UEL English PEN Society Book Reviews

Michael Chabon never fails to keep me turning a page. I admit to having a particular soft spot for this novel due to the fact its main protagonist is a writer who is battling with his work much as I am.

Grady Tripp is a professor at a university in Pittsburgh who once had a roaringly successful novel and has, ever since, been working on a book called Wonder Boys. It has been seven years, and still he writes, seemingly without end. This book takes place on the weekend he is supposed to be allowing his editor to see the finished product, but somewhat predictably, it isn't done yet. At the same time, Tripp is also tying to deal with a home life on the brink of collapse as yet another wife leaves him and the woman he has been having an affair with declares she is pregnant.

If ever I need to remember why I love writing, I come back to this book. In it very little actually happens, but the characters become people you'd really quite like to drive around Pittsburgh with for a couple of days. When they say something funny (which is fairly often), I laugh, and when they are on the brink of an important decision, I hold my breath. Sometimes I wonder what they would be doing now, outside the confines of the pages.

My old paperback is a battered mess with a broken spine and pages folded over in the top corner. Somehow I feel that's the highest praise that can be given to a book, right?

Rachael Spencer, guest blogger

Note from the society; Rachael very kindly offered to help us out with some reviews when lost a member from the team at the last minute of the readathon, so thank you SO MUCH, Rachael, for being a friend of UEL PEN. Rachael also happens to be taking over Unbound, our creative writing anthology publication here at UEL, this coming semester. Look out for some amazing work from her and her team here; UEL Unbound