''Speedboat'' is a

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

modernist novel by

Renata Adler Renata Adler (born October 19, 1938) is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for ''The New Yorker'', and in 1968–69, she served as chief film critic for ''The New York Times''. She is also a write ...

that offers a fragmentary account of the experiences of Jen Fain, a young journalist living in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Publication history

Prior to ''Speedboat'', Adler was largely known for her nonfiction reportage in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', and while ''Speedboat'' is billed as a novel it includes actual incidents and autobiographical elements; as Adler once remarked, "Some of it was real." When the book was published in 1976, the 39-year-old Adler had temporarily left writing to become a first-year student at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

. "I guess I didn’t know what was going to happen when ''Speedboat'' came out", she later said. "I thought, I better be in law school, because who knows whether anyone will like it or not."Bollen, Christopher
"Renata Adler"
''Interview'' 14 Aug. 2014. ''Speedboat'' received critical acclaim and won the

Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award The PEN/Hemingway Award is awarded annually to a full-length novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a full-length book of fiction. The award is named after Ernest Hemingway and funded by the Hemingway ...

for best debut work by an American writer of fiction. The prize was judged by E. L. Doctorow, Elizabeth Hardwick, and

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...

. The novel was also a finalist for the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award. The novel fell

out of print __NOTOC__ An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a book ...

in 1988 but remained a cult favorite; while teaching at Pomona College, David Foster Wallace included ''Speedboat'' on the syllabus for a course on "obscure/eclectic fictions", and in 2000 David Shields declared it "one of the most original and formally exciting American novels published in the past 25 years." In 2013, ''Speedboat'' was reissued by New York Review Books simultaneously with Adler's second novel, ''

Pitch Dark ''Pitch Dark'' is a 1983 modernist novel by Renata Adler about a newspaper reporter's affair with a married man. Decades after falling out of print, ''Pitch Dark'' was reissued in 2013 by New York Review Books New York Review Books (NYRB) is t ...

''; both works enjoyed a renewed wave of attention. The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' referred to ''Speedboat'' as a "perfect novel", and

Anna Wiener Anna Wiener is an American writer, best known for her 2020 memoir ''Uncanny Valley''. Wiener currently writes for ''The New Yorker'' as a tech correspondent. Life Wiener grew up in Brooklyn and attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. She ...

wrote in ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'' that, "Out of the blue, it seemed like everyone I knew was reading and discussing Adler....New York City booksellers pushed 'Speedboat''as a recovered sacred text ndAdler earned a new coterie of readers." Robbins, Michael
"Speedboat by Renata Adler still flat-out races"
''Chicago Tribunes'' 15 Mar. 2013. Writers

Ezra Furman Ezra Furman (born September 5, 1986) is an American musician and songwriter. Furman was the lead singer and guitarist of Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, formed in 2006, which ended with ''Mysterious Power'' (2011). Her subsequent work has include ...

Rachel Khong Rachel Khong (born 1985) is an American writer and editor based in San Francisco. Life Khong was born in Malaysia to a Malaysian Chinese family. She grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, California and attended high school in nearby Diamond Bar, Califor ...

Jenny Offill Jenny Offill (born 1968) is an American novelist and editor. Her novel ''Dept. of Speculation'' was named one of "The 10 Best Books of 2014" by ''The New York Times Book Review''. Early life Jenny Offill is the only child of two private-school ...

, and

Kate Zambreno Kate Zambreno (born December 30, 1977) is an American novelist, essayist, critic, and professor. She teaches writing in the graduate nonfiction program at Columbia University and at Sarah Lawrence College. Zambreno is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in ...

Higgs, Christopher
"Heroine Worship: Talking with Kate Zambreno"
''The Paris Review'' Daily 22 Oct. 2012. have subsequently cited ''Speedboat'' as an influence.

References

{{reflist, 30em 1976 American novels Novels set in New York City Novels about journalists Random House books NYRB Classics