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Guests | May 15, 2013
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The Virginby Erik Barmack
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:When Joseph Braun decides to lie his way onto the Network's hottest new reality show, he's sure he'll find what he's always sought: attention fame and, perhaps, love. But once he lands a spot on "The Virgin," a show in which a twenty-six-year old beauty named Madison offers to relinquish her virginity, he realizes that he's in way over his head. And Madison might hold secrets of her own...
Review:"In Barmack's glib, ironical debut, Joseph Braun, a lost, unemployed slacker, transforms himself into Jeb Brown, a more confident and less ethnic version of himself, in order to weasel his way onto a reality TV show. 'The Camera loves honesty. The Camera seeks integrity,' says one production assistant — and Jeb plans to deliver it. The show is called The Virgin, and on it our purported hero must compete against various stock characters — Shep, the cowboy; Favre, the football player; Cody, the 'man-child' — for the right to woo and deflower a 26-year-old virgin. The story hews closely to the slow winnowing down of the show's contestants as Madison, aka the Virgin, chooses among her various suitors as they take her on staged dates in semiexotic locales. Aiming past a too-easy satire of reality television, Barmack reaches to make the book a parable of a generation looking for an identity. No one here is what he seems to be. By the end, 'Fat Jack... is no longer fat,' teetotaling Greg the Christian is washing 'greasy chicken bits down with beer,' and, in the ultimate twist, the Virgin is something else entirely. Though the story moves quickly and the prose can be wryly comic, the book, like its main characters, is a bit confused as to what it wants to be. Agent, Byrd Leavell III. (Jan. 5)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:"A deadpan wit and surprising heart that will remind readers of Nick Hornby... The Virgin scores big." Kurt Wenzel, author of Lit Life and Gotham Tragic
Review:"If Nathanael West and Brett Easton Ellis had a child, he might be Erik Barmack... The Virgin is quirkily, compulsively original." Tama Janowitz, author of Slaves of New York
Review:"A dazzling literary debut that will catapult Erik Barmack to the front rank of contemporary authors. The Virgin isn't simply a novel about a reality show. It's about the search for authenticity and meaning in our media-saturated, fame-obsessed culture." Toby Young, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People: A Memoir
Review:"A wry, clever satire of pop culture's current infatuation with humiliation and triumph." Rebecca Godfrey, author of The Torn Skirt
Review:"The Virgin is an extremely well-written psychological exploration of our reality TV culture. Erik Barmack takes us very authentically behind the scenes and into the minds of people looking for love in public places. Imaginative, dark, and often uncannily accurate and insightful, this book is not to be missed. Read it!" Alex Michel, The Original "Bachelor"
Synopsis:An electric, darkly comic novel set in the world of reality television.
Synopsis:"A deadpan wit and surprising heart that will remind readers of Nick Hornby. . . The Virgin scores big." - Kurt Wenzel, author of Lit Life and Gotham Tragic "A dazzling literary debut that will catapult Erik Barmack to the front rank of contemporary authors. The Virgin isn't simply a novel about a reality show. It's about the search for authenticity and meaning in our media-saturated, fame-obsessed culture." - Toby Young, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People: A Memoir "If Nathanael West and Brett Easton Ellis had a child, he might be Erik Barmack. . . The Virgin is quirkily, compulsively original." - Tama Janowitz, author of Peyton Amberg and Slaves of New York
"A wry, clever satire of pop culture's current infatuation with humiliation and triumph." - Rebecca Godfrey, author of The Torn Skirt "An engaging exploration of the crisis of authenticity in our Televisual Age. With its shimmering surface and its undertow of despair and disorientation, The Virgin reads like an updated Bright Lights, Big City." - Chris Bachelder, author of Bear v. Shark: The Novel "The Virgin is a taut, gripping read from start to finish. Erik Barmack skewers the reality show industry with panache, intelligence, and a surprising amount of heart." - Aaron Hamburger, author of The View from Stalin's Head "The Virgin is an extremely well-written psychological exploration of our reality TV culture. Erik Barmack takes us very authentically behind the scenes and into the minds of people looking for love in public places. Imaginative, dark, and often uncannily accurate and insightful, this book is not to be missed. Read it!" - Alex Michel, The Original "Bachelor" About the AuthorErik Barmack's short stories, essays, and articles have appeared in numerous publications such as The Sporting News and The Atlantic Monthly Online. Born in 1973 and raised in Portland, Oregon, he holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of Michigan, where he received a Hopwood Award in creative writing. He lives in Brooklyn.
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