Martin Bauman: or, A Sure Thing [Paperback]

David Leavitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2001

David Leavitt’s deliciously sharp novel is a multilayered dissection of literary and sexual mores in the get-ahead eighties, when outrageous success lay seductively within reach of any young writer ambitious enough to grab it. Martin Bauman — nineteen, talented, and insecure — is enrolled at a prestigious college and wins a place under the tutelage of the legendary Stanley Flint, a man who makes or breaks careers with the flick of a weary hand. An irresistibly entertaining epic, erotic, honest, and funny, Martin Bauman “draws one character so masterfully that this character will stick in the reader’s mind as strongly as Magwitch or Harry Lime” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The literary life is given a sound drubbing in this comedy of egos and coming-of-age tale by Leavitt (The Page Turner; While England Sleeps) set in the 1980s of Reaganomics and the dawn of AIDS. Always "ready to pounce on a sure thing," as a classmate describes him, ambitious, gay Martin Bauman, part calculating and part ingenuous, decides in college that he will be a successful novelist and sets out with considerable luck and adroitness to achieve his goal in the New York literary world. Along the way, he meets up with a veritable catalogue of young urban literary types, most notably Liza, a self-centered young novelist who can't decide if she's gay or straight, and Liza's wealthy, dilettantish best friend, Eli, another writer and Martin's primary love interest. The vagaries of Martin's personal relationships, however, are fairly commonplace, much less entertaining than his turbulent professional ascent. Readers hip to the New York book biz will be tickled throughout by Leavitt's thinly veiled satiric references to various literary institutions. In his unnamed eastern urban college, Martin studies under Stanley Flint, a writer, editor and teacher whose eccentricities, power and drive make him a ringer for famed maverick editor Gordon Lish. While still an undergraduate, Martin is lucky enough to publish a story in an unnamed prestigious weekly magazine, probably the New Yorker. After graduation, Martin works for a venerable independent publisher whose adherence to intellectual standards in the face of financial troubles should be easy for readers to identify. Packed with gossipy detail and yet curiously detached in tone, the novel seems part sociological excavation, part intellectual soap opera. Though Martin inflicts at least as much damage as he suffers himself, he is an appealing antihero, inhabiting as he does a world where, as Leavitt eloquently and searingly demonstrates, there is no such thing as a "sure thing." 10-city author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Leavitt's latest is a fictionalized memoir of a young writer's coming of age. While family plays a part, this is a more or less chronological recounting of the protagonist's coming east to attend a prestigious university, studying under the legendary editor Stanley Flint, moving to New York, and accepting his sexuality and early forays into dating and securing a lover. In part, the book reads like an old-fashioned roman ? clef, and fun can admittedly be had figuring out who is whom. In Martin, Leavitt creates a character whose literary talent and ambitions are not necessarily at odds with but certainly outstrip his ability to create a life that is either personally, sexually, or romantically fulfilling. Martin's social fumblingsApresented with characteristic deftness and honestyAare often poignant and funny, and Leavitt's portrait of a time and place are masterly. Nevertheless, the overall effect is surprisingly cool and distant. For this readerAan admitted fan of Leavitt's fictionAthe decision to present this material as a novel is squarely unsatisfying. Granted that the line between fiction and memoir is less clear now than ever before, one still wishes that Leavitt had thrown aside the pretense of fiction and presented us with a work as creatively conceived and emotionally intense as Martin Amis's Experience. Until then, one should stick to Leavitt's novels, where life enters art more obliquely.
-ABrian Kenney, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618154515
• ISBN-13: 978-0618154517
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,292,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the Surest Thing Yet, August 22, 2000

By 

Joe English (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Martin Bauman: or, A Sure Thing (Hardcover)

David Leavitt writes with a kind of honesty that is both bracing and luminous. His characters are so vividly and accurately drawn that their loves, desires, and aches are palpable. Behind and around these lives, he weaves a fabric of the near past, his New York (and surrounding) settings carefully depicted, and lends an uncanny familiarity to the places his characters inhabit. While the various plots hinge on, or at least draw from, aspiring writer Martin Bauman's interaction with the (not so) uber-professor and editor Stanley Flint, there is much else to experience here. The compassion with which the author delivers Martin's coming out (both to himself and to his friends and family), the confusion and fear of isolation that shadow him in these pages, ring painfully true and add an inexorable weight to his thoughts and actions. Leavitt's handling of the publishing world of the 1980s is deft: if reserved at first, it opens into whimsy and rage later. (Because I work in today's publishing arena, I found particular delight in several of these thinly-disguised scenes.) Martin Bauman; or, A Sure Thing is masterfully composed, and I savored every word. It was such a pleasure to read that I already, only hours from finishing it, long to be back in its depths again. While Leavitt's first novel, The Lost Language of Cranes, has always been a favorite of mine, this latest novel confirms his agility and maturity and is, I think, the most rewarding of all his published work.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, January 16, 2001

By 

erik Mouthaan (Utrecht, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Martin Bauman: or, A Sure Thing (Hardcover)

It took me great perseverence to get through this book. At times I found it utterly uninteresting - this self-obsessed whining about relationships that are going the wrong way, the details about boring parties, all the repeats when describing the characters. I suppose it's a good thing Leavitt didn't make his own life and character look better- but maybe he should have. I don't really like Martin Baumann, nor his friends, nor anyone. Which should not be a problem if you feel that the person is experiencing mental growth. Here, none of that happens. Leavitt used to be good for his pointed, measured sentences. Now he's blabbing along for much too long. The earlier books may have been as he admits here - untrue and gloating - at least they were a better read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Successful characterstudy & portrait of the 1980s, September 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Martin Bauman: or, A Sure Thing (Hardcover)

I can't beliefe how rude and unfair most reviewers have been so far with this graceful novel, maybe not Mr. Leavitt's best (arguably 'The lost language of crains'), but still high above most brainwash & mediocre literature produced for the masses. And I have seldom seen such an interesting and vivid portrait of the 1980s, specially the growing media coverage of sudden success - and oblivion - as well as coming to terms with being gay in NY during the beginning of the AIDS crisis.

Martin BAUMAN is a great character and a very sharp novel, full of wisdom, insight and tenderness towards its main characters - as well as fierce, when displaying how the media create their own darlings or devils, which very seldom has to do with quality.

Please read this very persuasive and amusing novel and think how 20 years do make a difference about perceptions and society - and how little has really changed about accepting such a small and harmless difference like being gay. And enjoy its pages as much as I did devouring it!