What a beautiful essay! I read Love Affairs about a decade ago and loved it. I'd forgotten the book's powerful last paragraph of lost opportunity. Your essay makes me want to read the book again. And then read your essay again! Thank you.
Wow, thanks very much David! The last paragraph didn’t strike me the first time I read it as well; it’s quite a subtle rebuke (or perhaps that’s just my interpretation). Definitely recommend the reread!
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. is great, Adelle Waldman is a real one, and her followup Help Wanted was criminally undervalued when it came out, everyone should check it out
I’ve never read this book and now, thankfully, don’t have to. There are enough Nate’s in real life to sustain me. But I really enjoyed this whole article and the take away message, while unexpected, did a great job of bringing us around to the “why we should care.”
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. is one of the best contemporary novels, one that I've re-read many times. You make a great point about how the novel serves as a warning about the emptiness, and even rottenness, of any social scene, no matter how lofty such circles hold themselves as. In fact, the more high-minded they are, the more you have to put your guard up.
There are many that speak fondly of the now-defunct scenes of the 2010s, but also many more that celebrate their demise (I'm in the latter camp). But we also see the rise of the exact same tendencies and flaws in 2010s circles in today's scenes that are replacing them: the same clubbiness, the same circle-jerking, the same jockeying for status. And all for what? What came out of the Nathaniel P. circle except for now-mocked writings, broken friendships, and bad marriages?
Thanks Chris—it’s such a good novel, and definitely in part because it both makes Nate’s life seem so vividly alluring and warns you not to try and replicate it. The whole novel is a demonstration why his position and status are corrosive to the things Nate cares about—even if they seem glamorous.
All scenes are probably corrupt, but maybe a corrupt scene is better than no scene at all.
I haven't read Nathaniel P but I kind of wonder if the story wasn't overshadowed by #MeToo. She's writing about an arrogant, ambitious man and seems to capture his flaws very accurately, but I think #MeToo may have been somewhat too successful at suppressing male ambition in left-wing spaces.
Dear Greta,
What a beautiful essay! I read Love Affairs about a decade ago and loved it. I'd forgotten the book's powerful last paragraph of lost opportunity. Your essay makes me want to read the book again. And then read your essay again! Thank you.
Wow, thanks very much David! The last paragraph didn’t strike me the first time I read it as well; it’s quite a subtle rebuke (or perhaps that’s just my interpretation). Definitely recommend the reread!
It’s sort of an anti- Gatsby; Nate’s no longer beating those oars.
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. is great, Adelle Waldman is a real one, and her followup Help Wanted was criminally undervalued when it came out, everyone should check it out
I’ve never read this book and now, thankfully, don’t have to. There are enough Nate’s in real life to sustain me. But I really enjoyed this whole article and the take away message, while unexpected, did a great job of bringing us around to the “why we should care.”
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. is one of the best contemporary novels, one that I've re-read many times. You make a great point about how the novel serves as a warning about the emptiness, and even rottenness, of any social scene, no matter how lofty such circles hold themselves as. In fact, the more high-minded they are, the more you have to put your guard up.
There are many that speak fondly of the now-defunct scenes of the 2010s, but also many more that celebrate their demise (I'm in the latter camp). But we also see the rise of the exact same tendencies and flaws in 2010s circles in today's scenes that are replacing them: the same clubbiness, the same circle-jerking, the same jockeying for status. And all for what? What came out of the Nathaniel P. circle except for now-mocked writings, broken friendships, and bad marriages?
Thanks Chris—it’s such a good novel, and definitely in part because it both makes Nate’s life seem so vividly alluring and warns you not to try and replicate it. The whole novel is a demonstration why his position and status are corrosive to the things Nate cares about—even if they seem glamorous.
Nate reminds me a lot of DFW!
All scenes are probably corrupt, but maybe a corrupt scene is better than no scene at all.
I haven't read Nathaniel P but I kind of wonder if the story wasn't overshadowed by #MeToo. She's writing about an arrogant, ambitious man and seems to capture his flaws very accurately, but I think #MeToo may have been somewhat too successful at suppressing male ambition in left-wing spaces.