Gotham Tragic

By Kurt Wenzel

Book Overview

Kyle Clayton struck it big over a decade ago with his debut novel; since then he's had hardly a sober moment. Now he's fallen in love with a Turkish woman, and in order to marry her, he must convert to Islam. Erin Wyatt is a waitress at Manhattan's hottest restaurant, City.She had an affair with Kyle during his drunken decade, and while he can't remember a thing about it, she certainly does. Investment tycoon Lonny Tumin, the owner of City, is wildly rich, but-it being New York-not rich enough. Before GOTHAM TRAGIC is done, Clayton will write a story about his conversion that will result in militant Muslims declaring a fatwa against him. Erin will discover that her aunt may have written a manuscript proving the existence of God. Tumin will concoct a totally fictitious Internet company and launch a wildly successful IPO. And Syeed Salaam, the doorman at City, will decide that the fatwa against Clayton must be carried out, no matter the cost. Brilliantly plotted, GOTHAM TRAGIC is a pitch-perfect send-up of money and celebrity culture. It's not a black comedy so much as a red, white, and blue one, and the next big step forward for a writer whose gifts are as impressive as the Manhattan skyline.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316094005
• ISBN13: 9780316094009
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 13 years and up

Customer Reviews

Oh, grow up!

If he works very hard and is a very good (or bad) boy, Kurt Wenzel might grow up to be Tom Wolfe. Ok, a Tom Wolfe who prefers cocaine to acid, but it's all there: the insights into how race and religion color American life, the deft handling of dialogue and description, the delightful word choices ("diction" to those of us who teach composition), the perspective of the too-cool omniscient narrator. Hey, in some respects he out-Wolfes Wolfe: is not a Puissant Pixie more evocative than a Bottomless Tart? He's not there yet. I can't imagine Wolfe making the howling error I noticed on page 9: "Then he noticed the microthin headset that jettisoned her cheek . . . ." Sorry, Kurt. To jettison means to discard, to throw overboard. How can a headset discard a cheek? Similarly, see page 11: ". . . the text laid out spherically along the page like a pinwheel." All the definitions of sphere that I'm familiar with emphasize the 3-dimensional nature of the construct; it is physically impossible to arrange printed text on a flat page spherically. I would also quibble with the City's dining room being described as "tenebrous" on page 131 -- it's dark, yes, but not gloomy. That's okay by me. Wenzel is too young to be perfect. I'm content to wait. Like Browning, I believe "the best is yet to be."

Far from "Tragic"

Kurt Wenzel avoids the sophomore slump in "Gotham Tragic," the oddly-titled follow-up to the witty "Lit Life." This time around, Wenzel dabbles in more than just the perils of being a writer, putting out questions about religion, culture and ethics, without bogging down the book itself.It's New York in 1999. Kyle Clayton was one of those incisive 80s authors who wrote hit cynical novels. Since then, life has been one boozy debauched streak. Now he has married an exotic Turkish woman, Ayla, and at her urging has converted to Islam (which seems to be the one part of her life where she follows tradition). Her family (best described as Mid-East hillbillies) is uncomfortable with him, and her dad HATES him. And his marriage to Ayla would be even more endangered if she knew he was planning to get a mistress.Around this same time, Kyle's latest short story comes out: a thinly-veiled retelling of his problems with Ayla's family, and his doubts about Islam. The story is a huge hit, but (a la Salman Rushdie) now militant Muslims are mad at him. Now Kyle is faced with a rapidly deteriorating marriage, a bigoted multimillionaire with some dirty secrets in his closet, and a devout doorman who has declared a fatwa against him (IE, he's going to hunt Kyle down and kill him). That is, if Kyle's father-in-law doesn't kill him first."Gotham Tragic" is the jaded New Yorker novel with a millennial twist, with plenty of humor and attitude. Not to mention weird plot twists -- there's a waittress whose aunt has supposedly written a book proving the existance of God. But Wenzel keeps a tight grip on his plot, and it never quite runs away from him. Some readers may be a little offput by the upbeat ending, but it doesn't come out of nowhere.Wenzel's humor just avoids being silly at times (a Chinese teenager is called "Wey Tu Yung"). But it's to Wenzel's credit that he manages to do what Kyle set out to do. He tackles philosophical and religious questions and paradoxes -- and not just for Islam either, but also relating to Judaism and Christianity. In America at this time, that's especially hard to do in a novel without treading on some toes, but he manages to do it. Kyle grows up quite a bit over the course of "Gotham Tragic," usually in painful ways. His wife Ayla could use a bit more fleshing out, like the smart waitress/aspiring actress Erin. Don't be worried about stereotyped Muslims here -- there are Muslim characters of all types and stripes, open-minded or... well, like Ayla's dad. "Gotham Tragic" lightly walks the tightrope between satire and serious novel, only tripping occasionally over itself. Funny and witty novel, one of the most engaging ones of 2004 thus far.

funny and true

Wenzel will have a long career if he keeps writing with as many sharp and hilarious edges as he does in his second New York comedy (after Lit Life, which was also fantastic.) Highly recommended.

The sequel I was waiting for!

After reading Wenzel's brilliant "Lit Life" I was left satisfied but was going to miss his bad-boy hero, Kyle Clayton. Thank God Wenzel has brought him back in "Gotham Tragic" - but with new twists. He's married a Muslim woman, also a brilliant turn of events. By the time you're through reading this novel about New York before the millenium turnover, you'll have seen a fatwa after Clayton, an elderly woman mysteriously writing a book proving the existence of God, a restaurant tycoon in the middle of an internet ipo disaster and much much more. And it's hilarious. 9/11 looms in foreshadowing which was wildly emphasized at a final party at the restaurant, City, which is where everything culminates at the big New Year's Eve party and bang - the you-know-what hits the fan. Wenzel's writing is succinct and clever, at times touching and sentimental for a New York before the big cloud. And I loved following Kyle Clayton for one more ride. He's the anti-hero, or as Wenzel calls him, the last great literary fool. Very fun and entertaining and still relevant literature in the way Bonfire of the Vanities was. A definite buy - you won't regret it!

LOVED IT

This book is awesome. If you liked Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, then you should read Gotham Tragic. The author uses a glamorous New York City restaurant as a backdrop for the antics that follow. The characters are all excellent--some are sympathetic, some are hilarious, some are despicable. The story is a page-turner that doesn't disappoint. I highly recommend this book!