Grub

by: Elise Blackwell

Published by: The Toby Press

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

I’m not familiar with the inspiration for Elise Blackwell’s new novel, Grub, which is New Grub Street by British author George Gissing and originally published in 1891 (ironically is being re-published later this month by Broadview Press). I don’t have to as Grub stands on its own.

Blackwell’s story is about writers, writing, the publishing world, and the choices writers have to make. I felt like she had been sitting in the background at my writer’s group and merely changed the names and location to protect the innocent. The broader theme has less to do with writing than the new bottom line of literature. It doesn’t matter what the writing is, as long as it sells. And trust–that is the bottom line.

Grub begins at a writer’s conference and follows three–really four–aspiring writers over the next few years and ends at same said conference. The frame works well and gives the story a completeness.

Jackson Miller and Eddie and Amanda Renfros are all graduates of the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Best friends Jackson and Eddie befriend the eccentric but lovable Henry Baffler, who is obsessed with his new literary theory, New Realism.

Jackson is the one who will write whatever the market wants as long as it makes him rich and famous. Eddie struggles with his sophomore novel. His first novel was a critical and financial success, but the money is about to run out. His theory is that the plot will unfold after writing several hundred paragraphs that are ultimately discarded.

Trouble is, Eddie spends too much time drinking and worrying that Amanda won’t return his love if he doesn’t write another best seller–and not enough time planting rear to chair. When he does start to write, it’s too little too late as Amanda as picked up her neglected writing ambitions and has become hot on two different levels. One as the reclusive and unknown Clarice Aames, who bursts onto the literary scene in a spectacular force. The other as herself. She and Jackson have books released within weeks of each other. Their literary success also fuels a romantic fire that has been smoldering since their graduate days in Iowa.
Grub is the ultimate insider’s view of literary and publishing world, for all its up and downs. If you want to know what it’s like to be a writer, Grub will give you the closest answer available without having to experience it.

Armchair Interviews says: This book really gets under the skin of writers.