Three-Martini Lunch

March 7, 2016
In Rindell's second novel (after The Other Typist), the lives of three young people intersect over literature and ambition during the height of the beatnik era in Greenwich Village. Cliff Nelson, the son of a powerful New York editor, wants to be a famous writer but spends less time writing than emulating Hemingway's drinking. Eden Katz, a transplant from Indiana who remakes herself in the style of Holly Golightly, has her sights set on being an editor at a big New York publishing house. After Eden is hired as a secretary to Cliff's father, she and Cliff secretly elope. Meanwhile, the literary ambitions of Miles Tillman, a quiet, gay, black Columbia graduate from Harlem, are repeatedly tested by personal and societal road blocks. After Miles is attacked at a party hosted by Cliff and Eden, he heads to San Francisco, where he finds his father's WWII journal. The journalâalong with his relationship with the man who helped him find itâprovides Miles with plenty of fodder for writing, but he becomes inexorably tangled in Cliff and Eden's struggles for literary success. With its vivid historical setting and the narrators' distinct voices, this ambitious novel is both an homage to the beatnik generation and its literature, as well as an evocative story of the price one pays for going after one's dreams. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents.

March 1, 2016
In the author's note, appended to this compulsively readable melodrama about life in the Manhattan publishing world of the 1950s, Rindell acknowledges her debt to Rona Jaffe's similar potboiler The Best of Everything, published in 1958, as well as to On the Road, Giovanni's Room, and Anatole Broyard's Kafka Was the Rage. While there are indeed elements of Greenwich Village and San Francisco bohemian life here, as well as a central plot strain about a would-be writer coming to terms with his sexuality, Rindell's novel owes its clearest allegiance, especially in tone and style, to Jaffe's over-the-top story of '50s career women. Like Jaffe, Rindell pulls out soap-operatic flourishes with reckless abandonthe ambition-driven betrayals, the one-shot pregnancy, the plot-serving cancerbut, also like Jaffe, she does it with such high style and draped in such alluring, gin-soaked detail that we overcome our critical selves and root like hell for Eden to become an editor, for Miles to accept his love for Joey, and for Cliff to quit being a jerk. Guilty pleasure rarely tastes so sweet, except, perhaps, in a movie directed by Douglas Sirk.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

Starred review from April 1, 2016

In 1950s Manhattan three young people struggle to make their way. Eden Katz arrives from Indiana with a purpose: to become an editor in a New York publishing house. She lands a job as a secretary for one firm but finds her ambition thwarted by the double whammy of sexism and anti-Semitism. Well-born Cliff Nelson, a college dropout from Connecticut, wants nothing more than to show up his "old man," a famous publisher, by writing the great American novel. Although he possesses a wealth of connections, arrogance, and narcissism, Cliff is sadly lacking as an author. The gifted Harlem-born Miles Tillman, a recent graduate of Columbia University, has both a flair for prose and an absorbing story to tell. He struggles with the racism of the time, the secrets of his father's history, and acceptance of his own sexuality. Eden, Cliff, and Miles cross paths in Greenwich Village; their intersecting ambitions and personal weaknesses lead to hurt and betrayals and the inevitable experience of life's hard lessons. VERDICT Rindell's second novel (after her acclaimed debut, The Other Typist) offers a captivating look into the vibrancy of mid-20th-century New York City through the eyes of three flawed and therefore, fascinating young characters. [See Prepub Alert, 11/1/15.]--Sheila M. Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015

Rindell won shimmery reviews ("A thrilling riff on the classic noir," Christian Science Monitor) for her debut novel, The Other Typist, which is the basis of a film currently in development, with Kiera Knightley attached to produce and star. Here she moves from the Jazz Age to 1958 Greenwich Village and the dog-eat-dog world of publishing. Cliff Nelson thinks he can push Kerouac aside, Eden Katz wants to be an editor but hits a very low glass ceiling, and gifted, Harlem-based writer Miles Tillman uncovers secrets about his father's past and learns the meaning of love. Lots of library marketing.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2016

In 1950s Manhattan three young people struggle to make their way. Eden Katz arrives from Indiana with a purpose: to become an editor in a New York publishing house. She lands a job as a secretary for one firm but finds her ambition thwarted by the double whammy of sexism and anti-Semitism. Well-born Cliff Nelson, a college dropout from Connecticut, wants nothing more than to show up his "old man," a famous publisher, by writing the great American novel. Although he possesses a wealth of connections, arrogance, and narcissism, Cliff is sadly lacking as an author. The gifted Harlem-born Miles Tillman, a recent graduate of Columbia University, has both a flair for prose and an absorbing story to tell. He struggles with the racism of the time, the secrets of his father's history, and acceptance of his own sexuality. Eden, Cliff, and Miles cross paths in Greenwich Village; their intersecting ambitions and personal weaknesses lead to hurt and betrayals and the inevitable experience of life's hard lessons. VERDICT Rindell's second novel (after her acclaimed debut, The Other Typist) offers a captivating look into the vibrancy of mid-20th-century New York City through the eyes of three flawed and therefore, fascinating young characters. [See Prepub Alert, 11/1/15.]--Sheila M. Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.