Jansma, Kristopher

Jansma (Why We Came to the City) shows the impact of generational trauma in one family. Book clubs and readers of World War II fiction will enjoy his perceptive take on survival, family, and starting over.

This hefty novel, with its multiple characters and shifting relationships, is the kind that book clubs will love, although character development isn't really its long suit; too often, it relies on cumbersome lists of individuals' quirky behaviors. Perhaps the most refined character is the city itself, evoked throughout in descriptions of side streets, bars, clubs, hotels, and galleries and in three exceptional and beautifully compact chapters, written in Joshua Ferris-esque, first-person plural prose, that get at the heart of what it's like to be young and alive in the big city. [See Prepub Alert, 8/31/15.]

Jansma explores how events are shaped into a work of fiction while also showing how we weave the reality of our lives into our own personal narratives. Ultimately, he's concerned with discovering the truth of the self that lies both within and beneath that narrative. A smart, searching debut about art and identity. [See Prepub Alert, 9/24/12.]

Why am I highlighting this contemporary picaresque? Jansma was a finalist for BOMB magazine’s 2011 fiction contest...