AUTHOR: Jordan CastroTITLE: “The Novelist: A Novel”TYPE OF LITERATURE: NovelGENRE: Magical realism, biographical fiction, dark comedy, stream-of-consciousnessPUBLISHER: Soft SkullDATE: June 14, 2022PAGINATION: 208RATING (1 – 6 stars): ⭐⭐⭐⭐(4)
Back page: In Jordan Castro’s inventive, funny, and surprisingly tender first novel, we follow a young man over the course of a single morning as he tries and fails to write an autobiographical novel, finding himself instead drawn into the infinite spaces of Twitter, quotidian rituals, and his own mind.
The ReviewThe Novelist by Jordan Castro narrates everything I find embarrassing about myself in such a human and satiric way that I couldn’t help but laugh at my predicted stupidity. The fact that Castro managed to ridicule every single writer (either paid or aspiring) in their thought process and procrastination cycles makes it worth reading, at least to feel okay about themselves and their mediocre human consciousness.
I *DO* RECOMMEND THIS BOOK BECAUSE… an author rarely accepts the battle a writer goes through every time they try to write. Through dark humor, he conveys that writing, although a talent, has to be a conscious decision; when writing a book, or anything, there is a vital commitment being applied by the author in portraying their idea on paper— physically taking that thought process and forcing yourself to make it legible for others to understand— is not natural; its an effort; it’s a choice… one we often fail at.
Overall, Castro’s intended audience is clear, and it is not teenagers. This is not due to explicitness or comprehension levels, but it is because Castro is speaking to people who have already understood the different stages of maturity. In fact, many of the slightly off-topic insights that The Novelist offers are based on his early-adulthood experiences, which Castro now finds reckless and quite stupid— things we do that we find funny and intelligent. In other words, if you do not want to feel like every effort you make as a teenager will be a topic to laugh at later, then the brutally honest Jordan Castro might not be an author to follow quite yet.
Finally, The Novelist portrays one of the best interpretations I have read of social media’s impact on our lives as writers. The book is intelligent and observant of the impacts (good or bad) that having access to infinite information (most of it, useless) causes on our writing; and just because of that, The Novelist deserves a space on your bookshelf. (That said, the book is digestible only for those who identify as writers; people who do not find this hobby along their list might find it hard to relate).
Favorite quote from the book: “There was something rather special about being able to aim; Violet could not. This made me feel better about myself: for all of the ways in which women were better than men, we would always have our ability to pee on things.”