Delson, Rudolph 1975- (Benjamin Rudolph Delson, Rudy Delson)

PERSONAL:

Born 1975, in San Jose, CA. Education: Attended Stanford University and New York University Law School.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. E-mail—benjamin@rudolphdelson.com.

CAREER:

Writer. Has worked as a paralegal at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, as a law clerk for U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and as a litigation associate at the law firm of Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, LLP.

WRITINGS:

Maynard & Jennica (novel), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2007.

ADAPTATIONS:

Maynard & Jennica has been optioned for film by producer Scott Rudin.

SIDELIGHTS:

Rudolph Delson's debut novel, Maynard & Jennica, is a romantic comedy about two young New York City residents. Native New Yorker Maynard Gogarty is an unsuccessful musician-composer who is filming subway riders and other passersby without their knowledge and planning to add his original score to the film. Jennica Green is a transplanted Californian with a Wall Street job who meets Maynard first on the subway and then at a screening of his film. Although they are very different—he an eccentric, somewhat cynical bohemian, she an optimistic striver—they eventually fall in love. The novel traces the arc of their relationship by using the form of an oral history, with thirty-five people—Maynard, Jennica, friends, acquaintances, family members, even animals and inanimate objects—providing conversational portraits of them as individuals and as a couple.

Several reviewers described the novel as charming and funny, a New York romance in the vein of a Woody Allen film or Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally, enhanced by Delson's storytelling device. "This novel is made up of characters speaking at us as though to a camera crew that's been following them around for months," observed Thomas Beller in the New York Times Book Review. "Maynard & Jennica feels like the first reality-television novel. Let me add that I don't mean this as an insult—Rudolph Delson has used the form to unspool a tightly plotted and genuinely original book." A New Yorker critic noted: "Each character has an appealing voice, and the chatty arrangement highlights Delson's comic timing." The conceit, according to a Publishers Weekly contributor, can be "gimmicky" but also "make[s] for small delights."

The novel also deals with some serious issues. "As well as giving us a romance which is truly fun to read," John Self related on the Blurb Web site, "Delson's story also deals in family and cultural pressures, and surprises us in its second half by offering a new fictional take on September 11, 2001, where Maynard rails against the manipulation of sentiment by the media in the days that follow." This, commented the Publishers Weekly reviewer, provides "insight into his character." It is highly offensive to Jennica, though, "and their clash of sensibilities," remarked Derek Weiler in the Toronto Star, "is the most deeply felt part of the book."

Weiler, however, thought this "diluted … by all the cutaways to relatives and observers. Emotional impact is also weakened by the busy tugging together of several self-consciously quirky subplots." He continued: "Maynard & Jennica, is a brisk, enjoyable read, but it may be that Delson works a little too hard to keep us distracted and entertained." Stephen Morrow, writing in Library Journal, also found that Delson is sometimes "trying too hard"—for instance, using narration by insects. Still, Morrow added that on the whole, "this work has something fresh that needs to be embraced."

Some other reviewers praised the novel unreservedly. In Booklist, Leah Strauss called it "sharp and energetic, a highly original contemporary love story," while Self concluded: I can't imagine anyone not being charmed silly by Maynard & Jennica. Beller summed it up by saying: "By the end of the book I was wallowing in a state of pleasure but also suspicion—suspicious because much of the novel is just so damn cute. But looking through its pages again I found one tiny comic gem after another, one pitch-perfect rendering of the modern moment after another…. I felt the odd elation that occurs when you read fiction that not only confirms your sense of the modern world but enlarges it, even if in a slightly precious way, and makes you laugh."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2007, Leah Strauss, review of Maynard & Jennica, p. 55.

Entertainment Weekly, September 28, 2007, Vanessa Juarez, review of Maynard & Jennica, p. 111.

Library Journal, August 1, 2007, Stephen Morrow, review of Maynard & Jennica, p. 66.

New Yorker, October 1, 2007, review of Maynard & Jennica, p. 101.

New York Times Book Review, November 11, 2007, Thomas Beller, "Shock and Awww," p. 51.

Publishers Weekly, August 28, 2006, "Debut Novels," p. 7; June 25, 2007, review of Maynard & Jennica, p. 29; August 6, 2007, Michelle Wildgen, article on Maynard & Jennica, p. 44.

Toronto Star, February 3, 2008, Derek Weiler, "Boy Meets Girl on Subway, Love Blossoms, 9/11 Arrives," p. ID6.

USA Today, September 20, 2007, Jocelyn McClurg, "New Voices: Rudolph Delson," P. 4D.

Village Voice, February 29, 2000, Toni Schlesinger, interview with Rudolph Delson, p. 18.

WWD, August 30, 2007, Vanessa Lawrence, "Hearing Voices," p. 4.

ONLINE

Blurb,http://www.theblurb.com.au/ (March 21, 2008), John Self, "Let Delson Entertain You."

Eye,http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/ (March 21, 2008), Sara Davis, interview with Rudolph Delson.

Fresh Fiction,http://freshfiction.com/ (March 21, 2008), review of Maynard & Jennica.

Rudolph Delson Home Page,http://www.rudolphdelson.com (March 21, 2008).