Wunderkind

I get the New York Times book reviews downloaded onto my Palm, and the other day I read Joyce Wadler’s interview with Jonathan Safran Foer. Perhaps you’ve heard of this guy: 25 years old, and he just published a novel called Everything Is Illuminated that’s getting great reviews.

As if that’s not enough to fan the flames of envy, from the interview I learned that Foer (pronounced “four”) received a hefty advance to publish his book with Houghton Mifflin, and that he studied at Princeton with Joyce Carol Oates, whose bio I’m currently reading. And here’s the kicker: at the end of the interview, Wadler asks Foer how he’s dealing with “the raves and the wunderkind label”:

A nice surprise, but the label is unimportant, he says. “If I only wrote one book, it might matter, but I’ve already written my next book.”

Ouch.

So what are us older, slower, poorer, and less famous writers to comfort ourselves with? How about my first thoughts after reading his review (before I knew about his age, income, etc.): “Looks like a great book. I wonder if the library has a copy yet?” In other words, sometimes it’s wise to think like a reader, rather than a writer.