The Love Affairs Of Nathaniel P (2014)
272pp, Fiction
Notes
2015-03-05
As Joshua Rothman noted last year in his article A Better Way to Think About the Genre Debate this is a pure novel in the Northrop Frye “Anatomy of Criticism” sense (as opposed to a Romance, an Anatomy or a Confession, (”Novels take place in the regulated world—in “society”—and are driven by plots.” (though Nathaniel P. , in keeping with the more modern conception of the novel, is ambivalent wrt plot))). So yeah, its a good novel, it manages to be a great character study as well as making subtle points about the portrayal of men and women in novels and a whole bunch of other stuff without ever being in your face about it. Also noteworthy is the Sunday Times’ quote on the back “Captures the excitement or dating” which really is one of the most inapt things I’ve seen on the cover of a book for a long time.
Recommended.