Benjamin Kunkel has become somewhat of a literary sensation after his debut novel Indecision and the positive reviews (in intellectual circles, at least) of his culture magazine n+1.
I just read Indecision and loved it and I highly recommend it to the 18-40 age demographic. It’s a modern novel, set in 2003 in New York. Besides the brilliant writing, which vibrates with simply perfect metaphors and nuggets of observation about life which you only find in novels such as these, Kunkel integrates deep political undertones of which I probably only understand a fraction.
The protagonist, Dwight, epitomizes the kind of post-college male narcissist / depressed / rebel type. His voice is distinctive and I found myself rooting for him to figure his life out and, of course, overcome the decision making paralysis that he thinks is crippling his life (hence the title of the book).
From the shaggy author photo and oddly brief author bio on the book jacket, it’s clear Kunkel doesn’t want to be pigeonholed. The rumor is he wants to leave the stuffy New York literary circles and move back home to Colorado to write more books. I’ll certainly be on the lookout for more Benjamin Kunkel writing.
Hunger is the best sauce. Francis.