Reviews
A KINGDOM OF TENDER COLORS
A novelist, playwright, and screenwriter reflects on his cancer treatment in the 1990s and how it changed his life.
To be clear: the screenwriter and novelist Seth Greenland would have preferred not to have received a lymphoma diagnosis in 1993. But this is a guy who lives for artistic validation.
THE HAZARDS OF GOOD FORTUNE
The tragicomic odyssey of a virtuous man with a chink in his armor that proves his unlikely undoing.
Jonathan Margolis finds Seth Greenland's The Hazards of Good Fortune is too good to be a movie
The Hazards of Good Fortune by Seth Greenland (Europa, August). One of the year's sleeper blockbusters. Greenland, a natural-born storyteller, unleashes a Balzackian tale that ranges top to bottom through U.S. society, addressing the racial divide, the income gap, and political polarization.
Set in New York City in 2012, Greenland’s latest novel (after I Regret Everything) is grim satire and tragic social commentary on prejudice, corruption, greed, and social and economic privilege.
A gimlet-eyed writer observes the life of a New York property baron as it unravels amid personal, business, and legal woes.
Greenland takes up the realistic torch in his new novel, which casts a satiric eye on the inconvenient intersections between late-stage capitalism, racial politics and the unintended consequences of technology.
One of the most compelling novels I have read recently, this is a biting and clear-eyed social commentary set in New York during the Obama presidency. This profound novel incisively explores political and social divides in contemporary America.
Having written recently about Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of President Obama Barack at Washington’s National Gallery, I more than intrigued to visit the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles to see their exhibition Selections from Kehinde Wiley’s The World Stage: Israel. And when I did, the portraits called to mind a novel I'd just finished reading, Seth Greenland's The Hazards of Good Fortune.
Seth Greenland, the LA-based author, whose fifth book, “The Hazards of Good Fortune” hit stores August 21, only writes New York novels now.
Set in New York City in 2012, Greenland’s latest novel (after I Regret Everything) is grim satire and tragic social commentary on prejudice, corruption, greed, and social and economic privilege.
It used to be bad enough that the tabloids downgraded people to types and real life to melodrama. Now social media has compounded the problem, further shredding context and nuance, tempting its users to turn current events into morality plays with whatever good guy/bad guy/victim scenario fits their political formulas.
Set in New York City in 2012, Greenland’s latest novel (after I Regret Everything) is grim satire and tragic social commentary on prejudice, corruption, greed, and social and economic privilege.
I REGRET EVERYTHING
Q&A with Seth Greenland about his latest novel, 'I Regret Everything,' a bout with cancer and writing as a car
Book critic Moira Macdonald writes about Seth Greenland's novel I Regret Everything.
Take Two's book critic David Kipen, founder of Libros Schmibros, joins the show with his list of literary highlights for the coming month.
THE ANGRY BUDDHIST
In this novel, a congressional election in the Palm Springs area proves ruthless, messy and entertaining.
SHINING CITY
Seth Greenland's lively novel "Shining City" tells the story of a hardworking, unemployed San Fernando Valley resident who inherits a relative's business — and discovers that his new job title is "pimp."
Seth Greenland really knows how to take a mild-mannered Van Nuysian and put him through the ringer. Pity Marcus Ripps, the hero of Greenland's new comic novel, "Shining City."
Greenland's uproarious second novel (after The Bones ) follows the manifold ups and downs of Marcus Ripps, an unemployed and ill-fated altruist who inherits from his estranged brother an escort service run out of a Hollywood dry cleaning shop.
THE BONES
After years in the biz, Seth Greenland wrote his first novel — a satiric look at TV. Soon it'll be a movie. He appreciates the irony.
Be grateful for what you have. That's the moral of playwright/television writer Greenland's first novel, but what a wildly circuitous, over-the-top route we take to arrive at it.
Be grateful for what you have. That's the moral of playwright/television writer Greenland's first novel, but what a wildly circuitous, over-the-top route we take to arrive at it.
