Charles Bock: Blowin' Up!

Last Friday I posted a link to a review of Charles Bock's debut novel Beautiful Children. Suffice to say that novel has blown up. Beautiful Children reaches bookstores today (and Bock will be at Vroman's on February 22) but the media blitz has already begun. Bock was the subject of a major writeup in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, and will be the cover story in this week's New York Times Book Review, a rare honor for a first-time novelist. I'm excited to read Beautiful Children, which has blurbs from heavyweights A.M. Homes and Jonathan Safron Foer. With all this attention, you can almost start an office pool as to when the backlash will begin. Luckily for Mr. Bock, he seems to have his head on straight. He worked on the novel for 10 years, living the hot-plate and coffee shop existence that seems to be mandatory for a young writer.