Who Is Rich?: A Novel Hardcover – July 4, 2017

An Amazon Best Book of July 2017: Matthew Klam is an immensely talented author: he’s funny, deep, easily readable, and sometimes honest to the point of being startling. He’s written a novel—about a white, middle-aged, once successful graphic novelist-turned-steadily-working-illustrator—that touches on family, love, aging, unhappiness, infidelity, life as a working artist, and money. Making his protagonist white and middle-aged was a brave choice, because Rich (the protagonist) does some complaining in this novel (and some cheating), and a lot of readers don’t like to see white, middle-aged men complain or cheat. If that’s you, you can stop reading now. But Rich is also an artist. He’s educated, he’s talented, and he’s frustrated that he still has to struggle to make ends meet. He’s made choices based on passion—passion for his art, for love—which is how it should be. But what happens when the passion begins to ebb? What are you left with then? Matthew Klam strikes me as a writer’s writer, and I think that other authors will love this work; he’s just so honest and talented. But there are other people out there who will be practically relieved to come across such rawness, honesty, and humor as well. Perhaps that’s you. --Chris Schluep, The Amazon Book Review

“Who Is Rich? is a gem within the canon of infidelity literature. . . . Fischer . . . is a wonderful narrator, lacerating and gentle. . . . Comic, wondrous, and sad.”—The New Yorker

“Who Is Rich? is a very funny, very frank, and often shocking book about an affair between a man and a woman at an annual writers’ conference at a beach town. It is shocking for its intelligent sex scenes and for its Matthew Klam–particular observations and its outrageous humor about the way people behave when they’re in crisis. It is a book-long meditation on the nature of a marriage under the stress of children and financial pressures.”—New York

“An irresistible comic novel that pumps blood back into the anemic tales of middle-aged white guys. Klam may be working in a well-established tradition, but he’s sexier than Richard Russo and more fun than John Updike. . . . In paragraphs that flow like conversation with a witty, troubled friend, Klam captures Rich’s squirrelly consciousness, swinging from lust to despair, turning his comic eye on others and then on himself. . . . But for all its wise gender comedy, Who Is Rich? is also a brilliant rumination on the trap of cannibalizing one’s life for art.”—The Washington Post

“Who Is Rich? is one of those novels with the rare power to mesmerize. It’s a dazzling meditation on monogamy, parenthood, mortality, shame, erotic liberation, and artistic struggle, a tale told by an adulterous middle-aged schlub, full of sound and fury, and signifying, well, pretty much everything. . . . Klam has brought to life an indelible character, a man painfully alive on the page, cowardly in actions but utterly fearless in confronting hard truths we spend most of our lives evading”—The Boston Globe

“This portrait of midlife crisis is almost scarily astute, and Rich’s angsty fling with equally unhappy (but rich) Amy is a hot, hilarious mess.”—People

“Love, lust, humor, jealousy . . . [Who Is Rich?] is everything a reader could hope for and more.”—Travel + Leisure

“A sharp satire about art, sex, and money.”—PopSugar

“Klam’s first novel is an irreverent and at times absurdly inappropriate (which makes it all the more hilarious) story that touches on middle life crises, parental love, and what it means to be an artist.”—Domino

“Bitingly funny and surprisingly relatable . . . Think John Irving with a side of Maria Semple.”—PureWow

“[Matthew] Klam explores excess and penury, conspicuous consumption and tortured artistic production, as well as monogamy and its discontents in an acidly funny portrait of a has-been cartoonist. . . . The vibrant prose (accompanied by John Cuneo’s equally vibrant illustrations) enlivens the proceedings. Libidinous, impulsive, sarcastic, bitter, casually suicidal, and committed to his art—‘I’d given up everything for cartooning, and for that alone I deserved to die’—Rich is a worthy addition to American literature’s distinguished line of hapless antiheroes.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“It’s amazing to wait so long for a book, and for it to be everything you wanted. The most singular quality of Matthew Klam’s writing is how alive it is. I loved every page of this book. It got into my bloodstream—and kind of destroyed me.”—Curtis Sittenfeld

“What a thrill to experience the fusion of Matthew Klam’s fierce, kinetic prose with the mysteries of fatherhood and domesticity. Who Is Rich? is an electric amalgam of frustration and tenderness, wonder and rebellion: a paean to the obliterating power of parental love.”—Jennifer Egan
 
“I’ve been eagerly awaiting another book by Matthew Klam—and here it is, and it’s a stunner. This, his first novel, is funny, dark, big, and bold. I read it straight through, with great pleasure and awe at all he knows about art, money, family, sex, kids, mortality, and shame. Who Is Rich? is not to be missed.”—Meg Wolitzer
 
“By turns fierce, disturbing, and outright hilarious, Who Is Rich? is much more than a novel of midlife crisis; it’s a frank exploration of what it feels like to struggle as an artist and a man. Klam writes like a surgeon, with the sharpest of scalpels, and cuts to the bone.”—Jonathan Tropper
 
“Matthew Klam is a brilliant satirist and keen observer of Unequal America, and his new novel takes a hard look at society’s extravagant hypocrisies. His work is thrilling and distinctive—and political in a way that is not always noted because it is also so funny. Who Is Rich? is long-awaited and first-rate.”—Lorrie Moore
 
“I just finished Matthew Klam’s Who Is Rich? and I seriously, deeply love this book.”—Michael Cunningham

“Who Is Rich? is a tantalizing novel—acute and smart and stark, but mostly it’s unrelentingly funny about a large number of very inappropriate things. It’s one of those rare books: You open it, then you’re up all night. I was.”—Richard Ford