Book Log 2015 #13: Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon

This is the first book I've chosen specifically to meet part of the Popsugar Reading Challenge (I knew Silver Screen Fiend would meet parts of the challenge, but picked it because of the tremendous word of mouth support). I've read Chabon's more recent novels, so I was curious to see how this stacked up. And while I liked it, I did not like it as much as his newer works. I never could build up the requisite sympathy for Grady Tripp, and some of the wackiness seemed like it was included for wackiness' sake.

Another problem is that I could not stop mentally comparing the book to Straight Man, the Richard Russo novel which is very similar in several respects (set in Pennsylvania, features an English professor struggling to write a novel, extramarital romantic conflicts, moody male writing student), and while Russo's book is written based on his experiences as an English professor, the similarities were distracting. It's not fair to ding Wonder Boys for the order in which I read the two books, but it was a problem nonetheless.

All that being said, it's still really good.

(Popsugar Reading Challenge: book that became a movie, a book written by an author with your same initials)