The Publishing Event of the Year Is Here: On Chad Harbach's The Brightness

Almost exactly 15 years today, I had the privilege of sitting in the audience for a Chad Harbarch event in Milwaukee on his book tour for his debut novel The Art of Fielding. I wrote about the event here, and here was my review of The Art of Fielding from just a few days before the event.  At the time, having then no idea how much of a cultural phenomenon the novel would become, I wrote "Only time will truly tell if The Art of Fielding will join The Natural and The Brothers K in pantheon of great baseball novels."

Time has told: The Art of Fielding is a classic. 

Now, 15 years later, on another crisp autumn day, a drastically changed world welcomes another novel from Harbach. The Brightness, a follow-up to The Art of Fielding which continues the story about five years after the events depicted there, is the perfect autumn book: A big, immersive character-driven campus novel. 

To me, The Brightness is THE publishing event of the year, and I absolutely devoured this 700-page novel. I wanted 700 more pages. I want another Harbach novel next week. 😭

Anyway, I got to review The Brightness for the Chicago Review of Books. Spoiler: Of course I loved it. Even without baseball in this one, it's a novel that turns out to be more timely than Harbach could've imagined.

I hope you'll click over to CHIRB to read the review. There's an FAQ, a bit of plot summary, and more. I had so much fun writing this one, even as I tried to treat the novel's serious themes with appropriate gravity. Enjoy! And enjoy the novel, if you decide to pick it up. If you were a fan of The Art of Fielding, I don't think you'll be disappointed. 

Here's a short excerpt: 

It’s crucial to keep in mind, also, that good literature can and should walk and chew gum at the same time; that is, a novel can tackle vital and serious topics such as sexual assault on campus with appropriate solemnity, but also just be a rolicking good time. Indeed, rare is the good novel that doesn’t give us reason to think while also keeping readers rolling through its pages and, in this case, willing to follow these characters anywhere.

Top 6 Authors I Miss the Most

Here is a question I like to discuss frequently with my book nerd friends: Which writer, if it were announced that a new book by them was forthcoming, would cause you to freak out and lose several hours of your day searching for details? That is, which writers do you miss the most? 

Until recently, Chad Harbach would've been high on my list. In fact, when RoscoeBooks owner Erika sent me a photo of an ARC of The Brightness she got at booksellers conference earlier this year, not only did I audibly gasp, I couldn't breathe for a few seconds. (I just finished reading The Brightness, and yes, it was worth the wait.)

Part of the equation, but not all of it, is time elapsed since the last book. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, it's true. So I think a writer with a long gap between books becomes much more freak-out-worthy. 

Look, I know writers don't owe us anything. And now, in the midst of trying to write my own novel, I finally fully realize how fucking difficult it is. So don't take this too seriously: It's just a fun question to consider.

Also, while it would be fun to think about the question for dead authors, I'm keeping this to writers who are still alive, and presumably, still working.

So here's my list: 

6. Nicole Krauss -- Krauss's 2005 novel The History of Love is quite literally one of my favorites of all time -- quiet, elegant, and profound. Her last novel was Forest Dark in 2017 (there was a story collection in 2020, too). Okay, so this is fun: In googling to make sure I had the years of her books right, I discovered Krauss DOES have a new novel coming in Sept. 2027. Woohoo! And yes, I freaked out!

5. David Mitchell -- Mitchell's last novel was 2020's Utopia Avenue, and he's usually on about the 6-7 year plan between books. So...aaaaaannnnny minute now? No other writer can be counted on to so thoroughly blow your mind as David Mitchell. 

4. Jonathan Tropper -- I was texting with my friend Doug the other day about Tropper's fantastic 2007 novel How To Talk To a Widower. And it occurred to me not for the first time that he's probably never coming back to fiction. Which made me really sad. His last novel was (the now presciently titled) One Last Thing Before I Go in 2012. Tropper has made it big in TV, creating and writing hit series like Banshee and Your Friends & Neighbors. It's a safe assumption the money's a bit better in TV than in book publishing. But if he were ever to come back to books, boy, would I be ecstatic. 

3. Barack Obama -- Dear Barry, I hope this finds you well. I'm writing just to check back quickly on the overdue second part of your memoir (after 2020's A Promised Land) you promised us around 2023 or so. Let me know how things are looking, and if we can slot your book into our 2027 reading schedule. No worries if not. But we NEED it badly. 

2. Gillian Flynn -- I mean, right?! Gone Girl was 2012.

1. Dexter Palmer -- Bit of a deep cut here, but Palmer's novel 2016 Version Control is one of the more criminally underrated novels of the last decade. He published another little-read novel in 2019, but nothing since. I'd kill for another.

For real now, tell me who is on your list of most-missed authors!

The Insanity and Joy of Reading Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle Series

Recently, my friend Mike sent me an Instagram Reel captioned "POV: your friend who's always reading an insane book" and it's a guy joking about reading Moby Dick at the beach and The Epic of Gilgamesh on a plane and War and Peace to his dog before bed.

I responded: Wait, am I that friend?

Reader, I am that friend. 

But it's only with the perspective granted by a few months' time that I can now see clearly how reading six volumes of autofiction by an irascible Norwegian writer might be seen as insane to many other readers.

Yes, so back in June of this year, after an on-again-off-again two-year odyssey, I finally finished all six novels in Karl Ove Knausgaard's epic 3,000-plus-page My Struggle series.

Why? Why did I do that? Honestly, because I enjoyed the first one, and maybe against all odds, continued to enjoy them. (Maybe that's the most insane part.) I'm being purposefully self-deprecating here, but I'm not alone in my insanity: Enough high-level readers, from Zadie Smith to New Yorker critic James Wood have raved about these, as well. 

When I started this series back in the summer of 2024, I just wanted to know the answer to a simple question: Why do these work? Why do readers like Zadie Smith and James Wood love them? When I got through the first three, I wrote about why I thought they'd been working so far and why I was enjoying them. Basically, despite being a truculent jerk, he's really relatable -- and his mundane, everyday struggles are rendered in such a way that you often go, "Yep, I know what that's like."

But was that relatability really enough to draw me through 3,000 pages? It was. But just barely. Book 6 is 1,200 pages and contains a nearly 500-page section that's a close read of a German poem, a long look at Hitler's biography, and a bunch of other literary theory that is, not going to lie, eye-crossingly dull. This last book in the series was like running a marathon, and suddenly the only hill on the entire course is at mile 25. But I made it.

Speaking of marathons, another reason I'm glad I read these is the same reason why people enjoying doing hard things: When you finish a hard thing, you get a sense of accomplishment. Readers read for a variety of reasons. Among them for me is that I like a project. And this was certainly that. When I finished these novels, in addition to mostly enjoying the reading experience, reading these felt like doing something productive with my reading time, like I'd set a goal and completed it. Does that sound insane? Maybe it sounds insane. 

But relatability and accomplishment aside, there is much to be learned here is well -- another important reason to read. These novels are about a writer's life -- that is, how he sees the world and translates it from head to paper. In that sense, these books were inspiring and helpful to my own modest writerly aspirations.

Finally, one last reason I read: Dude is an absolute trainwreck. He makes terrible choices. He drinks a lot. He fights with everyone he loves. He constantly shoots himself in the foot (figuratively). And he's completely honest and forthright about everything bad he's done, knowing full well you're judging him harshly as you read. All that is incredibly entertaining.

Look, I know these books probably have limited appeal. I'm certainly not trying to talk you into reading them if they don't sound interesting to you. I'm just telling you why I read them: Because they brought me joy. I looked forward to reading the next one when I was between books. And I'm sad they're over. Hey, the people who are the most insane are often the happiest, too.

(Hey, have you heard about William T. Vollman's new thing? A Table for Fortune is a four-volume, 3,000 page box set publishing Oct. 6. Who's with me?! 😅)