Word: eisenstadt
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...EISENSTADT'S imagination has served her well for the novel's Rockaway scenes--which emerge as perceptive, believeable, and realistic. No one will find Eisenstadt's characters as jaded and junky as Ellis' typical waste cases, and she is quite defensive about that difference. "I don't think my characters have slept with 72 people. They're not cynical about what's happened to them or what hasn't happened to them. They're not full of loathing and spite," Eisenstadt says. "They're just looking for love...
Well, maybe some of them are, but it's hard to call Eisenstadt's subjects soft and sensitive, although they are often quite funny in their callousness...
What many readers who remember their own college days will find troubling in From Rockaway are the Camden College scenes--full of bleary-eyed dialogue, Dress To Get Laid parties, and a lot of action without much thought. Once again, Eisenstadt claims this was nothing like her own experience at Bennington, which she says she "liked a lot, but I'm sure everyone is picturing fictional Camden." She adds that "Bennington is really a very good school. I really worked very hard. I didn't have much of a social life there, which is funny considering how the book comes...
...EISENSTADT IS particularly uncomfortable with being grouped in the literary brat pack that includes Ellis, Tama Janowitz, Jay McInerney and others. "I've gotten a lot of vicious reviews and I of course hate it," she says. "But you end up being criticized for what collectively is wrong with the books. Whereas there are things wrong with my book, of course, but they don't end up saying that because they're not looking at the individual book...
...think it mostly has to do with that we're young and certain people don't like the idea that we're getting books published, which is their right. But it's not really our fault," Eisenstadt adds. "I sometimes wonder if I were middle-aged what the reviews would be like, because they'd be a lot different. But I guess I wouldn't have written a book like this if I were middle-aged...