From Publishers Weekly
Twelve years after graduating from the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop, Jack Sheahan, the protagonist of McNally's witty third novel, suffers from chronic self-doubt and a decade-long case of writer's block. He keeps an unfinished novel in a box under his telephone books and earns his living as a media escort for literati invited to read in Iowa City, greeting authors at the airport, chauffeuring them around town, and occasionally running their errands—all the while seething with envy. With two clients in town at the same time—one a new mother with possible postpartum psychosis who disappears with her baby, the other an arrogant New Yorker of Jack's age who has garnered the awards Jack once dreamed of winning—plus a snowstorm, a former fiancée, and a mysterious visit by a famous writer who'd disappeared from public view years earlier, the action spirals into frenzy. McNally (
Ghosts of Chicago), an Iowa graduate and former media escort, clearly knows the world he admires yet takes down. His wacky literary archetypes, naked humor and sharp observations offer up an entertaining look at the writing life and the people who prop it up.
(Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Advance Praise for After the Workshop
“A swift, wicked, and very funny book about what writers do when they’re not writing. They’re gossiping, scheming, pining, teaching, going on book tours, and—in the case of McNally’s blocked and shopworn hero, Jack—babysitting more famous writers on tour and trying to think of a reason to live. The pace is brisk, the prose is buoyant, the vision clear and sharp, and the outcome unexpectedly moving. A fine novel.” —Kevin Canty, author of Where the Money Went
“John McNally skewers so many sacred cows of the writing and publishing world in After the Workshop that he may need to hire a bodyguard. But beyond the biting humor and literary Schadenfreude is a novel about how hard it is to meet your own great expectations, which McNally renders with humanity and charm and his own trademark dark wit.” —Tod Goldberg, author of Other Resort Cities
“John McNally is a ridiculously funny writer and this is satirical fiction at its very finest—not only does After the Workshop shred the eye-rolling vanities of our day, but it takes care, in the meantime, to smile kindly on what’s good in the world, too.” —Patrick Somerville, author of The Cradle
“After the Workshop is a rollicking, hilarious lampooning of the book business, from the most pretentious literary poses to ridiculous purchasing and marketing procedures. John McNally is a master of satire and wit, but what makes this novel most satisfying is that he is also a superb storyteller and the story of Jack Hercules Sheahan, a classic underdog with whom the reader feels an immediate kinship, is one not to be missed.” —Jill McCorkle, author of Going Away Shoes
Praise for The Book of Ralph
“Often picaresque chapters are delivered with a satirist’s perfect understated pitch and announce John McNally . . . as a gifted meta-memoirist.” —Washington Post
“This book is charming, sensitive, and at times flat out hysterical.” —Mitch Albom, author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven
“John McNally’s vivid, skewed characters, his vibrant prose and hilarious situations make The Book of Ralph, with its undercurrent of menace, a serious joy.” —Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls
“Hilarious, perverted, cartoonish, violent, absurd, disturbed, and, in the end, dead-on realistic.” —Julianna Baggott, author of Girl Talk
Praise for America’s Report Card
“McNally scores high for . . . not confusing earnestness with drama; for an inventive, engaging story . . . for trenchant observation; and for writing that endows its disaffected characters with dimension and some genuine pathos.” —Chicago Tribune
“A whacked-out, often inspired satire that romps far and wide over the bizarre landscape of this conflicted country.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“It’s rare to find such a thought-provoking novel that is also so effortlessly entertaining.” —Time Out Chicago
