{"id":1078,"date":"2017-07-25T16:05:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T20:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine?p=1078"},"modified":"2017-07-25T16:05:23","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T20:05:23","slug":"love-sex-mansplaining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/love-sex-mansplaining\/","title":{"rendered":"Love, Sex & Mansplaining"},"content":{"rendered":"

Misogyny. Sexism. Feminism. These are a few of the themes Alex Gilvarry explores in his forthcoming novel, Eastman Was Here<\/em>, which follows anti-hero Alan Eastman from New York to Saigon as he attempts to win back his soon-to-be ex-wife\u2019s love (and his own self-worth) by writing a stellar piece of reporting about the end of America\u2019s involvement in Vietnam. As the washed-up war correspondent sets out to regain his reputation, he soon realizes that despite being halfway across the world, he cannot escape the problems he thought he\u2019d left back home.<\/p>\n

Set partly in New York City in the early \u201970s, the novel offers a glimpse into the male-dominated publishing world of that era. It\u2019s a place and time that fascinates Gilvarry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe\u2026 some of the ways my industry, the publishing industry, worked with all of these machismo men. [It\u2019s a period] when writing was a \u2018man\u2019s job,\u2019 and men were threatened by really good women writers\u2026 and feminist thinkers,\u201d says Gilvarry, who is an assistant professor of English at Monmouth. \u201cIn my book, the main character is sort of being held accountable for what he thinks of women. It\u2019s very relevant to consider again since our president is, I would say, very much a misogynist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilvarry, whose sense of humor naturally comes across in his writing, uses a comic tone to undercut some of the darker issues visited in the novel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main character is sort of like a mean guy who doesn\u2019t realize how sexist or misogynistic he actually is, and some of that is used for comedic purposes,\u201d says Gilvarry. \u201cThe main character\u2019s wife leaves him, so it\u2019s a really depressing time. It\u2019s not necessarily a funny, comedic setup, but I do try to find the humor in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilvarry admits there is no one clear political message in this book\u2014unlike his critically acclaimed debut novel, F<\/em>rom the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant<\/em>, which was openly anti-Guantanamo Bay and nabbed Gilvarry a slew of accolades including the Hornblower Award for First Fiction from the New York Society Library, the National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 nomination, and an Editor\u2019s Choice selection by the New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Instead, this new book is a much more \u201cpersonal novel\u201d about love and relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about a guy who goes to Vietnam to repair his marriage, but then ends up falling in love with somebody else,\u201d says Gilvarry. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of like a love story with the backdrop of Vietnam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eastman Was Here <\/em><\/a>is due from Viking Press on August 22.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Five Fast Facts
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Gilvarry\u2019s wife, Alexandra Kleeman, is also a novelist who teaches at Columbia University.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Woody Allen and Steve Martin are two comedians who Gilvarry says have influenced his humorous writing style.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> One book Gilvarry thinks every writer should read: Sixty Stories<\/em> by Donald Barthelme.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> BuzzFeed named Eastman Was Here<\/em> one of the \u201cexciting new books you need to read this summer<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> The Millions named Eastman Was Here<\/em> as one of the \u201cmost anticipated books of the second half of 2017<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Gilvarry\u2019s new novel follows one irredeemable man\u2019s search for meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Uncategorized","issue":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}