Enlisted and delisted

Necessary Errors is one of ten books on the Wall Street Journal‘s “Best Fiction of 2013” list. At the blog I’ve Been Reading Lately, Levi Stahl puts it among his favorite fiction of the year. Literary agent William Callahan has also cited it, writing that he “was most moved by the depiction of what dating was like when people relied on landlines. Eek!”

A rather more qualified appreciation of the novel came from The Affenlights and Their Boyfriends, a Chad Harbach fanblog, whose author wrote that “I enjoyed it a lot, right up till the point I wanted to punch the protagonist in the face.”

UPDATE, Dec. 17: Necessary Errors is also on the personal best-of-2013 list of Anthony Domestico, books columnist for the magazine Commonweal, who calls it “the most intelligent and lyrical novel of the year.” My thanks to all!

Adrian de Vries’s “The Wrestlers”

Adrian de Vries's 'Wrestlers,' photo credit Caleb Crain

A photograph from 1990 or 1991 of Adrian de Vries’s sculpture Zápasníci (“The Wrestlers”), in the Wallenstein Gardens, Prague.

If this image were included in an extra-illustrated binding of the novel Necessary Errors, it might follow page 395. (For an explanation of extra-illustration, click here.)

PS: This is the last of the extra illustrations!

Listed

Happy to report that Necessary Errors has shown up on a few year-end round-ups. At Flavorwire, Jason Diamond has named it one of the ten best debut novels of the year. David Haglund at Slate has picked it as his favorite book of 2013. The Kansas City Star included it in a list of the top 100 books of the year. At the blog Band of Thebes, Michael Alenyikov and Stephen McCauley both cited it as one of the best LGBT books they read this year. Maris Kreizman of Slaughterhouse 90210 called it the “MOST IMMERSIVE” of her favorites. And at Policy Mic, Gracie Jin has listed it among the twenty best books for various kinds of twenty-something-year-olds. My thanks to all of these people!