Vintage Contemporaries by Dan Kois

Vintage Contemporaries Reviews

• 
  Ari Levine

  2.5. Nostalgia for early 1990s New York is the only reason I skimmed to the end of 300+ pages of conventional sentimentality with occasional bits of clever wordplay.
• 
  Jamie

  I adored this. It has so much that I recognized as a mother, as a bookish person, as a pop culture consumer. Spending time with Em/Emily and her friends was a joy.
  
  Dan Kois clearly knows the book and publishing industry, and the way that Emily progresses through her career from agent to editor was confidently written and compelling. It takes someone pretty remarkable to write a book auction in a way that makes it seem exciting (I'm also looking at you, Lily King in WRITERS AND LOVERS) but he pulls it off.
  
  But then the writing about motherhood. It really does fascinate me how a man can write so believably about a newly-postpartum mother. I was delighted.
  
  There's so much happening in this book (I'm not even mentioning the other Emily! Or the squat! Or 90% of the plot!), and so much that DOESN'T happen, and I truly gobbled it up.
• 
  Novel Visits

  3.5 stars
  
  Several years ago I read 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘦 𝘈 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 by Dan Kois. It was a memoir of the year he and his wife took their two daughters and lived in four different international locations to gain new perspectives. I really enjoyed that book, so I was excited to see what Kois would do with fiction in the newly released 𝗩𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗚𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦. In general, I’d say he did well, though I don’t think this will be for everyone. It’s on the slower side without a lot of action, but the characters are excellent and very well-developed.⁣⁣⁣
  ⁣⁣⁣
  This is the story of two Emilys, both 22, who meet in 1991 in NYC. One is confident, living in a squat and pursuing a career directing plays. The other is quieter, new to the city, working in publishing. As is often the case, their friendship ebbs and flows over the 20+ years of this book. That really spoke to me as we all have had those friendships. I also really enjoyed getting a glimpse inside the publishing industry and thought the sense of place was excellent.⁣⁣⁣
  ⁣⁣⁣
  I only wish there had been a little more “something” to the book. It fell just a little short for me and I can't pinpoint why. Maybe the relationships within the story could have gone a deeper, with fewer side characters? In the end, despite a few drawbacks, I enjoyed reading 𝘝𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴.
• 
  Alyssa Lentz

  This is a very warm and reflective novel about friendship and growing up. I particularly enjoyed all of the texture in both timelines about living in New York City--everything felt very lived-in and the details were spot-on. The structure of looking at our protagonist through these two timelines is such an interesting one and gifts readers which a deep understanding of Emily. But I found the focus on female friendships to be the most compelling: I recognized many aspects of my own relationships over the years here, and this novel is just filled with love and growth. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy character-focused relationship novels with a strong sense of setting in the literary fiction vein.
  
  Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  talia ♡

  beautiful covers on books about nyc are basically what i live for
• 
  Carrie

  I don’t think there was a point to this novel. It was kind of interesting, but mostly about having children. The reviews and the description barely mention that it is really, heavily focused on having children. If I had known how much was devoted to babies, I probably would not have read it. I did skim quite a few long-winded paragraphs that described what Emily’s baby was doing. Nobody cares what babies are doing other than their parents. It was a large part of the book, who can have babies, who wants them but can’t have them, the joys of motherhood, the parents cooing about their baby. It should have been called Baby Jane and What She Did. The small sections that were not about babies were well-written but they seemed to have no point other than showing what live was like in NYC in the 1990s, 2005 and some other year.
• 
  Jennifer Janechek

  Loved this book so much! How could I not—the protagonist is an editor in New York City in the 90s and 00s. It feels like Nick Hornby, but for women, with all the music references. I loved that the central relationship is an intense friendship between two women. Kois captures how this relationship changes as the women grow—and grow apart—and come back together, and in doing so he illuminates some important themes, like the way desire transforms (and yet doesn’t) after children, the tension between support and enablement, the meaning of forgiveness, and more. I would definitely read this again!
• 
  Chris Browning

  picked this up, as many might, because i too love the 80s vintage contemporaries line of paperbacks, and, as can be expected, this is about the platonic ideal of the three star mfa-adjacent "literary" novel for folks who like reading about novels. mostly frictionless and compelling enough for that, outside of an odd MeToo-ish side plot which feels awkwardly enjambed and does little to advance the characters or position this as a contemporary successor/interrogation of books like The Information and Brightness Falls. fine! but unremarkable
• 
  Abby

  I settled into my first Covid diagnosis this week with this advanced copy in hand, and I can recommend neither the virus nor the novel.
• 
  Carlee Miller

  Thank you to Harper Collins for providing me with an advanced copy. This book tracks the protagonist, over different periods of time as a young adult in New York City. Her tumultuous friendship with another woman named Emily exposes her to New York in a new way soon after she arrives to work in publishing, including to the challenges faced by squatters. I enjoyed the way the story covered publishing and how different publishers win in an auction for a book. I appreciated the growth of Emily's character over time, and the way she describes the challenges of motherhood and being a working mom. Overall, I really liked this book!
• 
  G

  Warm and clever.
• 
  Sarah Beth

  Thank you to HarperCollins for the copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
  
  In this beautifully crafted novel about friendship and identity and books, Em has moved to New York City after college in 1991. She is working as a literary agent's assistant and has two close friends, the wild and artistic Emily and Lucy, a writer who was a good friend of her mother's in college. The novel then jumps to 2004 where we see that Em, who now goes by Emily again, is a successful book editor with a husband and a baby at home. But she is no longer friends with Emily and Lucy has passed away. As the novel moves back and forth in time, the gaps in the reader's understanding are filled in and the reader sees how Emily found her place in the world.
  
  It is little surprise that the author comes from an editing background, because the world of literary publication and a love of reading is beautifully wound through this book. In a very meta way, the book is about writing and reading, and the characters not only are written about but love to read and write and then also occasionally find themselves being written about by other characters as well. In fact, the characters refer to themselves as book characters such as when Em tells Emily she also wants to be called Emily again: "That'll confuse the readers, but sure" (124). The title itself is constantly referred to in the text and called a "beautiful contradiction" (13). Em is a constant reader, spending her literal last dollars on books and delighted to be a part of the literary world, which has been her dream for ages. The beautiful friendship that emerges between her and Lucy rely heavily on books. Lucy is a writer and Em uses her job to help Lucy get published and ultimately helps her posthumously publish her memoir. Similarly, the friendship between Emily and Em is described by Em herself as being created in the mold of many famous literary duos: "Em most clearly saw their friendship fitting into a neat template. It was one she knew well from a lifetime of reading: She was Beth and Emily was Jo; she was Melanie and Emily was Scarlett O'Hara; she was what's-her-name, the wallflower, and Emily was Emma" (56).
  
  In a greater sense this book is also about art and creation in all its forms - the creation of community and communal space with Em and Emily's obsession with their squat apartment to Emily's playwright aspirations to Em's parenting and watching her daughter emerge as her own being. The novel is also about the ability or choice to rewrite the script - or not. Lucy stands by her novelistic choices and in many ways, Em stands by her life choices. But when it comes to her friend Emily, who over time she has fallen out with, she does decide to rewrite the script and make amends.
  
  In choosing to move forward and backward in time, Kois has made an interesting choice to reveal the ending well before the end of this novel. It is filling in the gaps in understanding that tension is built. It functions surprisingly well but I am still a little unsure of why particular time jumps were made or why the novel continues to move back and forth instead of being chronological. In some ways, it allows the reader to be reflective on her past along with Em. From the perspective of what Em and the reader now know about her life as an editor and mother, we can look back at her life years before and see how she ended up where she has. Kois has beautifully captured female friendship and predominantly feminine voices very successfully in this novel. From hectic Emily to the dependable and caring Em, his characters feel true to life and believable. This was a beautiful coming of age story with the backdrop of New York City. Kois skillfully blends in current events of the time periods he writes about and includes major themes such as the AIDS pandemic, housing in NYC, drug addiction, the struggle of juggling parenthood and fulltime jobs, sibling relationships, racism, and sexual harassment in the workplace. A book that writers and readers can truly appreciate.
• 
  Rachel

  Thank you to NetGalley, author Dan Kois, and publisher Harper for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!
  
  First off, I adore both this title and cover, which drew me in to the book, and I enjoyed reading it just as much! I love books about coming of age and female friendships, and for the most part, this book did both topics well. I originally thought it would be more about all 3 women, Em/Emily, another Emily and Lucy, but it is more a book about Em/Emily and how Emily and Lucy have affected her life over the years. I don't think this was a bad choice because we still do get a pretty clear picture of both women, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I got to understand each character a bit better. Emily comes off a bit two-dimensional, and I felt like Lucy was always being held at arm's length. This could perhaps be an intentional choice, but for such a short book, it felt more like lack of development. I do think it's a great reflection on how people can serve a time and a purpose in your life that is significant, even if they are no longer in your life in certain capacities. I ended up being charmed by Em/Emily by the end, and the book made me emotional at times because I could relate as a 25-year-old woman. I don't think this is a book for everyone, and it is not a perfect book. As I said earlier, I think it needed to be a bit longer, Emily and Lucy both needed to be fleshed out more, as well as certain content needed to be handled better. There are a few examples of casual racism in parts that are set in the 90s, and a certain character is almost immediately forgiven for standing up for a "Me Too"-esque predator; these scenarios felt a bit strange in the context of the book, and I would have liked to see actual discussion and dialogue about these scenarios, rather than them just being plot points to explain characters' personalities. Overall, this is a slightly flawed book about slightly flawed humans that this slightly flawed reader happened to enjoy and recommend.
• 
  Megan Crean

  I really enjoyed this book and took a few notes throughout while reading it:
  
  You don’t get all of the information at once and have to really think and try to piece it together in your head. I like his writing style a lot, it’s different
  
  the characters in Lucys book is like Lucy and Emily or Emily and Em.
  
  At first the two characters being named Emily annoyed me, but the more I read the more I realized you really needed to think and let their voices and tones stand out for themselves to sometimes tell who was who and that was something cool I thought he did. I’ve never read a book like this and appreciated the extra thinking work and the irony of it
  
  I would have liked more parts with Lucy in it - she was a really cool, strong character
  
  Growing up in Wisconsin I loved the references to Milwaukee like Mequon, Schwartz’s Books, Midwest Express Airlines and what it was like for a tornado warning - super spot on and nostalgic. I also lived in Athens and enjoyed those references too
  
  A lot of reviews say there wasn’t really anything here, but that’s kind of how Lucys book was too. The book really just focused on relationships and friendships and I feel it didn’t need a huge plot line because that’s how life is. It’s about the different things Em was passionate about and enjoyed doing in the city. Living in New york city isn’t one big plot line, it’s the little things and the people that make it special.
  
  The fourth section was very random bits and pieces and sometimes I wondered what the point of some of them are, but again, that’s real life with no true beginning and ending to everything like in a “perfect novel” just a lot of realness which I really appreciated
  
  Thank you Harper Collins for sending me the book for my review.
• 
  mostlybookstuff

  #VINTAGECONTEMPORARIES by #dankois is wonderfully mellow. It is 1991 and Em has moved deep into Alphabet City from Wausau, Wisconsin. Working as a literary assistant, she develops an eye for helping others tell their stories. She becomes a soundboard for her best friend, Emily, who directs her own plays, and takes an interest in Lucy, a middle-aged novelist who writes of wholesome joy. In 2005, Em reflects on the years spent in the company of these two women and how each has shaped her creative life.
  
  This novel is refreshing in that there is no overwrought trauma. Protests are organized and peaceful; a grandparent watches her grandchild exactly as she is asked to. Perhaps this is because the protagonist, Em, recognizes her role as the normal albeit boring one. She is the Melanie to Emily’s Scarlett. Emily, in a literary sense, is the more interesting character, but when it comes to life and its messy reality, people would rather be around a Melanie. Lucy’s kindness and maternal attention are proof of this. Together, Em and Lucy (the two Melanies) put forth work in such a way that more than a decade after her passing, Lucy is an author considered at once timeless and contemporary. This is not to say that Em did not show up for Emily, for she does and we come to realize that despite the allure and covetable role, no one acts alone; every Scarlett also needs a Melanie.
  
  Many thanks to @downtogetthefictionon for the giveaway win. I won a generous #bookstack and am making my way through the current ARCs. #VINTAGECONTEMPORARIES came out 1/17/2023 and is available now.
• 
  Allison Poirier

  “Joanie waved her hand, an eloquent movement that contained within it an acknowledgement of her own sadness but also the recognition that sometimes things like that had to wait…it was like one of those German words expressing a philosophical notion so complex Americans wrote dissertations on it.”
  
  I’m a big fan of Dan Kois’ work at Slate, especially on the parenting podcast Mom and Dad Are Fighting. I also LOVED his first book, the memoir How to Be a Family, which you should totally check out if you are or ever have been part of a family. I was psyched when I heard he was publishing his first novel, and Vintage Contemporaries did not disappoint.
  
  I was so invested in the characters, especially Emily #1/Em and Lucy. I was so angry with Emily #2 pretty much from the beginning, and I think feeling so strongly (even negatively) about a character is a sign of a well written novel.
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed all the 90s nostalgia. Plus I strongly identified w Emily’s imposter syndrome brought on by this false narrative that everyone else in New York is being cool, having sex, being angsty and artsy and brilliant when in fact they’re full of baloney. I identified even more strongly with her 2005 self, who is confident and secure but still shaken by the resurgence of an early 20s insecurity.
  
• 
  Shelby Thompson

  Thank you HarperBooks for the copy!
  
  This one is for all of us that know and accept that we are not the ‘cool friend’. We’re the one making sure the cool friend makes it on time to brunch, knowing that they’ll never venmo us their share, and loving them through all their bad decisions. Because they’re the one with the stories. The one with the Capital “L” “Life.”
  
  Emily is the cool friend. In 1990s NYC, Em falls into Emily’s orbit. Between her penny pinching job at a bottom-shelf publishing house and her 24/7 dedication to Emily and her community of proto-anarchist artists and squatters, Em’s life becomes almost indistinguishable from her friend’s. The only thing that keeps her tethered to her own reality is her burgeoning companionship with Lucy, an author on the verge of breaking out.
  
  A decade later, the Emilys don’t speak anymore. Lucy is dead. Emily and Emily are pushed back together at very different points in their life, and will have to take many long walks and mimosa-filled brunches to dig through the remains of their friendship to find if there is something worth saving.
  
  Read If You:
  Loved every “Estelle” scene in Friends
  Don’t know about the squatting movement in major cities
  Want to read literary fiction where the marriage isn’t traumatizing, for once.
  
• 
  Erika Bolstad

  Emily is a young college graduate in New York City in the early 1990s, when she meets another young Emily, a woman with more ease in New York City's seedier side. The story traces the lives of these GenXers in the early days of their careers as writers, artists and activists — and how they drift apart and come back together as they approach their 40s.
  
  It is a poignant look at the intensity of friendship in our early 20s, and how much work it takes to become a human being whose talent matches our taste. The book is a sweet nod to how these early friendships and life experiences and the art and culture we consume shape the adults we become.
  
  Readers who like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin will enjoy the multi-decade (and multigenerational) friendship at the heart of the book, as well as the insider peek into New York literary life. It's also reminiscent of Writers & Lovers by Lily King.
  
  
• 
  Lovely Loveday

  Vintage Contemporaries is a sharp, reflective, and humorous tale of a young woman's journey of self-discovery and her quest to find her place in the world. This captivating read is a story of art, parenthood, loyalty, and standing up for what is right, all set against the vibrant backdrop of New York City. As the protagonist embarks on her quest for self-fulfillment, she must confront the challenges of navigating the complexities of life and the city. With its witty dialogue and vivid descriptions, Vintage Contemporaries is sure to captivate readers and leave them with a newfound appreciation for the power of resilience.
• 
  Maurynne Maxwell

  I did not expect to like this book 5 stars, but I did. This was just the kind of story I was looking for. Maybe you have to be of a certain age already to appreciate the generosity and tenderness of heart that suffuses the story. Pretty sure if I weren't already "looking back" at my own life from the perspective of middle age, I wouldn't appreciate it.
  Anyone who's worked in the book industry can relate, those parts all ring true enough, and I was surprised that I felt he pulled off the women characters. No complaints at all from me, quite unusual.
  Though possibly i like it so much because it does take place in publishing.
  Thanks, Dan.
• 
  Nicholas

  Loved, loved, loved. It is, admittedly, right up my alley: it's about people who work in publishing, who live in New York City (where else?). I used do both of those things, and while I've never been a woman who is friends with other women, I do love reading about them.
  
  It's also a bit of a love letter to the late, great Laurie Colwin, who -- like one of the central characters, Lucy -- wrote about food and included recipes in her books and died far too young and had some of her books published posthumously. It's very funny at times and also poignant and affecting. Highly recommended!
• 
  Kimberly Uhuru

  Friendship can be complicated, and this book illustrates that complexity in a way that is honest, thoughtful, and entertaining. Set against the backdrop of New York City in the early aughts, I found myself rooting for these young women as they figured things out. I hope Dan Kois continues to write novels. He’s a great storyteller.
• 
  Allie Baxter

  I wanted a non-thriller fiction and I found this on a “books we’re excited about” article (Elle?); I saw “coming of age novel in NYC” and was sold.
  I really liked it - more than I expected to. I love always NYC as a character, and I enjoyed the narrator, particularly in her older years. It has more gravitas than a summer beach read and is warm, satisfying, and sometimes even a little funny.
• 
  John Luiz

  Wonderful exploration of female friendship telescoping between two eras in the friends' lives -- their twentysomething youth or later when at least one of them has settles into professional and family responsibilities while the other wilder one is still untethered. Great writing and "Em's" voice is a wonderful and someone whose head you enjoy living inside for a few hundred pages.
  
• 
  Ellen Hartman

  Recommendation from my favorite book podcast, Burned by Books. I enjoyed it-the author mentioned in the interview I heard that he doesn't think all books have to be sad or depressing. I'm grateful he followed his taste and wrote this. Not that it doesn't have depth! Good characters, lots of interesting scenes. Glad I read it.
• 
  Julie Breslow

  This was ok. Not great. I was interested in the friendship but the whole emily/em thing was unnecessary and confusing. There were other, more substantive aspects that just didn’t work. I finished the book because I wanted to see what happened but it was nothing special.