wwnorton:

Jonathan Franzen’s “Books of the Year” (via The Guardian):

“Ben Lerner’s recent novel Leaving the Atocha Station (Coffee House Press) and Joshua Cody’s new memoir [sic] (W. W. Norton) are undoubtedly the kind of books that the former Swedish Academy secretary Horace Engdahl had in mind when he faulted American authors for their insularity and self-involvement. Both books are also hilarious and cracklingly intelligent, fully alive and original in every sentence, and abuzz with the feel of our late-late-modern moment; and one senses that these are the qualities of American literature that actually annoyed Engdahl.”

“Leaving the Atocha Station is the story of a mentally unstable, substance-dependent young poet brilliantly and excruciatingly wasting a fellowship year in Madrid. [sic] is the story of a moderately depraved young musical prodigy who is suddenly stricken with near-fatal cancer.”

(Franzen photo credit: Joost Van Den Broek/Hollandse Hoogte/Redux for Time Magazine)