Rating: 
Summary: taking barthes at his word
Review: This is honestly one of the best five books I've read in the past five years. Fusing elements of Mc Inerney's narrators, the pulling if-you-stop-reading-you-will-be-killed narrative of both Foucault's Pendulum and the stunning House of Leaves, as well as inside moments that only grad students in literature can possibly appreciate, this book is the perfect taco. Super suspenseful, scary, and beyond smart. I just can't say enough in praise of it.
Rating:
Summary: taking barthes at his word
Review: This is honestly one of the best five books I've read in the past five years. Fusing elements of Mc Inerney's narrators, the pulling if-you-stop-reading-you-will-be-killed narrative of both Foucault's Pendulum and the stunning House of Leaves, as well as inside moments that only grad students in literature can possibly appreciate, this book is the perfect taco. Super suspenseful, scary, and beyond smart. I just can't say enough in praise of it.
Rating: 
Summary: I am proud to attend his alma mata
Review: Today, this man came to his old high school, and read exerts from his book "The Muse Asylum." At first, I was a bit skeptical of the power of such a young man, but I figured I owed it to him to check it out.I am only a freshman, yet he sold it to me. David did such a great job on this novel, that within 3 hours of collecting it, I am almost finished. The reading of the book entrances you into what exactly is sanity, and how easy it is for one to loose themself in paranoia and love. The characters are good, and Professor Mullins was named after the junior English instructor. :) I highly recommend this book, not because this author attended my high school, but because this is a brilliant piece of psychological entrapment.
Rating:
Summary: Diagnosis: Genius
Review: What is it about reclusive authors that inspire literary-minded people to such heights of obsession that they lose all sense of the impossible? Do they imagine that the JD Salingers and Richard Brautigans of the world have broken free from all the mundane demands of reality, existing on a plane far above the mere human, pondering the truth from the Olympic heights of genius? Might they know the truth about everything that we are? Or are they just frightened? Perhaps they're frauds, as fallible as the Wizard of Oz struggling behind his curtain. Perhaps they're not who they say they are at all. Maybe they're alien space creatures in disguise, come to open the way to celestial invasion. The possibilities are endless. Daniel Czuchlewski has written a first novel that explores these mysteries with a unique combination of urbane style and clever playfulness. Three of his main characters, Jake Burnett, Andrew Wallace, and Lara Knowles, are Princeton-polished children of the privilegentsia, filled with innocent notions of truth and beauty, striving for a toe-hold in the real world while casting wistful glances back at the illusory one of their youth. The fourth is an author whose writings have drawn each of them into a world they have an increasingly hard time escaping. Horace Jacob Little is a literary pied piper, a genius, whose absence from the physical world has created a black hole which sucks in those who live for the tantalizing insights in his books and short stories. During college, Czuchlewski's three protagonists introduce each other to the lore of Horace Jacob Little. His ideas about identity, and humanity, speak to each of their lives in a unique way, but Andrew becomes convinced that Horace Jacob Little is his personal muse and nemesis. His life revolves more and more around the premise that Horace Jacob Little knows who he is, and can't tolerate his existence in the same world. The story revolves around Andrew's questionable sanity, Jake's journalistic probe into the reality of Horace Jacob Little, and the love the two young men share for the heroine, Lara Knowles. The plot is filled with the cleverest twists and turns, and the characters evolve, ever so subtly, from Whit Stillman clones into multi-faceted, thoughtful young people, empty vessels who become richer, and stronger, after being filled with the sometimes bitter exlir of experience. There is a fifth main character in the book, too--the Muse Asylum itself, inspired no doubt from the McClean Institute in Pennsylvania. The Muse Asylum, a sanitarium for artists, is a repository of gentleness and humanity, a place where genius finds refuge and snuggles up comfortably with insanity, where no judgements are allowed. But is it really? As Andrew Wallace's struggle with his arch-enemy Horace Jacob Little unfolds amid the gracious interiors of the old mansion in upstate New York, the truth seems to have lots of colorful facets. This is a superb first novel, a tight story graced with a rare stylistic elegance, filled with many more questions than answers. One suspects that Czuchlewski is no stranger to obsession, or at least compulsion--on the book jacket it mentions that he's attending med school in New York even as he works on his second novel. Maybe the second novel will delve into the mysteries and secrets in the life of a prodigy.
Rating:
Summary: A promising debut
Review: When I first started reading David Czuchlewski's debut novel, I must admit I was disappointed. The book seemed to be heavily flawed and while a definite talent did sign through, I didn't expect to be impressed by the time I finished it. All I can say to anyone who has a similar reaction is that this is a book you must stick with until the very last page! Because as the book's ironic yet appropriate ending approached, it quickly became obvious that must of what I had previously dismissed was instead Czuchlewski's carefully and subtly setting up one of the strongest endings I've ever read. The book itself deals with two Princeton grads who find themselves lost outside of the confines of the Ivy League. (The author, himself, went to Princeton and his university scenes are the strongest in the book.) Both are aspiring writers, both are obsessed with a Pynchonesque writer named Horace Jacob Little who is infamous for never having been seen in public, and both are still in love with classmate Lara Knowles. The only real difference -- Andrew Wallace is crazy and Jacob Burnett isn't. Or so were allowed to initially believe but to be honest, as Burnett tracks down Little and Wallace explains why he's convinced Little is out to get him, it becomes harded and harder to determine what's sane and what isn't. By the end of the book, the reader is truly left wondering just what exactly is real and what's just imagination gone rampant. That said, this is a first novel and its hardly perfect. The prose alternates between being clunky and overly florid and most of the secondary characters are a little bit flat. As well, Lara is a shallowly written character and its hard to imagine such a vapid person entrancing one lover -- let alone two! As well, the examples of Little's prose that are included in the text don't actually read that well. After being assured this man is the world's greatest living writer, I couldn't help but be let down by the writing samples included in the book. Much like Lara, Little doesn't seem all that worthy of the obsessions. Then again, after reading the ending, I found myself wondering if perhaps that was intentional on Czuchlewski's part as well. This is a book that, by its conclusion, forces you to question everything. Beyond all of that, though, what I really appreciated was the way the author captured the way a well-written book can bring two people together. Reading about how both Andy and Jacob cemented their affairs with Lara over their mutual love for Little took me back to many years past, when me and my then-girlfriend would spend hours reading Raymond Carver to each other. I'm sure every aspiring writer and book lover has a similar memory and The Muse Asylum taps into those memories beautifully.
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