Third generation writer quits writing to be an agent
Today the publishing blog GalleyCat has a piece on the author Molly Jong-Fast and her decision to leave writing and become a literary agent. It's full of arresting statements about the life of a writer and why she doesn't want to be one anymore.
Jong-Fast is the author of two autobigraphical books -- a memoir and an autobiographical novel. She is also the daughter of Erica Jong (here's a picture of mother and daughter) and Jonathan Fast and grandaughter of novelist Howard Fast, whom, the story says, "lay in his deathbed worrying aloud about why the NY Times Book Review didn't like him. It was not, she said, the kind of life she wanted for herself."
So she became an agent -- but wait, she owes one more book on her contract, "which she plans to finish soon, though the fact that her editor, Bruce Tracy, was a victim of last month's editorial purge only intensifies her resolve to move on." I'll bet that's going to be one fantastic book -- composed by a writer who doesn't want to be a writer anymore, and edited by whomever, it sounds like the equivalent of a Hollywood movie dumped in a few theaters during the slowest week of the year for a tax write-off.
Or maybe not -- I hope I'm wrong. It could be terrific. But I have the feeling she's not going to bend over backwards to promote it, either. Anyway, moving on...
She says she wants to flog "celebrity-driven" books, bringing in "'really smart' writers to help shape those public figures' lives into books." As for the literary part of being a literary agent:
I'm trying not to do too much literary stuff -- which is not to say I'm not taking smart things, but there's a certain type of pretentious novel that I just hate, that I'd spent most of my career trying to write away from... I want to represent books that will actually reach people.
Like celebrity memoirs.
I'd like to ask her just what "certain type of pretentious novel" she just hates. There may be a certain type of pretentious novel I hate and you hate, though we may not be talking about the same kinds of novels, and something about her statement, as quoted, makes her sound like she thinks everybody would find the same books pretentious -- you know, those pretentious novels.
I wonder how she'd feel about, for example, Yiyun Li's The Vagrants, which is new and absolutely terrific. I didn't find it pretentious, but maybe she would. Or how about T. Coraghessen Boyle's new The Women, about the women in Frank Lloyd Wright's life? Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, one of the best books of 2008? Who knows? In any case, she won't be writing one. That much is clear.
What emerges from this piece on Jong-Fast is an unavoidable sense of privilege. She has publishing connections to die for, a three-book contract, and a famous name. Yet instead of polishing her talent and living up to the name, she cashes in to become an agent for celebrities, whose books allegedly "reach people."
I was always so frustrated at the ways publishing didn't work, even in the boom years, and I thought, why not get into the business and find out why things weren't working?Apparently she has decided that the problems with publishing can be solved by more celebrity memoirs. Yeah, that'll definitely help.
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Comments
Oh, ugh. This just breaks my (poor, writerly, unconnected, certainly not rich) heart. Thanks for the good post, though.
Hey, Mark, go figure. Maybe she's "all wrote out." Maybe she's a great kid who just doesn't want the pressure. Maybe she's tired of saying the only reason she got a break was because of her famous name, and ancestors. Maybe she'll want to publish me now that she's an agent, and I can start kissing her ass right now--who cares?
As for fiction, here's my teaser--I stopped reading all American fiction after I read A HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. Now, isn't that just horrible! It all reads like air bubbles to me after a trip to a world where life still matters. Oh yeah, see my thumb print.
Meanwhile, if any of those celebrity memoirists she plans to represent need a cool and experienced co-author, I'm available. I love hearing life stories even if the narrators are famous. No prejudice about that here. And yup, in case you wonder, I am serious about writing well.
Very interesting point. Having studied in the School of Prententious Writing, I love your question. Though I have retired from that business, I still remain a fan. But, how do we define it? I think the interest in reality TV, in the memoir, in non-fiction seems to indicate that this is what people want, but there are still far too many MFA programs out there, and a gazillion novels, that all look interesting at least on the surface, staring you in the face when you walk into a book store.
I guess I would like for there to be fewer, and for there to be more of the life-changing sort. But who gets to decide that? I'm starting to lean towards the "reaching people" end of things though, because I am bored with crafty writers whose stories aren't all that interesting.
1) Who the fuck needs any more celebrity memoirs? Especially those which are ghost written?
2) I won't go there about Molly Jong-Fast and her decision to get out of writing although I expect it was a good decision.
3) To the reader who thinks all fiction after 100 Years of Solitude, I am sorry: You have missed some really awesome stuff. Some amazingly beautiful work.
And, oh sure, if people want reality TV and shitty celebrity drivel and fast food burgers, let's just produce that and forget about anything better. That makes perfect sense to me.
I, too, am bored with crafty novels which don't say anything. But I am never bored with gorgeous writing that says something wonderful. And it's out there.
I used to read her mother's books but after a few they just felt narcissistically boring, all about her rotten-but-rich life. I haven't read Molly's books but I get the sneaking feeling that as my own mother would say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I doubt we've lost any great novels here.
And the part about can't-wait-for-that-book cracked me up. (They could title it "Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album." hehehe. always loved that title.)
Her quotes in the piece don't paint a pretty picture. Hopefully it's better than it looks. (A low bar.)
Sounds like she did make a good decision to get out of writing, though, if she never really liked it and was mostly coasting. I can't imagine hawking ghost-written celebrity memoirs being a vocation, but different strokes.
And great comments, Lisa, especially this: "I, too, am bored with crafty novels which don't say anything. But I am never bored with gorgeous writing that says something wonderful."
I think the art of editing is dying out, btw. The publishing industry is collapsing almost as quickly as the newspaper industry. It will be interesting to see whether well-written, well-edited, hardbound books on archival paper virtually disappear, or whether a grassroots, freelance editing and self-publishing market springs up to replace the degenerate publishing oligarchy we've got.