Indecision

Benjamin Kunkel's brilliantly comic debut novel concerns one of the central maladies of our time-a pathological indecision that turns abundance into an affliction and opportunity into a curse. Dwight B. Wilmerding is only twenty-eight, but he's having a midlife crisis. Of course, living a dissolute, dorm like existence in a tiny apartment and working in tech support at the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer are not especially conducive to wisdom. And a few sessions of psychoanalysis conducted by his sister have distinctly failed to help with his""biggest problem: a chronic inability to make up his mind. Encouraged by one of his roommates to try an experimental pharmaceutical meant to banish indecision, Dwight jumps at the chance (not without some meditation on the hazards of jumping) and swallows the first fateful pill. And when all at once he is "pfired" from Pfizer and invited to a rendezvous in exotic Ecuador with the girl of his long-ago prep-school dreams, he finds himself on the brink of a new life. The trouble-well, one of the troubles-is that Dwight can't decide if the pills are working. Deep in the jungles of the Amazon, in the foreign country of a changed outlook, his would-be romantic escape becomes a hilarious journey into unbidden responsibility and unwelcome knowledge. How to affirm happiness without living in constant denial of the ways of the world? How to commit, and to what? At once funny and poignant, gentle and outrageous, finely intelligent and proudly silly, Indecision""rings with a voice of great energy and originality, while its deeper inquiries reflect the concerns and style of a generation. "Here's what "Indecision" gives you: sustained social and intellectual comedy, possibly the last but certainly the funniest Superfluous Man in modern literature, drive-by satire, plus detailed set-piece send-ups of Young Adult colgrads at work and play. The mockery is humane. The tale of Dwight Wilmerding is told with style and care. And there's a surprising ending. Benjamin Kunkel, welcome!" -Norman Rush, author of "Mating" "From the Hardcover edition."

Review :
"Here's what "Indecision" gives you: sustained social and intellectual comedy, possibly the last but certainly the funniest Superfluous Man in modern literature, drive-by satire plus detailed set-piece send-ups of Young Adult colgrads at work and play. The mockery is humane. The tale of Dwight Wilmerding is told with style and care. And there's a surprising ending. Benjamin Kunkel, welcome!" -Norman Rush, author of "Mating" and "Mortals" "Very funny...The prose itself offers much pleasure. Kunkel would have given Stanley Elkin a run for his money in the clever metaphor department... Because he's young and uses big words, Kunkel may unfairly be compared to David Foster Wallace or Rick Moody, but unlike them he has succeeded in writing a novel that's clever without being self-conscious. Dwight's plot never plays second-fiddle to Benjamin Kunkel's intelligence. My advice? Read this one." -"Washington Post Book World" "Kunkel manages to whip up a cerebral novel that doesn't feel overly, uh, cerebral...Funny." -"Village Voice" "Do not fear Kunkel as a new Jay McInerney or Brett Easton Ellis. Neither of those writers is capable of the generosity and sweetness that dog Dwight. Neither are capable of writing so smartly funny...Read "Indecision" with a smile on your face. The fate of Dwight Wilmerding is zany, surprising and strangely affecting." -"Cleveland Plain-Dealer" "Sophisticated...[The] prose alone strongly hints at the depth of Kunkel's skills, which is to say, quite simply, he's for real." -"The San Francisco Chronicle" "Kunkel's narrator has an appealingly rascally voice, and the author is expert at depicting highbrow buffoonery-at an all-night Ecstasy party, flesh and philosophy commingle to hilarious effect...crisp prose." -"The New Yorker" "Kunkel tackles serious modern concerns-continued poverty in the developing world, the pervasiveness of psychotropic drugs-with dexterous lin