Somehow I became curious about the author Teddy Wayne. The name – Teddy Wayne – has something. He is born in 1979 and has written five novels. I was oblivious of his existence until he was features on the Otherppl podcast, which I allow myself to indulge in intermittently.
The book is set in the mid-90’s and is the story of two friends who share an apartment in New York. I was interested to see how the topic of male friendship was handled, and how a contemporary book would describe the 90’s (during which decade I also shared an apartment with other people in New York). The two guys meet in grad school for an MFA in writing at Columbia. The narrator grew up in New York and has his own place and the other guy moved in from the Midwest. They’re from different parts of the country, different social bracket, different political viewpoints – but they find each other. There is a vague homoerotic subtext which is a bit weird. Later they have a falling out and the main character goes full “man of no importance”, like something out of Turgenev…
A lot of namedropping is employed to set the scene of the 90’s. I can’t really judge the adroitness of these drops, as I was a child at the time. Among the names checked are Mary Gaitskill, Denis Johnson, David Foster Wallace, Rick Moody. Appointment TV viewing with Thursday nights of Seinfeld and Friends is mentioned. I liked the book.
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Kinship of all Species 