Reviews and Interviews — matthew klam

The New York Times: "...Sometimes, miraculously, a writer manages to breathe some new life into a subject. Matthew Klam, author of “Who Is Rich?,” turns out to be one of those writers....Funny, maddening and defiantly original....gifted at discussing complicated themes... It’s a challenging novel, but Klam’s prose is so clean, so self-assured, that it feels a little like a miracle... Maybe it’s a love story; maybe it’s just a lust story, but either way, it’s a fine accomplishment. Here’s hoping we won’t have to wait another 17 years for the return of this singularly gifted writer."

A New York Times Editor's Choice

The New Yorker: "Who Is Rich?' is a gem within the canon of infidelity literature. ...Fischer is a wonderful narrator, lacerating and gentle... comic, wondrous, and sad."

Washington Post: "This is 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..."

Boston Globe: "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."

NPR, Fresh Air: “Matthew Klam's superb debut novel, Who Is Rich?, is all about the anxious networking, conversational one-upmanship and drunken hook-ups that constitute those exclusive summer events known as "arts conferences… Like all great humorists, Klam is a sharp observer and he skewers his targets here with specificity and brio. Who Is Rich? is also cynically smart about the class politics crackling in the air at these kinds of gatherings: namely the smooth generosity of the uber-rich arts patrons colliding with the financial desperation of so many of the indentured "talent" who perform and teach. There's a scene midway through this novel where Rich — guilty about an affair and itching to break free of his paycheck-to-paycheck existence — impulsively blows his entire honorarium on an expensive bracelet for his wife at home. I swear to you the economic terror Klam conjures up in that scene is every bit as vivid as the physical terror of the opening scene of that quintessential New England beach movie, Jaws.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review): "A worthy addition to American literature’s distinguished line of hapless antiheroes."

Slate: "Matthew Klam’s Who Is Rich? totally reinvigorates the literary cliché of the male midlife crisis...Klam is at his best when he’s describing other sensations, the kind that emerge out of domestic life’s quotidian rhythms. Some chapters descend into Rich’s past, and when they do, Klam’s prose is like the feverish swoon of a dying man revisiting his childhood, each drop of sweat a memory in miniature."

People Magazine: "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."

INTERVIEWS

An interview with Scott Simon on NPR

An interview with Max Linsky on Longform

A profile by Taffy Brodesser-Akner in New York Magazine

A story by Steve Almond in Poets & Writers, The Darkness Within: In Praise of the Unlikable

A conversation about books, including my own book, on CNN with Jake Tapper

An interview with Cyd Oppenheimer on WNNH

An interview with Michael Silverblatt on KCRW

An interview with Vick Mickunas on WYSO

An interview with Binnie Klein on WPKN

A reading and Q&A with Jake Tapper, at Politics and Prose bookstore

An essay on Salon by Anna March about, among other things, the depiction of women in my work

What I ate for breakfast as told to Extra Crispy

An interview in Modern Luxury

MORE REVIEWS

Booklist: “With a perceptive eye and biting humor, [Rich] skewers the participants at the conference, “an open-air looney bin,” including his own students and fellow faculty members. Rich may be a mildly depressed neurotic in the midst of a lengthy midlife crisis, but Klam ensures that he is also a profound, often-hilarious commentator on marriage, child rearing, and artistic endeavors."

Men's Journal 'Matt Klam's 'Who Is Rich' Is the Best Dirty Book of the Summer': In 2000, Matthew Klam was the literary equivalent of Rookie of the Year, publishing Sam the Cat, a collection of stories that prompted the New Yorker to call him one of the top 20 writers under 40. Now, finally, we have the novel Klam's fans hoped he had in him: Who Is Rich? is the story of an extramarital tangle between a self-lacerating graphic novelist and a one-percenter Connecticut mom. It's both bleak and joyous, creeping between the isolation of a fuckless marriage and the elusive thrill of the affair. "It turns out that all you need for kundalini multigasmic monkey sex," he writes, "is two people who know each other just well enough to feel safe but don't share a kitchen."

Vogue, The Best Books of 2017, “In a benighted year for sexed-up white men, here’s a near-perfect novel about one: a lucid, mordantly funny portrait of a guy having an affair (and a midlife crisis) at a seaside writers’ colony.”

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

Signature: "It is an inquiry into what it means to have a life, to have a story, to decide to tell that story, what to omit and what to conflate, what responsibilities a storyteller has to his loved ones and what responsibilities he has to himself, and how he should navigate the inevitable conflict between the two."

Huffington Post: "24 Incredible Books You Should Read This Summer"

Travel and Leisure: "Love, lust, humor, jealousy… Klam’s latest is everything a reader could hope for and more."

Pure Wow: "Bitingly funny and surprisingly relatable...Think John Irving with a side of Maria Semple."

Domino Magazine: 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.

Pop Sugar: "This debut novel is a sharp satire about art, sex, and money."

The Ringer: In the wrong hands, there could be no contemporary fiction protagonist trope more boring than the horndog, middle-aged professional afraid of his paunch, but Klam imbues Rich with such pathos that he transcends his type. I hope Klam doesn’t take so long for his follow-up.

Maine Edge: “Matthew Klam brought his A-game for “Who is Rich?”

Library Journal -- Five Great Beach Reads, Literary Preview: : Sixteen years ago, New Yorker 20 Under 40 author Klam had a big hit with his first book, Sam the Cat. Finally, he’s back, bringing us the story of two people who meet and launch an adulterous affair at an artists conference held in a charming New England fishing village. Rich once had a modest career as a cartoonist, Amy studies narrative painting, and they so enjoyed their fling that they returned the following year to see whether sparks would fly again. They do, setting off a conflagration that burns down their lives.

Emily Nussbaum on Twitter: An enjoyably filthy beach read for neurotics!

Curtis Sittenfeld on Buzzfeed: “The novel Who Is Rich? by Matthew Klam will come out in July, and it’s terrific. I was a graduate student when I read Klam’s story collection Sam the Cat in 2000, and I just loved how bawdy, wise, and alive his writing was. I’ve been waiting all this time for his first (!) novel, and the wait was worth it — it’s a brutally honest, hilariously entertaining, surprisingly compassionate depiction of class, lust, marriage, and what it’s really like to be an artist."