Customer Reviews

Blind Submission: A Novel

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This novel shared my nightstand with two well-reviewed novels, namely Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know and The Sister by Poppy Adams. I read the first 30-ish pages of all three books, and then figured I'd continue with the one that hooked my interest.

That'd be "Blind Submission."

This book has mistakenly been labeled a mystery. Not so; our protagonist works at a highly successful literary agency where every unsolicited submission is read carefully by two people. These two prepare and compare notes on these manuscripts before passing judgment. Further, this agency made and continues to make its fortune by carefully culling the ideas sent in by beginning writers.

So clearly "Blind Submission" is science fiction!

Issues of believability aside, Debra Ginsberg has concocted a very entertaining tale. I especially enjoyed the invented snippets of novels and memoirs that came in the agency's slush pile. I hate to call this book an "entertaining lark," but there it is. Nice work, and I look forward to Ginsberg's next book, The Grift.

Sidelight: As most of this novel takes place inside the agency's offices, halfway through it, I was starting to feel the story was a bit confined and stifling. At that moment I came across the line, "It occurs to me that my novel might be...a little claustrophobic." Eerie!

Angel is an avid reader, working in a bookstore that is going out of business. Her boyfriend, an aspiring novelist, encourages her to apply for a job at a small but prestigious publishing company.

Right from the beginning when Angel gets the job, there is a strange vibe in the office. The boss is absolutely horrible, terrorizing her employees, rewriting history and reality to suit herself.

Angel immediately stands out as a star in the office, working well with authors, rescuing promising manuscripts from the trash and even seeming to earn a bit of respect from her dictator boss.

Because of the stress level of her job, though, Angel's relationship with her boyfriend suffers. She is unhappy and withdrawn, and feels she might be going crazy when an anonymous manuscript seems to be telling the story of her life.

The concept of this book is promising, but I found it disappointing. The characters are one-dimensional and I thought it was glaringly obvious who the anonymous author was. The nastiness of Angel's boss was terribly cliche and the book's romance seemed far too convenient.

The writing is good - that much cannot be denied. But, the plot is identical to that of The Devil Wears Prada. The only difference? This is set in a publishing company and not a fashion company. A unique plot would have made the book stronger.

BLIND SUBMISSION begs to be described as a hybrid: chick lit meets satire meets metafiction. If you have read THE NANNY DIARIES or THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, both of which are referred to within this book as "bite-the-boss" fiction, then you know this territory. Naive, educated young woman willingly gets sucked into a low-paying slavish job in the viperish world at the top with the chief viper being a female boss. In this version, the world is a literary agency and the part that will go to Meryl Streep or Glenn Close if a movie version is made, is the owner-agent who never sleeps, Lucy (darn that sounds an awful lot like Lucifer, doesn't it?).

The satire part gets quite the work out at the beginning: Lucy has built her empire on the discovery of an unknown Inuit writer whose memoir catapults to the top of the hardcover bestseller list for something like 2 years. That and there are other jokes at the expense of books like FREAKNOMICS and bestseller trends. The chick lit part is the first person narration by Angel, the naif daughter of a 60's hippie who swims with the bizarre aspects of the job until the metafictional part kicks in. One of the books being submitted to the agency chapter by chapter anonymously begins to seem awfully familiar, as familiar as what she ate for dinner last night.

The book is a page-turner and the very last pages are a hoot. That said, I'm not sure it succeeds in satirizing chick lit because there are stretches when it just moves along in that mode rather unironically. There are moments you just want to give the narrator a dope slap. I am also not convinced that the outcome is intentionally or unintentionally absurd. There are only about 2 moral touchstone type of characters and they don't get much play time.

"Blind Submission" a novel (2006) written by Debra Ginsberg is one of three fiction books to her credit. Ms. Ginsberg was born in England in 1962 but settled with her family in the United States in the 1970's. Having waited tables in her father's restaurant gave rise to Ms. Ginsberg first book, a memoir entitled "The True Confessions of a Waitress "published in 2000. The success of her first work lead to two additional memoirs; the last memoir completed in 2008 and a novel, "The Neighbors are Watching" published in 2010. Debra Ginsberg has worked for several literary agencies and enjoys a secondary career as a book editor and reviewer.

The novel "Blind Submission" is of the literary fiction genre and a psychological drama. The composition is written in the first person by the main protagonist. Character dialog is interlaced with the narration and is directly attributable to the person speaking. The prose is not complex and highly readable; conversations are natural and the dialog should generally be acceptable to a wide audience. The writing style has a unique feature that incorporates a "book within a book" used to develop the plot.

The novel is about the high powered literary publishing business, written no doubt using some of the author's firsthand knowledge of its workings. The main characters are "Angel Robinson", an ambitious young woman who by her own admission loves reading but cannot write and Lucy Fiamma a highly successful, wealthy, and severely egotistical literary agent who believes that "[S]uccess isn't about being liked, it's about being tough". The story winds a tale of mystery and intrigues that begins with Angel responding to an employment advertisement for the prestigious Lucy Fiamma Literary Agency. After accepting the job, we find Angel immersed in a comical office environment composed of a cast of peculiar characters, not the least of which is the agency's namesake Lucy Fiamma. As the plot develops, Angel witlessly encourages a manuscript entitled "Blind Submission" that has been anonymously sent to the agency - the story line of the submission mysteriously mimics the operations and characters of the real agency causing a rising fear in Angel that the author seems much too knowledgeable about her and actual events.

This novel was quite likeable. The plot was well developed and the characters were interesting; at times comical and altogether peculiar which gave the composition energy. The mystery part of the plot was well crafted and drew the reader into following the tale to its conclusion. The novel was not a complex work, but was light and highly readable - fun; it should make for good weekend entertainment.

I recommend this novel and rate it "pleasurable-not memorable".

In the book, Blind Submission, I had to catch my breath as I have worked for a boss with the same "night & day" personality. One moment the boss was up the next minute she had so many things on her to-do list, that I too wondered if she ever slept. This was the case of Lucy, the owner of the book agency. A new employee, Angel, had to keep pace with Lucy on every front including reading blind submissions that were sent in for review. An anonymous author, would send in chapters of the book that correlated with Angel's life as well as the happenings at the agency! Strange coincidence, right? Who was the mystery writer? Very well written and I had a smile on my face the whole time as I knew the inner thinking of Angel throughout the book.

Blind Submission was a very cleaver book in my opinion. What impressed me most was that the author, Debra Ginsberg, gave herself the difficult task of not only writing a novel, but writing a novel within a novel. On top of that, she even wrote e-mails and cover letters and query letters to boot, as part of her novel, and all writers know that a single query letter alone is a daunting task.
The story takes place within a literary agency, and the truth is that it is the reason I chose to purchase the book. It gave an enlightening look into the literary world, and as a writer myself I enjoyed being in that world during the story.
I did know halfway through the book who the mystery author was, but it didn't matter. I liked the concept of the book. What it showed was that Angel, the main character, was able to get through even the nastiest of jobs in order to find her "true calling." I think everyone needs to go through some almost unbelievable things in life in order to figure out what it is they really want.
I also love reading fiction that is well...fictional. If I wanted real life I would read a nonfiction book. I pick up fiction, because I want to read unbelievably nasty characters. I want to read things that wouldn't exactly happen the way I am reading it. I like to see where a writers imagination can and will go.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I especially appreciated that Debra Ginsberg added the "Book News Weekly" pages at the end to show where the characters careers ended up.
I believe this author is worth reading. I see that there is another book ready to read by Debra Ginsberg called "The Grift," and I will be sure to read this book of hers as well.

From the very first chapter, when the author was describing her love of books, I was hooked on this one! I could have written that chapter! This book kept me entertained and guessing throughout the whole book! The ending was great! After reading it I wondered why I never became an editor and went into the publishing business! Or wrote a book! Have a blast reading this book, you won't regret it! I can't wait for this author's next book, I love her style of writing!

If you are a book lover, you will definitely enjoy this book. Though it is a novel about an literay agency, it is still something that all book fans will enjoy. Angel's old job disappears when her friend and owner of the popular bookstore closed its door, so her boyfriend, Malcom, suggested that she applied for a job at this popular literay agency in town. Angel applied and got the job (naturally) and found herself in the biggest chaos of her life.

Among the many submissions that land on her desk, Angel found a manuscript that eerily resembled her life and her job at the agency. Determined to get to the bottom of the "mystery," Angel also found herself questioning everyone in her life.

This is a cute read ... fast and fun and perfect for those dreary winter afternoons or for the summer afternoons at the beach. It provides details what life is like in an agent's office as well as providing juicy tidbits of life in the publishing world. Even though it is predictable and the ending falls a bit flat, it provides great entertainment for those who love to read.

2/18/10

Angel Montgomery, an insatiable reader, has landed a job in what is arguably the most successful literary agency on the West Coast. She can hardly believe that she is working for the famous Lucy Fiamma Literary Agency or that she answers the phone almost every day with the chance of finding one of her favorite authors on the other end of the line. But, while she is thrilled to discover her natural ability to transform promising manuscripts into potential best sellers, she is shocked that Lucy Fiamma expects her to work around the clock to earn her pitiful salary. Her dream job has quickly become the job from hell. What does she do now?

She sticks it out - because reading has been the only constant in her life for as long as she can remember. She explains: "...reading was only part of the thrill that a book represented. I got a dizzy pleasure from the weight and feel of a new book in my hand, a sensual delight from the smell and crispness of the pages. I loved the smoothness and bright colors of their jackets. For me, a stacked, unread pyramid of books was one of the sexiest architectural designs there was. Because what I loved most about books was their promise, the anticipation of what lay between the covers, waiting to be found." How could anyone who feels that way quit this particular job?

Despite a failing romantic relationship, deteriorating health and lack of anything resembling a personal life, Angel continues to work the agency's blind submission stack in search of the agency's next big thing. She learns how to survive the bizarre list of demands Lucy drops on her the first thing every morning and to tolerate the rest of the office staff. And, in the process, she is turning into a very fine literary assistant.

Crazy as the job already is, everything is kicked up a notch when Angel begins working on an anonymously written manuscript about a West Coast literary agency and the people who work there. Despite the mystery of the blind submission's origin, Angel is impressed enough with it to bring it to Lucy's attention and is soon working with the mysterious writer, via email, to turn the pages into a novel the agency can sell. She recognizes from the start that the manuscript describes an agency eerily similar to hers, but Angel begins to panic when later chapters begin to reveal intimate secrets about her own work life and personal relationships. The details are so personal, she realizes, that the anonymous author has to be someone close to her. But why would someone so close want to disgrace and discredit her?

"Blind Submission" is a satirical look at the "sausage making" part of the publishing world book lovers find fascinating but seldom see for themselves. The book's setting is what initially appealed to me but I also found it to be a satisfying mystery that kept me guessing until near the end of Ginsberg's story. "Blind Submission" successfully crosses several genre lines, in fact, and other readers will undoubtedly enjoy its romance/chick lit aspects most. There seems to be something here for just about every kind of reader.