was not fleshed out enough. I guess since New York was the main setting this is where most of the time and energy was spent, but the descriptions of Michigan in Marlena felt so much more vivid and real compared to what I found here.
I hated Will. Now that's not why I'm rating this so low. I honestly love an unlikable narrator, but Will just felt so lifeless and was just plain annoying. There were no other characters that I was rooting for and if I'm reading from an unlikable narrator, there has to be something complex and interesting enough that is driving them and pulling me into the story which is not at all what I felt here.
By the end, I feel like the book just became a complete cliché. Again, maybe Buntin wrote this to be all of the things that I had problems with. But I guess that's the beauty of reading sometimes. Some people are going to read this and fall in love with Will's story, with the version of New York that is being depicted, and with the way that Buntin chose to write this book. But unfortunately, that was not my experience.
It honestly started out pretty slow, but once I got around to the groove of the story, everything just kind of fell flat. The writing felt pretty repetitive to me. Lists of things that went on and on and actions being repeated over and over that eventually added no value to the story. I also felt that things ended up being pretty predictable in the writing of the story and found a lot of clichés that I was hoping wouldn't be present in this book.
The New York setting became soooo boring after a while. I can 100% appreciate what New York City has to offer, but did not understand the appeal at all through this book. Maybe that was the point? That Will was making it out to be this fantasyland whereas the reality was excruciatingly painful? Either way, I hated being in that setting for the majority of this book. And when we weren't in New York, we were in Michigan which I felt was not fleshed out enough. I guess since New York was the main setting this is where most of the time and energy was spent, but the descriptions of Michigan in Marlena felt so much more vivid and real compared to what I found here.
I hated Will. Now that's not why I'm rating this so low. I honestly love an unlikable narrator, but Will just felt so lifeless and was just plain annoying. There were no other characters that I was rooting for and if I'm reading from an unlikable narrator, there has to be something complex and interesting enough that is driving them and pulling me into the story which is not at all what I felt here.
By the end, I feel like the book just became a complete cliché. Again, maybe Buntin wrote this to be all of the things that I had problems with. But I guess that's the beauty of reading sometimes. Some people are going to read this and fall in love with Will's story, with the version of New York that is being depicted, and with the way that Buntin chose to write this book. But unfortunately, that was not my experience.
August 16, 2026
My favorite novel of the year so far. The writing was exquisite and the characters were perfectly fleshed-out. A simple story made complex in this author’s capable hands. I felt so firmly cemented in our main character’s POV that I was as surprised as she was when obvious things came to pass. She had me. I took my time and loved every page.
July 14, 2026
We've read this story before, so there were not really any "gasp out loud" moments for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed the writing on this.
Even though I knew exactly where this was going most of the time, and the ending was not surprising, I found myself not being able to put this one down.
Thank you to Hogarth and the author for providing a free copy of this book through NetGalley.
Even though I knew exactly where this was going most of the time, and the ending was not surprising, I found myself not being able to put this one down.
Thank you to Hogarth and the author for providing a free copy of this book through NetGalley.
August 14, 2026
Oh my goodness so many highlights. She’s a beautiful writer. I liked this book slightly less than her first novel, but it was still a five star read for me. I always like books about writers. This main character was frustrating for me in her choices and actions, but I enjoyed all the characters nonetheless.
It seems like she took a long time to write this novel, and I’m curious about the timing, because it feels like if this book had come out 5-7 years ago at the height of the metoo movement it would’ve been part of that moment. And maybe like me Julia didn’t realize that was in fact just going to be a moment. If a famous man did the type of things described in this book now, would it even be recognized, much less have repercussions?
It seems like she took a long time to write this novel, and I’m curious about the timing, because it feels like if this book had come out 5-7 years ago at the height of the metoo movement it would’ve been part of that moment. And maybe like me Julia didn’t realize that was in fact just going to be a moment. If a famous man did the type of things described in this book now, would it even be recognized, much less have repercussions?
August 16, 2026
Not tons to say here… the writing is really good, and the character is interesting and flawed in the right ways so that she feels real and sympathetic. I got a little bored halfway through and found myself skimming in places, but I’m not sure exactly why. It could have been a timing thing, or maybe I felt I’d read similar themed novels elsewhere. Still, I do think it’s worth reading if you’re interested; I just doubt I’ll remember much about it.
July 21, 2026
LOVED…just a lil slow in the middle, but the prose is *chef’s kiss*
August 1, 2026
Another excellent novel by Julie Buntin. Every character is frustrating and expertly written. The story of an older male author and a younger female student has been told innumerable times, but Buntin complicates each part of this trope in really compelling ways. I hope men, especially men working in academia, read this.
August 2, 2026
Julie Buntin the woman you are. Well worth the wait after Marlena. My favorite writer!!!!!
July 22, 2026
One of the best books I’ve read this year, in that I was captivated despite not being overly interested in the subject matter.
The story charts a young woman’s path through a high school slut shaming and ostracism in a small town, and her move to NY where she wants to… find her father? Become a writer? Both?
She has a typical nyc experience, a “pretty girl in a city of pretty girls”, and seeks to make it, or make herself, or find herself, or find her father, or her father standin.
Has she slept her way to the top? Is she en ingenue? A cliche? Does she take the only path offered to her as a girl without means in a world where she is constantly sought after and used by men but offered no real help outside of a transactional exchange?
It’s a Bildungsroman and I hate those, and it’s a me too book to some extent, and it’s about class and art and opportunity and, of course, being writing and NYC, it’s about hypocrisy bc what isn’t.
But it manages to be fresh and the writing is sharp and lovely. I’m sure at some point I’ll read a criticism of the book and have to rethink it but that’s because I expect it to be very popular and to drive some conversation.
Need a book club pick? Here you go.
The story charts a young woman’s path through a high school slut shaming and ostracism in a small town, and her move to NY where she wants to… find her father? Become a writer? Both?
She has a typical nyc experience, a “pretty girl in a city of pretty girls”, and seeks to make it, or make herself, or find herself, or find her father, or her father standin.
Has she slept her way to the top? Is she en ingenue? A cliche? Does she take the only path offered to her as a girl without means in a world where she is constantly sought after and used by men but offered no real help outside of a transactional exchange?
It’s a Bildungsroman and I hate those, and it’s a me too book to some extent, and it’s about class and art and opportunity and, of course, being writing and NYC, it’s about hypocrisy bc what isn’t.
But it manages to be fresh and the writing is sharp and lovely. I’m sure at some point I’ll read a criticism of the book and have to rethink it but that’s because I expect it to be very popular and to drive some conversation.
Need a book club pick? Here you go.
May 4, 2026
Famous Men is the story of Wilhelmina a small town girl raised by her single mother. After a traumatic incident in high school, she finds solace in the words of a poet named Nathaniel Fellow. The mystery deepens when Wil discovers that her mother actually met the poet one night in her early twenties. Desperate to uncover the identity of her father, Wil begins to suspect that Fellow might be the man she’s been looking for, which draws her into his orbit.
She finds her life intertwined with Nathaniel’s and they enter into a complex relationship. The reader grows with Wil as she works towards finding her voice and comes to terms with the traumas that shaped her.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
The Verdict:
Rating: ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Buy/Borrow/Skip- Buy, the writing is so compelling and the author explores difficult topics with a deft hand.
Read if you like: Coming of age stories with complex power dynamics and one’s search for identity
She finds her life intertwined with Nathaniel’s and they enter into a complex relationship. The reader grows with Wil as she works towards finding her voice and comes to terms with the traumas that shaped her.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
The Verdict:
Rating: ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Buy/Borrow/Skip- Buy, the writing is so compelling and the author explores difficult topics with a deft hand.
Read if you like: Coming of age stories with complex power dynamics and one’s search for identity
August 15, 2026
So compelling and complicated. I had no idea what was going to happen.
July 22, 2026
#FAMOUSMEN by #juliebuntin is about how men can just be successful while successful women often come with a cautionary tale. To fourteen-year-old Wilhelmina Miles, local legend Nathaniel Fellow was more than a renowned literary figure; he could be Will’s biological father! This notion, plus the overwhelming desire to become a poet, propels Will out of Greening, Iowa, to New York City, where Will finagles her way into Nathaniel’s office and then, into his whole life. This novel reflects upon the bargain you make “without knowing how you’re paying”; it’s about getting everything you’ve ever wanted and then taking a hard look at how you achieved it. Absolutely nothing derailed Will, but what does that mean for all those who will come after?
When Will left home she was really leaving her mother, who never started the novel of her life. It was very important that she succeed. In order to learn how to write, though, she needed to find a way into Nathaniel’s poetry workshop. She does so, but not as a student. Will often reflects on the decisions she makes during this critical time, during her first year in the city. When she has a medical emergency, the only person available to her was Nathaniel. When Nathaniel sees Will’s abysmal living conditions, he immediately moves her in with him. Will suddenly has the father figure she’s been searching for all her life. Were things happening to her, or was she making them happen? Would you not take the only path available to you if it meant you could reach your goal?
The years go by, and the context of one’s life changes again and again. Will is intimately intertwined with Nathaniel, assisting in his career while she writes her own novel. The women start to come forward by now, the ones who came and went and wanted to be writers as well. Those around Will begin to wonder about her association with Nathaniel, which causes a reluctant Will to reconsider the story she’s been telling of her own life. I liked how #FAMOUSMEN goes off book in how it examines complicity in a relationship. There is what you know and don’t know, but what about “what you don’t want to know”? This one had so much to mull over; I’m glad I made time for it!
When Will left home she was really leaving her mother, who never started the novel of her life. It was very important that she succeed. In order to learn how to write, though, she needed to find a way into Nathaniel’s poetry workshop. She does so, but not as a student. Will often reflects on the decisions she makes during this critical time, during her first year in the city. When she has a medical emergency, the only person available to her was Nathaniel. When Nathaniel sees Will’s abysmal living conditions, he immediately moves her in with him. Will suddenly has the father figure she’s been searching for all her life. Were things happening to her, or was she making them happen? Would you not take the only path available to you if it meant you could reach your goal?
The years go by, and the context of one’s life changes again and again. Will is intimately intertwined with Nathaniel, assisting in his career while she writes her own novel. The women start to come forward by now, the ones who came and went and wanted to be writers as well. Those around Will begin to wonder about her association with Nathaniel, which causes a reluctant Will to reconsider the story she’s been telling of her own life. I liked how #FAMOUSMEN goes off book in how it examines complicity in a relationship. There is what you know and don’t know, but what about “what you don’t want to know”? This one had so much to mull over; I’m glad I made time for it!
April 24, 2026
I received an advanced reader copy from NetGalley.
I was really drawn to the premise of this book. As a Midwest girl who at time felt trapped in her small town before eventually leaving, I think it’s easy to latch on to an idea of what could be out there. I think following the path of someone who could be her father is a great beginning to a chaotic adventure. Once I started reading the book I really appreciated how gripping the story was. I think Wills relationship with her mother was very real. I often blamed my mother for things I did not fully understand at a similar time in my life. Watching will work her way through things at times was a bit difficult, but I think that added to what this book was exploring. I am in a different side of the art world, but it has the exact same dynamic, so I found it to be an honest reflection of what it’s like to be a woman in the art world. A very thought provoking read!
I was really drawn to the premise of this book. As a Midwest girl who at time felt trapped in her small town before eventually leaving, I think it’s easy to latch on to an idea of what could be out there. I think following the path of someone who could be her father is a great beginning to a chaotic adventure. Once I started reading the book I really appreciated how gripping the story was. I think Wills relationship with her mother was very real. I often blamed my mother for things I did not fully understand at a similar time in my life. Watching will work her way through things at times was a bit difficult, but I think that added to what this book was exploring. I am in a different side of the art world, but it has the exact same dynamic, so I found it to be an honest reflection of what it’s like to be a woman in the art world. A very thought provoking read!
August 9, 2026
might call it the book of the year already
July 29, 2026
The long wait for a follow up to Julie Buntin's Marlena is finally over, and Famous Men solidifies Buntin's talent as a writer.
In the years following #MeToo, there have been a lot of fictionalized accounts of young women being manipulated and abused by powerful men. Famous Men is the first such novel I've read that is as complex, questioning, and honest as these accounts should be. Wilhelmina Miles is an unforgettable character, someone who is at once ambitious and passive, and her carefully told origin story makes the rest of her young adulthood unfold in a satisfying yet heartbreaking way.
Famous Men aspires to much more than showing how a terrible man can ruin a young woman's life. It plants the seeds of future possibility while acknowledging the undeniable influence these men have, for better and worse.
Julie Buntin is such a smart, compassionate writer. Great work like this takes time, and I will happily wait another 10 years or so for her next novel.
In the years following #MeToo, there have been a lot of fictionalized accounts of young women being manipulated and abused by powerful men. Famous Men is the first such novel I've read that is as complex, questioning, and honest as these accounts should be. Wilhelmina Miles is an unforgettable character, someone who is at once ambitious and passive, and her carefully told origin story makes the rest of her young adulthood unfold in a satisfying yet heartbreaking way.
Famous Men aspires to much more than showing how a terrible man can ruin a young woman's life. It plants the seeds of future possibility while acknowledging the undeniable influence these men have, for better and worse.
Julie Buntin is such a smart, compassionate writer. Great work like this takes time, and I will happily wait another 10 years or so for her next novel.
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