This Is How It Starts: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A University of Pennsylvania graduate moves to Washington, D.C., to work as a congressional aide in Ginder's lightly cynical Bright Lights, Big City treatment of Washington. Taylor Mark seems more interested in Late Night Shots parties (a displaced WASP social phenomenon) than political parties as he learns the ropes on Capital Hill, so the political satire feels mild compared to the social commentary Ginder offers about the Beltway social scene. Taylor begins an affair with his congressman's unhappy wife (she's a gorgeous disaster) and begins to doubt the character of his super-wealthy best friend, Chase Latham, son of a prominent Republican lobbyist who has a thing going with Taylor's cousin. But it seems Ginder has never met a cliché he didn't want to enshrine: here, wives of wealthy husbands are catty, gay men write gossip columns, rich guys are laddish boors and their parents are absent, medicated or disapproving. Although light on plot and character development, the author does manage to expose the Hill rat lifestyle with some scalpel-sharp observations, showing that snobbery and envy are bipartisan values. (June)
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From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Jessica Cutler It may not seem like a bad way to start, using an iconic novel such as "Bright Lights, Big City" as the template for your debut. Just replace New York with Washington (so hot right now!), publishing with politics, the Coma Baby with a seersucker bow tie, and there you have it: the D.C. version of Jay McInerney's classic. Someone had to write one eventually. Grant Ginder's first novel, "This Is How It Starts," wants to be the one so badly that it reads like a Mad Libs version of "BLBC." It starts with protagonist Taylor Mark already drunk at a pre-recession Gold Cup (instead of high on Bolivian marching powder at the Palladium) with his friend Chase Latham, a Tad Allagash knockoff who keeps Taylor out late on weeknights, making him miss work at his entry-level job on the Hill (in "BLBC," it was "the magazine"). Right away, Taylor wants the reader to know how alienated he feels as he drinks champagne and eats caviar with his friends. "The crowd's doing the waltz, see, and I'm tripping through a tango," he says, and it's not the first time we'll have to read this eye-roller. (The author apparently thinks this line is poignant enough to be a refrain throughout the book.) Where this alienation comes from isn't clear at first. Taylor is a rich kid from Laguna Beach, Calif., and despite spending four years at Penn and having connections that get him a job in a congressman's office, growing up in the O.C. is enough to have made him feel like a total outsider. Soon the story backtracks a few months to Taylor's graduation, when he learns that his parents are breaking up. "I'm a straight white guy from Orange County whose parents are divorced thanks to a midlife crisis. If anyone here is a cliché, it's me," Taylor admits to a sympathetic co-worker. The divorce weighs on him, so he starts smoking and drinking. His friends are all cokeheads, but Taylor never partakes, making this one of the duller downward spirals in modern fiction. And when he starts sleeping with his congressman's hottie wife, even the sex scenes manage to be boring. In fact, Ginder's prose is rarely amusing or enjoyable. Perhaps it's moony and aimless on purpose -- all part of the ennui and disillusionment, as though the characters are intentionally cliche because Washington is really like that. That approach might have seemed stylish back in the 1980s, but 25 years after "Bright Lights," "Less Than Zero," etc., it just isn't fresh anymore. Ginder could be another Jay McInerney or Bret Easton Ellis, if that's what he wants, but he'll have to start all over.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416595597
• ISBN-13: 978-1416595595
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #656,826 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, June 30, 2009

By	K. Brandt "sf booky" (SF) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"This is how it starts" takes off starting with the first page and never slows down. I couldn't put it down! Main character Taylor Mark's journey treats the reader to an inside view of the Washington political scene and the highly entertaining characters that exist within that world. The book captures the energy, insanity, and absurd amounts of privilege bestowed upon the young and connected. I recommend that everyone add this to their summer reading list!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great summer read; smart, insightful coming of age story, June 30, 2009

By	KirstenK - See all my reviews

I found this novel highly entertaining and witty. Much credit to Grant Ginder for creating very compelling characters and drawing the reader into the world of Washington D.C. twenty-somethings. Smart, funny, witty and a refreshing perspective of the fast paced social life of capital hill. A fantastic summer read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, June 30, 2009

By	J. Ford - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Grant's book is just the right balance of witty observation and good storytelling. He observes like Wolfe and bites like Wilde but does it in an accessible fashion, and creates and develops characters that are both realistic and poignant. It's a window on to the urban haute bourgeois of our nation's capital that shouldn't be missed.