The New York Times reported this morning that Kristen Roupenian, whose short story “Cat Person” became the New Yorker’s second-most widely read piece of the year despite being published literally only a week-and-a-half ago, has a book deal. A very large book deal. The kind of book deal with not one but two commas—a flabbergasting rarity for a collection of short stories.
Try this: think of the last time you bought a book. Been a while, yeah? That’s okay, we’re not here to judge. How about the last collection of fictional short stories? We know, we thought they stopped publishing those when Mary Gaitskill began writing novels (really great novels! About the modeling industry).
Anyway, as hollowed out as the market’s been, a short story collection is what Roupenian’s book is, and Scout Press just paid upward of a million bucks for it. It’ll be out in 2019. Props to Union Literary’s Jenni Ferrari-Adler for working the deal. We’re guessing it’s been a busy few weeks for her.
Roupenian, incidentally, might make for a natural heiress to Gaitskill, what with her Michigan ties and her bummed out sex depictions and her unflinching eye. Even the background of her author photo (below) has that whole, fallow-midwest-by-way-of-grungey-New-York vibe that was once Gaitskill’s domain.
Kristen Roupenian, photo by Elisa Roupenian Toha
“Cat Person” worked its viral magic, literally-only-a-week-and-a-half-ago, due to Roupenian’s eagle-eye for the texture of those frequent shifts in dynamic that are the hallmark of the rotten non-relationship. You can follow Roupenian’s narrator Margot, and Margot’s counterpart Robert, as they openly revise their opinions of each other, manipulating and succumbing to a vague unspoken . . . something.
It’s a perfectly paced inward descent with a needlepoint ending, a little reminiscent of Joyce Carol Oates’ most assigned-to-undergrads story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
All that and Xennial ennui. A short story collection full of that? The market has spoken: it’s worth a million bucks.
H/T – [NYT]
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