new novel gets Pynchon comparison

[ahague]

Anyone out there read it?


Alex

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org]On
Behalf Of Doug Millison
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 7:03 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: new novel gets Pynchon comparison


from today's PW Daily:

Four Walls Eight Windows Finds Entree to Bestseller List

Steven Kotler's first novel may be called The Angle Quickest for Flight,
but its path to bestsellerdom has been anything but.

While the book is now on the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list and
has been for the past two weeks, publisher Four Walls Eight Windows first
released the book about five months ago.

Even before that, the publisher had done the typical prepublication
promotion, and submitted for wide review and first novel co-op
consideration the ambitious 416-page novel, in which a motley crew
including a runaway boy, a smuggler, a priest and yes, an albino
Rastafarian (!) search for an ancient Kabbalah text.

But while the intricate, literary thriller attracted respectable trade
reviews--even snagging comparisons to Thomas Pynchon--many consumer outlets
passed on initial coverage. A "big book" competitor at that time was Lauren
Belfer's successful 518-page saga City of Light, published by Dial in May
and set in Buffalo, N.Y.

Since mens' magazine journalist Kotler is based in San Francisco, however,
and places at least a sliver of his Jerusalem-, New Mexico- and Vatican
City-set epic there, Four Walls Eight Windows decided on a second-wave,
post-publication regional push from that city. This summer, the house hired
Los Angeles-based publicist Lisa Wyeth Kirk to help move things along, and
she certainly did: Kotler appeared on a San Francisco affiliate of National
Public Radio, and the book debuted on the S.F. Chronicle bestseller list
right afterwards. Kotler is set to return for another local NPR appearance
and also did a reading at local bookstore A Clean Well Lighted Place in
mid-August..

According to acquiring editor JillEllyn Riley, the book's appearance on the
Chronicle list is now paving the way for national exposure. "We're seeing
reorders for the book, and some review media are calling to get it again
and will probably run reviews," she said. "And paperback interest from the
trade houses has been renewed." Agent Mary Evans also now expects for
foreign rights deals for the book and is working with Kotler on his second
book--an equally complex tale about a radio DJ's possible involvement in
the Cuban Missile Crisis.

And thanks to the months-later momentum, Four Walls Eight Windows is
finally going back to press on The Angle Quickest for Flightóit now plans a
second printing of that's about half again as much as its initial outlay
this past spring.--Judy Quinn


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