In 20 Under 40, Rivka Galchen's story is "The Entire Northern Side Was Covered with Fire," about a pregnant novelist who is so self-absorbed that a letter from a reader in prison that suggests to her an idea for a story about the Tunguska Incident of 1908 gives us the title. An upcoming movie meeting about her first and only novel is all she thinks about, while her brother and friend try to interest her in the I-hate-my-wife-dot-blog-dot-com posted on the Web by her recently departed ex-husband. The protagonist of Galchen's debut novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, is equally mad but far more sympathetic, I think. The book reminds me of Thomas Pyncheon's Crying of Lot 49, in its combination of absurdism and wisdom, and the demands it places on the reader.
The protagonist of Galchen's debut novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, is equally mad but far more sympathetic, I think. The book reminds me of Thomas Pyncheon's Crying of Lot 49, in its combination of absurdism and wisdom, and the demands it places on the reader.