Ten Years in the Tub (135 page)

The book that made me happiest this month was Jessica Anya Blau's picaresque, properly funny, unpredictable, and altogether irrepressible
The Wonder Bread Summer
; it made me so happy that after I'd read it, in two days flat, I bought everything I could find by the same author. Why can't I ever find novels like this? The last time I can remember feeling quite as buoyed by a work of fiction, and as charmed by a writer, was when I discovered Charles Portis, who wrote
True Grit
and
Norwood
, and Blau reminds me of Portis in lots of ways. Her characters and her set pieces would seem too giddy in the hands of a less talented writer, and I certainly couldn't synopsize thoroughly without doing her a grave disservice. But she has a steady nerve, as well as a wicked imagination, and she takes her craft seriously—her situations and her characters are real, to her and therefore to us, and it takes you a little while to realize that what
you're reading is top-notch comic writing, because you're getting all the stuff you normally get in literary fiction as well: rites of passage, the complications of fractured family, the works.

The eponymous summer is the summer of 1983; the eponymous Wonder Bread is actually only a plastic bag; the bread has been removed, and in its place is a whole pile of cocaine belonging to a drug-dealing boutique owner called Jonas, who, as the novel opens, is exposing himself to one of his employees, twenty-year-old Allie, who's working in the boutique during her summer break from college. Allie does not wish to see Jonas's penis, particularly, and in any case is owed money; she grabs the Wonder Bread bag and disappears. That's the setup. I'd been sent a proof, and only really intended to do the author the courtesy of reading the first couple of pages, but wherever Allie was going, I wanted to go with her. One of the remarkable things about Blau's novel is that while she recognizes the vulnerability of attractive young girls, she doesn't allow it to cripple them; they deal with the hand they've been played, and as a consequence, Blau writes about sex with a perspective that seems fresh to me.

There are many passages that I would like to read to you—Allie's first hapless attempt to sell some of the cocaine she's stolen, without scales, or bags, or any clue as to the street value of any drug, is a joy—but perhaps the most surprising moment is when Allie meets Billy Idol, offers him cocaine (he accepts the offer with enthusiasm), and then has sex with him. I can't recall another novel in which a real living person turns up with quite such…
aplomb
. Mr. Idol, according to Ms. Blau, has “a dick… the size of two Babe Ruth candy bars, side by side,” a description that may be flattering enough to ward off any awkward lawyers' letters. (Actually, what the hell do I know? We don't have Babe Ruth bars here in the U.K.) This is Billy Idol's only appearance in the books I read this month. There are, I can tell you, worse books to appear in, as Noel Gallagher and Henry VIII might tell you.

Index of Stuff He's Been Reading

9/11 Commission Report
135

Abbott, Megan
403
,
406-7
,
429
,
432-3

      
Bury Me Deep
407

      
Dare Me
429
,
432-3

      
The End of Everything
403
,
406-7

Ackroyd, Peter
74
,
83-4
,
398

Adams, Tim
31-2

      
On Being John McEnroe
31-2

Alexie, Sherman
283
,
286-7

      
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
283
,
286-7

Alighieri, Dante
125

Allan, Clare
251
,
256

      
Poppy Shakespeare
251
,
256

Almond, David
259
,
262-3
,
263
,
266
,
365
,
370

      
Clay
263

      
My Name Is Mina
365
,
370

      
Skellig
262-3
,
266
,
370

Amidon, Stephen
429
,
433-4

      
Something Like the Gods
429
,
433-4

Amis, Kingsley
101
,
190

      
Lucky Jim
119

      
The Letters of Kingsley Amis
101

Amis, Martin
82-3
,
100
,
153

      
Experience
82-3

      
Money
153

Anderson, M. T.
277
,
299-300
,
305

      
Feed
277
,
299-300

      
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation
305

Angelou, Maya
380

Anthony, Andrew
271-4

      
The Fall-Out
271-4

Aristophanes
172
,
351

      
The Frogs
172

      
Lysistrata
351

Arndt, Bettina
385

      
The Sex Diaries
385

Arnott, Jake
63
,
68

      
The Long Firm
63
,
68

Ashon, Will
225

      
Clear Water
225

Assis, Machado de
385
,
388

      
Epitaph of a Small Winner
385

Associated London Scripts
296-7

Atkinson, Kate
129
,
135
,
138
,
146

      
Case Histories
129
,
135
,
138
,
146

Auden, W. H.
28
,
337
,
417

Auseon, Andrew
197

      
Funny Little Monkey
197

Austen, Jane
101
,
119
,
156
,
158
,
250
,
348

      
Persuasion
435
,
437

      
Pride and Prejudice
268

Babel, Isaac
314

Bach, Richard

      
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
124
,
141-2

Bailey, Blake
31
,
37
,
39
,
104
,
356

      
A Tragic Honesty
31
,
37
,
39
,
104
,
356

Bainbridge, Beryl
37

      
Master Georgie
37

Baker, Nicholson
347
,
353-4

      
The Anthologist
347
,
353-4

Bakewell, Sarah
333
,
339
,
342-4
,
356
,
398

      
How to Live
333
,
339
,
342-4
,
356
,
398

Balchin, Nigel
191
,
194

      
Darkness Falls from the Air
191
,
194

Bamberger, Michael
153

      
Wonderland
153

Bangs, Lester
390

Bank, Melissa
147
,
151-2

      
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
151

      
The Wonder Spot
147
,
151-2

Banks, Iain M.
147-9
,
150
,
152

      
Excession
147-9

Banks, Russell
283
,
285-6

      
The Darling
283
,
285-6

Barlow, Toby
259
,
263-4

      
Sharp Teeth
259
,
263-4

Barnes, Julian
119

Barrie, J. M.
232
,
321
,
323

      
Peter Pan
321
,
323

Bart, Lionel
418
,
420

Barthelme, Donald
51
,
53
,
60
,
195-6

      
Sixty Stories
51

Barthes, Roland

      
S/Z
124

Bartram, Simon
129

      
The Man on the Moon
129
,
133-4

Batuman, Elif
313-4

      
The Possessed
313-4

Baumbach, Noah
192

Bawden, Nina
321
,
324-5

      
The Birds on the Trees
321
,
324-5

Baxter, Charles
25
,
43
,
45

      
Feast of Love
25

      
Saul and Patsy
43

Bayard, Pierre

      
How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read
285

Bechdel, Alison
225
,
230

      
Fun Home
225
,
230

Beckett, Samuel
91-92
,
140
,
426

Beevor, Antony
120
,
150

      
Stalingrad
120
,
150

Believer,
the
38-9
,
44
,
45
,
54
,
60
,
67
,
75
,
123
,
124
,
129
,
147
,
148
,
154
,
157-61
,
175
,
179
,
200
,
220
,
225
,
246
,
286
,
293
,
305
,
333
,
344
,
347
,
348
,
356
,
357
,
360
,
363
,
376
,
385
,
388
,
396
,
436
,
443
,
444
,
454

      
Book Award
259

      
fact-checkers
104
,
412

Benchley, Robert
356

Bennett, Alan
36
,
177

      
Untold Stories
177

Bernanos, Georges

      
The Diary of a Country Priest
159
,
164

Best American Comics
277

Best American Nonrequired Reading
277

Betjeman, John
194
,
242

Bishop, Elizabeth
336
,
354

Biskind, Peter
98

Bissinger, Buzz

      
After Friday Night Lights
429
,
431

Bissinger, H. G.

      
Friday Night Lights
365
,
369-70

Blake, William
262
,
370

Blau, Jessica Anya
459
,
463-4

      
Drinking Closer to Home
459

      
The Summer of Naked Swim Parties
459

      
The Wonder Bread Summer
459
,
463-4

Block, Francesca Lia
265-7

      
Necklace of Kisses
265

      
Weetzie Bat
266-7

Bloom, Harold
72
,
124

Bloomsbury Classics
216

Blyton, Enid
136

Bone, George
66-7

Book Soup
45

Booker Prize
120
,
205
,
324

Boxall, Peter

      
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
240

British Library Sound Archive
42

Brookner, Anita
136
,
192

Brown, Andrew
313
,
314

      
Fishing in Utopia
317-8

Brown, Chester
75
,
81

      
I Never Liked You
75
,
81

Brown, Dan

      
The Da Vinci Code
172

Brown, Gordon
147

      
Maxton
147

Brown, Larry
205
,
210
,
211
,
213-4

      
On Fire
205
,
210
,
211
,
213-4

Buchan, John
57
,
129
,
185

      
Greenmantle
57
,
62

      
The Complete Richard Hannay
57

Bulgakov, Mikhail
340

      
The Master and Margarita
340

Burgess, Anthony
171
,
172
,
174

Burke, James Lee
119

Business Traveller
magazine
363

Byliner
431

Calder, Angus
251

      
The Myth of the Blitz
251

Callender, Craig and Ralph Edney
51

      
Introducing Time
51
,
56

Cambridge University Press
461

Camus, Albert
267

      
L'Étranger
154

Capote, Truman
141
,
144-5

      
In Cold Blood
141
,
144-5

Carey, John
171
,
176
,
177
,
182-3
,
194

      
Pure Pleasure
183

      
The Intellectuals and the Masses
182

      
The Violent Effigy
348

      
What Good Are the Arts?
171
,
177
,
182
,
297

Carnegie Medalists
267

Carpenter, Don
334-5
,
438

      
Hard Rain Falling
334
,
335

Carroll, Lewis
262

Cather, Willa
244

Cercas, Javier
101
,
123

      
Soldiers of Salamis
101
,
123
,
128

Chabon, Michael
81
,
84
,
107
,
188

      
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
188

      
The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist
81

      
Wonder Boys
107

Chambers, Roland
359

      
The Last Englishman
359

Chang, Jung
201

      
Wild Swans
201

Charlotte Observer
268

Chaucer, Geoffrey
340
,
367

Chekhov, Anton
106
,
107
,
109-12
,
123
,
323