Elliot Allagash

If you looked at a picture of writer Simon Rich, you might think "Who is this little kid?" Despite his youthful appearance, he's not a child, although he is pretty young for the success that he has had. He graduated from Harvard in 2007 with a two-book contract with Random House. Since then he published two short works of nonfiction, Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations and Free-Range Chickens. Both are hilarious. I highly recommend them. I also recommend reading them in private because I was laughing so hard, I started snorting. Ant Farm was a finalist for the 2008 Thurber Prize for American Humor. He has also written for several magazines and is a writer for Saturday Night Live. His first novel, Elliot Allagash, was released last month, and although I wasn't snorting with laughter this time, it was touching, clever, creepy, sad, humorous, and completely engrossing.

Seymour Herson is the most unpopular boy in his class at his private school in Manhattan. When Elliot Allagash transfers to his school, Seymour finds an unlikely friend. Elliot comes from an extremely wealthy family. When he tells Seymour "I could buy you all the popularity in this school...With a little research and some well-placed investments, I could make you a king..." Seymour jumps at the offer. What follows is a series of twisted schemes masterminded by Elliot and aided by his chauffeur. But Seymour's desperate wish to belong keeps him entangled in Elliot's dysfunctional life, and begins to send him down the same path. Publisher's Weekly criticizes Rich for his lack of character development, but I disagree. I thought Seymour was very well-developed. I found him to be sweet and funny, and he touched me in a way that few characters have. All of Rich's books are fairly short and are easy to get through quickly, so you can read it in an afternoon or two.

BTW: What's up with these Harvard grads? Nick McDonell is also a recent Harvard grad and the same age as Rich, and he has three novels under his belt already. I was pretty impressed with his latest, An Expensive Education.