Synopses & Reviews
Bankers prowl Brooklyn bars on the eve of the stock market crash. A debate over Young Elvis versus Vegas Elvis turns existential. Detoxing junkies use a live lobster to spice up their love life. Students on summer break struggle to escape the orbit of a seemingly utopic communal house.
And in the title story, selected for The Best American Short Stories, two film school buddies working on a doomed project are left sizing up their own talent, hoping to come out on top — but fearing they won't.
In What's Important Is Feeling, Adam Wilson follows the through-line of contemporary coming-of-age from the ravings of teenage lust to the staggering loneliness of proto-adulthood. He navigates the tough terrain of American life with a delicate balance of comedy and compassion, lyricism and unsparing straightforwardness. Wilson's characters wander through a purgatory of yearning, hope, and grief. No one emerges unscathed.
Review
“The stories in Adam Wilson's Whats Important Is Feeling blend humor with emotion.” Vanity Fair
Review
“Adam Wilson is one of our best young writers.” Flavorwire
Review
“This book will bring you back to the wandering, blurred-together days of your early twenties, or, if you're a younger person with creative aspirations, remind you of your very real present.” GQ.com
Review
“With its tales of young men and women who cant quite grow-up, is about addiction, fear, sickness, self-doubt, family and love. But it asks us to respect its dark and damaged characters and to come feel what they feel, even if its for just a moment in time.” ZYZZYVA
Review
“Getting laughs and pathos from the same work of fiction is a hard thing to do. Adam Wilson's previous book, Flatscreen, did so regularly....As good as that book was, his new collection What's Important is Feeling, is even better.” VOL. 1. BROOKLYN
Review
“Adam Wilson is a writer on the rise.” Buzzfeed
Review
“[A] testosterone- and coke-fueled collection....Darkly funny.” Entertainment Weekly
About the Author
Adam Wilson is the author of the novel Flatscreen, a National Jewish Book Award finalist. His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Tin House, and The Best American Short Stories, among many other publications. In 2012 he received the Terry Southern Prize, which recognizes "wit, panache, and sprezzatura" in work published by The Paris Review. He teaches creative writing at New York University and lives in Brooklyn.