Customer Reviews

The Last Days of Publishing

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When a book is more than a good read, it becomes necessary to share it. Engelhardt draws us into a world both devastating and fascinating. Following his lead character through his episodes, I laughed, I held my breath, I kept learning more. This is a world about which very little appears in fiction. I recommend this book for its originality and authenticity, and also because it's a wonderful journey.

What's been happening in book publishing these last 20 or 30 years is most discouraging. As an antidote, I recommend Tom Engelhardt's vivid, lively novel, which helps us see those depressing developments from the inside. He does it, though, with humor and flair--no preachiness here. Reading it, you'll encounter a fascinating gallery of New York City character types. The scene at the Museum of Natural History is unforgettable in its look at cultural-sexual office politics. The whole book is sardonic fun, and a fast, compelling read. I read the entire thing on a Transatlantic flight.

It isn't often that you find a novel as intelligent, original and humorous as it is powerfully poignant. Somehow, though, Engelhardt has written just such a book. The Last Days of Publishing is a crisp and compelling read. In fact, don't be surprised if the story of Rick Koppes, Engelhardt's tragic-hero narrator (and, perhaps the last man of integrity in the increasingly soulless world of publishing) captivates you to the point of reading the novel in one sitting. Yes, it is simply that good.

Is it a commentary on post-sixties America or some tough love for the publishing biz? Or a bit of both? Lets call it a page-turner with a soul and maybe the best little novel to come around in a good long while.

This book is a novel written at a time when the book publishing industry was in one of its continuing crisies. It is a novel where the message comes through the discussions and feelings of the anti-hero. His time, and his way of life are ending with the advance of technology and he hasn't/isn't/can't change with it. Everything that has happened in industry in general and publishing in particular has happened to this guy, corporate buyout, downsizing. I particularily like the point of his ex-wife becomming his boss -- that would be enough to drive anyone to severe depression.

With a long history in the publishing industry, Mr. Engelhardt knows the industry of which he writes. He has written a novel that explains better than a dry technical article possibly could about the characters that populate the New York publishing scene. I'd recommend it to anyone in the publishing industry, and to any prospective author that might get a better insight into the world he wants to submit his manuscript.

Of course, the industry has changed, but it hasn't ended. More new books were published last year than any year before. New technologies from print-on-demand to marketing through Amazon have come about and changed the industry.

This sweet gem of a book sets an ambitious goal of elucidating the means by which editors and publishing houses make the invisible decisions that put books in the hands of the reading public. As the title implies, this is a world on the precipice of several calamities: the growth of multimedia corporations that have plundered small publishing houses, as well as ensured the passing of independent book stores. Even more chilling are the emergent technologies that threaten the very idea of what we have come to think of as a book.If a book is not printed paper between two covers, what will it be, and who will write it and produce it? Will writers still be important to fostering provocative thought, or will other technologies eclipse them?

As a reader I want to read imaginative work of refinement and craft, not simply the dross that feeds the entertainment industry of movie, videogame, and retail spin offs that the megalith corporations want to develop. As diversity in the field shrinks to a few major players who control all aspects of our media, will society be well served? The Last Days of Publishing asks us to reflect on all these troubling notions and paints a rather grim landscape of the future terrain.

The tone of this book is sharp, witty and amusing. Rick Koppes, a veteran editor who knows his way around the New York Publishing scene, uses his instincts to stay one step ahead of the opportunistic underlings, and ambitious sharks circling his desk. He offers a tantalizing portrait of what great purpose there can and should be in the role of the editor.

Our beleaguered hero has brought his art to such a high luster, that alas, when it comes to love, he is more editor than scribe. He is dazzled and bemused by the women in his life, but clearly, not in charge of the plot.He is so appreciative of their splendor, so earnest about wanting to be supportive and nurturing to them, he is nearly emasculated."If I were a book", his ex laments, "You would have loved me!" When he finally picks up his pen and risks the act of creation, he finally gains an active part in his own narrative.

Who knows books better than an editor who has been in the trenches for years? He cannot change an entire industry, but can still be a voice of outrage, dissent and courage. This is a cautionary tale of an extremely likable charcter, from an extremely likable writer. The insider oeuvre is sometimes too smooth and glib for its own good; like an inside joke that can't be appreciated by all. But overall, the intelligence and smartness of the writing is sparkling and fresh enough to catch and hold even the most incognizant outsider.

The publishing industry confounds us: through mysterious, unseen, processes it populates our bookstore shelves with works ranging from the profound to the utterly inane. It draws to itself the most idealistic and the crassest among us. And it is a world under pressure--it has always been a financially risky business. Word is that Gutenberg died bankrupt and penniless. Changing technologies and the general coporate move to conglomeration have added other uncertainties. Certainly this is a world ripe with novelistic possibilities.

And yet...The Last Days of Publishing skims lightly over these many tantalizing issues, leaving us instead with a thin gruel of solipsistic nostalgia. The characters are so vague, so unfleshed and unsympathetic, that the reader can only wonder where that nostalgia comes from. They seem to have landed in publishing for lack of any imagination. The plot moves from being choppy and confusing in the early vignettes to increasingly improbable, all with affected air of self-important inevitability. In the end we're left with a book that fails as a novel and as a source of reflection of the vagaries and important cultural and economic issues to be found in the world of publishing. Alas! Read something else!

Although the main character isn't very likable, I enjoyed the inside view of a changing industry. As an author myself, of NEW PSALMS FOR NEW MOMS: A KEEPSAKE JOURNAL (Judson Press), I have some firsthand knowledge of publishing and just how difficult it is for a new voice to be heard. My worst fears of how capriciously some publishing decisions are made were confirmed! But there will always be those of us who have things we must say, and the readers who appreciate hearing them.

Besides being a bit short for a novel, The Last Days of Publishing seems to be missing so many things that could have made for an interesting and readable novel. I have to agree with one of the other reviews, few of the characters are well developed and they seem to come and go, often with minimal explanation. The plot is also weak and presented in out of chronological order, which makes for anticlimactic reading. Much of the information about publishing could easily be gleaned in various magazines and better written books, such as Betsy Lerner's "The Forest for the Trees" as well as the nostalgia for the 60's, like many of Tim O'Brien's novels, especially "July, July" (which isn't even his best novel). Aside from a clever cover, I can't recommend this book.