All the Sad Young Literary Men - Tapa dura

?A debut novel from Russian-born translator Gessen that skewers the literary and romantic ambitions of three well-educated, tightly wound young men. This black-comedy-in-stories alternates among three protagonists, Mark, Sam and Keith, who have little contact with one another but who have in common age, bafflement and hunger for literary fame. Mark is a Ph.D. student in Russian history who's dismayed again and again to find that erudition about the Mensheviks and finely honed skills of historical analogy avail him little?fine, avail him nothing?in sussing out his erotic life. They aren't much help, either, in getting his dissertation finished. Meanwhile, Sam gets a contract early in his 20s to produce a ?great Zionist epic, ? but it quickly runs aground, and he has to pay back the advance. Soon he's reduced to temp work doing spreadsheets, and to watching his Internet presence (his identity!) tragically dwindle, an index of squandered promise. In one delightful scene, he calls

A charming yet scathing portrait of young adulthood at the opening of the twenty-first century, "All the Sad Young Literary Men" charts the lives of Sam, Mark, and Keith, as they overthink their college years, underthink their love lives, and struggle through the encouragement of the women who love and despise them to find a semblance of maturity, responsibility, and even literary fame.Heartbroken in his university town, Mark tries to focus his attention on his graduate work concerning Russian revolt, only to be lured again and again to the free pornography on the library computers. Sam binds himself to the task of crafting "the first great Zionist epic" even though he speaks no Hebrew, has never visited Israel, and is not a practicing Jew. Keith, thwarted by inherited notions of greatness and memories of his broken family, finds solace in the arms of the selfless woman who most reminds him of his past. At every turn, at each character's misstep, "All the Sad Young Literary Men" radiates with comedic warmth and biting honesty and signals the arrival of a brave and trenchant new writer.