Rating: 
Summary: Very aMUSEing...
Review: For his first novel, Czuchlewski did a fantastic job. His writing is filled with literary allusions to Dante, Borges, and Dickens, just to name a few. If the reader is familiar with these authors, then the allusions are extremely easy to find. The character developement is very well-written. As in most novels, there are parts that tend not to hold the reader's interest. With Czuchlewski, however, this is minimal. I became extremely engaged with the book, devouring it in one sitting. It is very easy to read and the plot is easy to follow. I can only hope that his second book, Empire of Light, is just as good.
Rating: 
Summary: Keep class assignments in our schools, not our bookstores
Review: I admit: I bought this on the strength of its cover. The cover art is brilliant. Unfortunately, it's the best part of the book. 'Metafiction' is very hip right now, and this author has clearly been graced with good connections (he thanks his writing teacher, Joyce Carol Oates, who also penned the blurb on the front cover). Reading the book feels eerily like reading a clever college student's creative writing assingment, which may explain my desire now to grade it. The story has some promise in terms of the plot (reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith), but on the whole the book is sophomoric and derivative. (There's a character in the book named "Earl Jenkins" with anterograde amnesia: I could almost see the author watching "Memento"--featuring a character with the same condition & a similar name--and running home to write about it, Oliver Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" at his side) This book will surely be embraced by a certain demographic. Discriminating readers, however, are better off admiring the cover and then moving on.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant!!
Review: I couldn't put this book down!! What an amazing debut for this young author. It is a psychological thriller/love story, and then there is the final, sardonic twist at the end. Who really is the author of this book? I loved reading THE MUSE ASYLUM. It is definitely my memorable novel of the summer of 2001.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable book!
Review: I finished reading this book a week ago and am still thinking about this one. What a remarkable book: well-written, an ingenius and intriguing story, and a page-turner to boot! If Hitchcock were alive and working today, this could very well be his next film. And no, I'm NOT going to say ANYTHING about the plot. If you're looking for a mystery that will grab you and keep you thinking about it long after you have read the last page, then I highly recommend this book. I can't wait for Mr. Czuchlewski's next book!
Rating:
Summary: Very good first novel with some loose ends
Review: I found Muse Asylum an engrossing page turner that eschews the post-modern self consciousness and gives us a story that we can't wait to watch unfold! On the downside, certain spots lacked plot neatness and vigilence. For example, it was just too easy to find Horace Jacob Little...it went from I'll never be able to do this to "bingo" I'll have my computer wiz friend break into some server and find out where he lives; could we have some legitimate failed attempts first...there was just too much build up to this guy's anyonimity to have this quick a solution. It's like Czuchlewski got bored and just moved on. That being said, the plot twists that build throughout the book do ramp up neatly resulting in a nice crescendo.
Rating:
Summary: Very good first novel with some loose ends
Review: I found Muse Asylum an engrossing page turner that eschews the post-modern self consciousness and gives us a story that we can't wait to watch unfold! On the downside, certain spots lacked plot neatness and vigilence. For example, it was just too easy to find Horace Jacob Little...it went from I'll never be able to do this to "bingo" I'll have my computer wiz friend break into some server and find out where he lives; could we have some legitimate failed attempts first...there was just too much build up to this guy's anyonimity to have this quick a solution. It's like Czuchlewski got bored and just moved on. That being said, the plot twists that build throughout the book do ramp up neatly resulting in a nice crescendo.
Rating:
Summary: to be read at your own risk
Review: I have read with great detail the book "The Muse Asylum" by David Czuchlewski. I cannot reveal to you the depth into which I have immersed my mind into this book, for in doing so I would reveal far too much about the identity of one Horace Jacob Little. I offer a random list of clues for the reader to analyze as heavily as I have.(1) David, a 2-syllable boy's name of Hebrew origin, means: Beloved one. (2) Jake, a 1-syllable boy's name of Hebrew origin, means: One who supplants; replaces. (3) Andrew, a 2-syllable boy's name of Greek origin, means: Manly; with strength. (4) Horace, a 2-syllable boy's name of Latin origin, means: One who marks time; to behold. (5) Muse, To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in meditation. (6) Asylum, A place offering protection and safety; a shelter. The clues are all there but I cannot reveal anymore. I fear for my safety having said what I have. Best,
Rating:
Summary: czuchlewski ?
Review: I listen for my muse and I can only hear her in silence. Writing is an intensely private process. I'm afraid there's no grand philosophical justification for my secrecy. The desire to know all about an author is a sign of laziness on the part of the reader. It's easier to digest a work of literature when you can attach it to a face, or a set of political beliefs or life-style choices. When all you have is the text, or a body of work, you have to confront what is written. -Horace Jacob Little (Interview with Jake Burnett in the Manhattan Ledger) Journalist Jake Burnett, though fresh out of Princeton, has settled for a job on the Manhattan Ledger : People considered it an alternative to the New York Press, which was an alternative to The Village Voice, which was itself an alternative to the mainstream dailies. At a lunch with his editor, a frustrated and drunken man who once showed some promise, Jake is perhaps a tad too effusive in his praise for Horace Jacob Little, author of stories reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges, but a notorious recluse who has guarded his privacy for decades with the determination of a Salinger or a Pynchon. The editor, motivated as much by bitterness and professional jealousy as by the desire for a journalistic coup, assigns Jake to find and profile the author. At the same time, Jake meets an old girlfriend from college, Lara Knowles, a blue-blooded beauty from Connecticut. In flashbacks, Jake recalls their relationship and that he once lent her a book by Little, with whom she too became besotted. Now Lara asks him to get in touch with, Andrew Wallace, who she dated after Jake. Andrew was a brilliant student, but, having undertaken a thesis on Little in order to impress Lara, began to lose his grip on reality and developed paranoid delusion that Little was out to get him. Lara gives Jake a copy of The Confessions of Andrew Wallace, which Andrew has been writing while receiving treatment at Overlook Psychiatric Hospital in Upstate New York, known as the Muse Asylum because it caters to gifted but disturbed artists. In the Confessions, Andrew describes his theories about Little, most prominent among them that the author's midcareer change in writing style occurred when another writer killed Little and took his place. As Jake pursues Horace Jacob Little, and Andrew's paranoid obsession continues, first time author, recent Princeton grad, and current medical student, David Czuchlewski uses his very clever plot to ruminate on the relationship between the author and his public and draws the reader into some delightfully puzzling speculation about what it is truly possible to know about an author and whether it is necessary to know them in order to understand what they've written. I suppose I can pay this novel no higher compliment than to admit that it had me quite discombobulated. I found a galley proof at a book sale and noticed the positively glowing cover blurb from Joyce Carol Oates : The Muse Asylum is an ingeniously plotted postmodernist mystery that introduces a young writer of exceptional gifts. David Czuchlewski writes with imagination, vision, and style. That's pretty high praise for a neophyte. Intrigued, I opened the book and found the explanation in the author's dedication : Thanks to Joyce Carol Oates, my teacher and advisor, without whom I would not have started, completed, or published this novel. That's a common enough occurrence in the publishing world--one of the weekly magazines even used to track the incestuous world of blurbing, either The New Republic or National Review or someone like that--but amusing nonetheless. However, the description of the book sounded interesting, so I grabbed it. Then I started reading it and got caught up in all intricacies of the story and the mystery of whether Horace Jacob Little even exists and how anyone can know for sure... Gradually it began to occur to me that the whole book might be nothing more than a hoax, an elaborate and ironic comment by Oates or a writer friend, in which the point was not merely that there's no Horace Jacob Little in the novel, but that there's no David Czuchlewski in real life. Art imitates life, imitates art, and so on. Finally, after a scene in which a computer whiz friend helps Jake find Little's email address, I too sent an email to that address, wondering if this might somehow be a game within the game, which a discerning reader was supposed to figure out. Suffice it to say, there was no such address. At any rate, it's a terrific novel, especially if it is the maiden effort of a 24 year old medical student. Which I'm still not convinced it is.... GRADE : A
Rating:
Summary: Sharply devised and moving
Review: Jake Burnett is a freelance journalist working for a New York paper, the "Ledger". Since being a high school senior, Jake has always been a passionate admirer and reader of Horace Jacob Little's fiction. This author is much talked about because he is famous for the strange circumstances of his personality, his seclusion and his solitude. In fact, since nobody has ever approached him, Horace Jacob Little is not much more than a fiction himself. His true identity is a mystery, not even his literary agents have ever met him since they only communicate with him via a post office box. All of his books only feature a blank cover. There are no illustrations, no biographies and no photographs of Horace Jacob Little. He has never granted an interview and no one knows what he looks like or where he lives.
One morning at Princeton university, Jake attends a lecture given by Professor Mullin about the works of Horace Jacob Little when suddenly a man inches up the side aisle, climbs onto the stage and, after a few confused sentences, identifies himself as Horace Jacob Little. But is it really him? Jake's startled and hyperalert classmate Andrew Wallace has no doubt about it: "If this isn't Horace Jacob Little, then who is? Who is?"
And so begins Jake's awkward search of Horace Jacob Little. Perhaps Andrew's "Confessions" which he wrote at the Overlook Psychiatric Institute - a place for the artistic mentally ill, a house full of painters, musician and writers - also called The Muse Asylum and in which he purports to reveal the secret of Horace Jacob Little's identity will be of some help for Jake...
A very ingeniously plotted postmodernist literary thriller.
Philippe Horak / phorak@gibz.ch
Rating:
Summary: Sharply devised and moving
Review: Jake Burnett is a freelance journalist working for a New York paper, the "Ledger". Since being a high school senior, Jake has always been a passionate admirer and reader of Horace Jacob Little's fiction. This author is much talked about because he is famous for the strange circumstances of his personality, his seclusion and his solitude. In fact, since nobody has ever approached him, Horace Jacob Little is not much more than a fiction himself. His true identity is a mystery, not even his literary agents have ever met him since they only communicate with him via a post office box. All of his books only feature a blank cover. There are no illustrations, no biographies and no photographs of Horace Jacob Little. He has never granted an interview and no one knows what he looks like or where he lives.
One morning at Princeton university, Jake attends a lecture given by Professor Mullin about the works of Horace Jacob Little when suddenly a man inches up the side aisle, climbs onto the stage and, after a few confused sentences, identifies himself as Horace Jacob Little. But is it really him? Jake's startled and hyperalert classmate Andrew Wallace has no doubt about it: "If this isn't Horace Jacob Little, then who is? Who is??
And so begins Jake's awkward search of Horace Jacob Little. Perhaps Andrew's "Confessions" which he wrote at the Overlook Psychiatric Institute - a place for the artistic mentally ill, a house full of painters, musician and writers - also called The Muse Asylum and in which he purports to reveal the secret of Horace Jacob Little's identity will be of some help for Jake...
A very ingeniously plotted postmodernist literary thriller.
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