Gotham Tragic: A Novel [Hardcover]

Kurt Wenzel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 2004

Kyle Clayton struck it big over a decade ago with his debut novel; since then he's had hardly a sober moment. Now he's fallen in love with a Turkish woman, and in order to marry her, he must convert to Islam. Erin Wyatt is a waitress at Manhattan's hottest restaurant, City.She had an affair with Kyle during his drunken decade, and while he can't remember a thing about it, she certainly does. Investment tycoon Lonny Tumin, the owner of City, is wildly rich, but-it being New York-not rich enough. Before GOTHAM TRAGIC is done, Clayton will write a story about his conversion that will result in militant Muslims declaring a fatwa against him. Erin will discover that her aunt may have written a manuscript proving the existence of God. Tumin will concoct a totally fictitious Internet company and launch a wildly successful IPO. And Syeed Salaam, the doorman at City, will decide that the fatwa against Clayton must be carried out, no matter the cost. Brilliantly plotted, GOTHAM TRAGIC is a pitch-perfect send-up of money and celebrity culture. It's not a black comedy so much as a red, white, and blue one, and the next big step forward for a writer whose gifts are as impressive as the Manhattan skyline.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wenzel's funny, acerbic second novel chronicles the bubble period of the late 1990s in New York, a time when the city was awash in money, CEOs were still masters of the universe and restaurants were the new nightclub. The star of the book is Kyle Clayton, a New York writer with a bestselling novel under his belt (he was also the hero of Wenzel's first novel, the witty Lit Life). But Clayton's literary star has fallen since his acclaimed debut, and the former playboy has married a Turkish woman and converted to Islam, something that pleases the Muslim staff of City, a swank eatery where Clayton now spends much of his time. One of the owners of the restaurant is multimillionaire Lonny Tumin, a businessman a few years past his prime (he's a virtual carbon copy of Tom Wolfe's character Charles Croker from A Man in Full). Erin Wyatt, a beautiful aspiring actress whom Clayton had a brief affair with years ago, is now a waitress at City, and she manages to catch the eye of both Clayton and Tumin. A fatwa, a bogus IPO and a manuscript rumored to prove the existence of God fuel Wenzel's clockwork plot. Satirizing Manhattan while also providing an inside glimpse of some of its most powerful players, this sprawling, ambitious novel is mostly entertaining and smartly written, despite an occasional smugness and Wenzel's juvenile wordplay (for instance, a young Asian woman is named Wey Tu Yong). A too-quick resolution, along with some improbable plot twists-not to mention a saccharine happy ending at odds with the tone of the rest of the story-aren't enough to spoil the fun promised by this irrepressible and highly entertaining novel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Wenzel's earlier work, Lit Life (2001), introduced us to writer Kyle Clayton, talented Gen-X writer whose literary success and alcoholic excess left him with a mean career hangover. This novel introduces us to the new Clayton, who has become a Muslim for his wife but cashed in on his conversion to further his career--writing a story that, Rushdie-style, brings him both fame and fatwa. Swirling around Clayton and his enemies is the heady cocktail of conspicuous consumption that was New York just before the bubble burst and the Towers collapsed. Wenzel's absorbing, perceptive tale floats some tough theological questions ("Why can't Islam laugh at itself?"), but his true emphasis is the setting, and he hits all the defining themes of the day--multiculturalism, millennialism, corporate greed, and so on--while foreshadowing, with little subtlety, New York's impending tragedy. It's an exhilarating mix, skillfully presented. But beneath the cultural debris of 1999 persists the very same fascination with the publishing industry that filled his first book. Whence literary fame? Apparently, the answer is to be timely. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (February 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316094005
• ISBN-13: 978-0316094009
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,577,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Far from "Tragic", April 28, 2004

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gotham Tragic: A Novel (Hardcover)

Kurt Wenzel avoids the sophomore slump in "Gotham Tragic," the oddly-titled follow-up to the witty "Lit Life." This time around, Wenzel dabbles in more than just the perils of being a writer, putting out questions about religion, culture and ethics, without bogging down the book itself.

It's New York in 1999. Kyle Clayton was one of those incisive 80s authors who wrote hit cynical novels. Since then, life has been one boozy debauched streak. Now he has married an exotic Turkish woman, Ayla, and at her urging has converted to Islam (which seems to be the one part of her life where she follows tradition). Her family (best described as Mid-East hillbillies) is uncomfortable with him, and her dad HATES him. And his marriage to Ayla would be even more endangered if she knew he was planning to get a mistress.

Around this same time, Kyle's latest short story comes out: a thinly-veiled retelling of his problems with Ayla's family, and his doubts about Islam. The story is a huge hit, but (a la Salman Rushdie) now militant Muslims are mad at him. Now Kyle is faced with a rapidly deteriorating marriage, a bigoted multimillionaire with some dirty secrets in his closet, and a devout doorman who has declared a fatwa against him (IE, he's going to hunt Kyle down and kill him). That is, if Kyle's father-in-law doesn't kill him first.

"Gotham Tragic" is the jaded New Yorker novel with a millennial twist, with plenty of humor and attitude. Not to mention weird plot twists -- there's a waittress whose aunt has supposedly written a book proving the existance of God. But Wenzel keeps a tight grip on his plot, and it never quite runs away from him. Some readers may be a little offput by the upbeat ending, but it doesn't come out of nowhere.

Wenzel's humor just avoids being silly at times (a Chinese teenager is called "Wey Tu Yung"). But it's to Wenzel's credit that he manages to do what Kyle set out to do. He tackles philosophical and religious questions and paradoxes -- and not just for Islam either, but also relating to Judaism and Christianity. In America at this time, that's especially hard to do in a novel without treading on some toes, but he manages to do it.

Kyle grows up quite a bit over the course of "Gotham Tragic," usually in painful ways. His wife Ayla could use a bit more fleshing out, like the smart waitress/aspiring actress Erin. Don't be worried about stereotyped Muslims here -- there are Muslim characters of all types and stripes, open-minded or... well, like Ayla's dad.

"Gotham Tragic" lightly walks the tightrope between satire and serious novel, only tripping occasionally over itself. Funny and witty novel, one of the most engaging ones of 2004 thus far.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars funny and true, April 6, 2004

By 

"alexanderbanding" (Portland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gotham Tragic: A Novel (Hardcover)

Wenzel will have a long career if he keeps writing with as many sharp and hilarious edges as he does in his second New York comedy (after Lit Life, which was also fantastic.) Highly recommended.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He'll Take Manhattan, February 21, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Gotham Tragic: A Novel (Hardcover)

I loved Lit Life so much I bought an early galley off Ebay. Not disappointed. It's more ambitious, while still retaining Wenzel's sense of humor and sharp eye. If Tom Wolfe lived in downtown Manhattan, this is what Bonfire would have been like. Slam bang entertainment with a relevant Islamic theme.