Synopses & Reviews
Henry Bay has his own America going. If there's an offbeat interest or extreme sport that's poised to sweep the nation, chances are there's a magazine for its enthusiasts, and chances are also good that Henry has worked there. He's a modern nomad, associate-editing his way from state to state, exploring the small worlds that make up modern America from
Spelunk to
Ice Climbing, to
Cozy, The Magazine of Tea.
But those are other people's interests — Henry's still looking for his own enthusiasm. He ends up finding more than he ever imagined in this energetic, hilarious debut novel from a surprising and promising new voice.
Review
"A charming, sly, and even wise first novel. [Haas] skillfully sketches memorable characters and places with a few pithy sentences, and his dialogue is often arch and very funny." Booklist
Review
"[An] eccentric, slyly romantic debut novel....[T]he book captures something at once fragile and vital — the excitement of the ordinary, the exhilaration of the everyday." San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
Review
"[The Enthusiast] isn't just a picaresque ride through the weirder side of the magazine industry, but a super-extended coming-of-age story. And a good one, too." The Onion AV Club
Review
"I am having the most wonderful day, lying on the couch and reading Charlie Haas's brilliant book. It is wonderfully written, charming, wise, sometimes funny, always real. Henry is the perfect narrator, and the book reads like a dream." Anne Lamott
Review
"As impossible to categorize as it is to put down. The Enthusiast occupies a smart, weirdly fascinating, sometimes laugh-out-loud, ever soulful universe all its own. As close to perfect as any first novel should ever be allowed to be." Jerry Stahl, author of I, Fatty and Pain Killers
Synopsis
Henry Bay has his own America going. If there's an offbeat interest or extreme sport that's poised to sweep the nation, chances are there's a magazine for its enthusiasts, and chances are also good that Henry has worked there. He's a modern nomad, associate-editing his way from state to state, exploring the small worlds that make up modern America from
Spelunk to Ice Climbing, to Cozy, The Magazine of Tea.
But those are other people's interests—Henry's still looking for his own enthusiasm. He ends up finding more than he ever imagined in this energetic, hilarious debut novel from a surprising and promising new voice.
Synopsis
Henry Bay is a modern nomad, associate-editing his way from state to state, exploring the small worlds that make up modern America in a string of comic literary adventures.
About the Author
Charlie Haas's writing has appeared in Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, among many other journals. His screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. He lives in Oakland with his wife, the writer and editor B. K. Moran.