''Speedboat'' is a

1976 Events January * January 2 – 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 18 – Full diplomatic ...

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

novel by

Renata Adler Renata Adler (born October 19, 1937) is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for ''The New Yorker'' for over thirty years and the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1968 to 1969. She h ...

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 (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Publication history

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

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', 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 (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

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

Susan Sontag Susan Lee Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on "Camp", Notes on 'Ca ...

. The novel was also a finalist for the 1976

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".out of print 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 that is ...

in 1988 but remained a cult favorite; while teaching at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American writer and professor who published novels, short stories, and essays. He is best known for his 1996 novel ''Infinite Jest'', which ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine ...

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 New York Review Books (NYRB) is the publishing division of ''The New York Review of Books''. Its imprints are New York Review Books Classics, New York Review Books Collections, The New York Review Children's Collection, New York Review Comics, ...

simultaneously with Adler's second novel, '' Pitch Dark''; both works enjoyed a renewed wave of attention. The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' referred to ''Speedboat'' as a "perfect novel", and Anna Wiener wrote in ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'' 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,

Rachel Khong Rachel Khong (born 1985) is an American writer and editor based in Los Angeles as of 2021. Life Khong was born in Malaysia to a Malaysian Chinese family, but they soon moved to the United States when she was two. She grew up in Rancho Cucamonga ...

Jenny Offill Jenny Offill (born November 14, 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 ...

, and Kate Zambreno have subsequently cited ''Speedboat'' as an influence. In 2015,

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didio ...

, to whom Adler has sometimes been compared, included ''Speedboat'' in her list of all-time favorite books.

References

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