Fiction
Here are five novelists with whom I’ve had the pleasure of reading and working with over many years:
Christopher Buckley
No novelist or essayist has satirized Washington as well as Christopher Buckley. His writing is wickedly gleeful without ever being mean. Thank You for Smoking remains the funniest and savviest book I’ve ever read about Washington’s lobbying culture. His essays are mellifluous and erudite, full of pace, zing, and bite.
- Thank You for Smoking (Random House,1994)
- Wry Martinis (Random House, 1997)
- God Is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7-1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Success with John Tierney (Random House, 1998)
- Little Green Men (Random House, 1999)
- No Way to Treat a First Lady (Random House, 2002)
- Florence of Arabia (Random House, 2004)
- Boomsday (Twelve, 2007)
- Supreme Courtship (Twelve, 2008)
- Losing Mum and Pup (Twelve, 2009)
Rupert Holmes
When I joined at Random House in 1989, the first prospective author I wrote to was the great lyricist and Tony Award–winning writer, Rupert Holmes. Thirteen years later, we published his first novel, Where the Truth Lies, which was followed two years later by Swing, a mystery accompanied by original songs containing clues to the mystery. I waited eighteen years for Rupert’s next novel, Murder Your Employer, which became an instant New York Times bestseller. Rupert is the most versatile artist I’ve met. He has succeeded as a singer, composer, lyricist, producer, playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. Few writers have entertained me so consistently for so long.
- Where the Truth Lies (Random House, 2003)
- Swing: A Musical Mystery (Random House, 2005)
John Irving
One of the reasons I wanted to work as an editorial assistant at Random House is because that’s where John Irving began his literary career. The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules are two of my favorite novels. He was writing about alternative families and the mutability of gender long before those topics became popular among novelists, and he has done it with great humor and humanity. I’ve had the privilege of editing his four most recent novels. He is an extraordinary craftsman. Every word on every page is there for a reason. There is also a larger moral purpose to his work, exemplified by one of my favorite scenes from In One Person, when Miss Frost, a transgender librarian, says, “My dear boy, don’t put a label on me—don’t make me a category before you get to know me!”
Mario Puzo
I met Mario through his editor, Joni Evans, who asked me to read his manuscript for The Fourth K. Mario appreciated my editorial notes, but what seemed to matter even more to him is that he had a great run at the baccarat table when we gambled together in Las Vegas. After Joni left Random House, Mario chose me to be his editor because he thought I was good luck. He was a gifted storyteller who wasn’t afraid to write big scenes. His work had a dark sense of humor and the feel of a folk tale, perhaps because young Mario had loved visiting his public library to read about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
- The Last Don (Random House, 1990)
- Omerta (Random House, 2000)
- The Godfather Returns by Mark Winegardner (based on Mario Puzo’s characters, Random House, 2004)
Herman Wouk
I grew up reading holy trinity of Jewish-American novelists of the 1970s: Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, and Bernard Malamud. I loved many of their books, especially Goodbye, Columbus; Humboldt’s Gift; and The Assistant. Herman Wouk paved the way for all of them. He was the first Jewish-American author to write major bestsellers. His work did not receive the same critical acclaim because he put a premium on storytelling and was writing in the tradition of the great 19th century novelists, but his work was fully realized, entertaining, and satisfying. It was a privilege to work with him, on an epistolary novel about Hollywood when he was 97 and a memoir when he was 100.
Below are some more novels I also loved editing. I’m most attracted to plots that immediately grab my attention, featuring intelligent characters trying to make sense of their world. Most wished for: brilliant social realism, suspenseful character novels, brainy thrillers, and clever escapes.
If the novel is about dragons, goblins, elves, serial killers, gangsters, drug lords, or stalkers, I am probably not the right reader for it.
General Fiction
“Perhaps the most entertaining depiction of greed on Wall Street ever to reach print.”
—Bloomberg Businessweek
“Hond illuminates the long-standing tribal tensions and accords between blacks and Jews, and in a fast-paced series of Dickensian plot twists, he shows the increasing interdependence of their griefs and hopes.”
—The New Yorker
- Loose Lips by Claire Berlinski (Random House, 2003)
- Death by Hollywood by Steven Bochco (Random House, 2003)
- Bombardiers by Po Bronson (Random House, 1995)
- The First Twenty Million Is Always the Hardest: A Silicon Valley Novel by Po Bronson (Random House, 1997)
- Action by Robert Cort (Random House, 2003)
- The Baker by Paul Hond (Random House, 1998)
- The Company Car by C.J. Hribal (Random House, 2005)
- Apologize, Apologize by Elizabeth Kelly (Twelve, 2009)
- Sleeping with Schubert by Bonnie Marson (Random House, 2004)
- Rich Boy by Sharon Pomerantz (Twelve, 2010)
- All the Money in the World by Robert Anthony Siegel (Random House, 1997)
Historical Fiction
“A big, ambitious, utterly gripping novel about Hollywood, screenwriting, marriage, sex, sisters, women in the 1950s, and, above all, the blacklist, which destroyed so many lives and corrupted so many souls.”
—Katha Pollitt
- The God in Flight by Laura Argiri (Random House, 1995)
- Cheat and Charmer by Elizabeth Frank (Random House, 2004)
- A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss (Random House, 2000)
- The Coffee Trader by David Liss (Random House, 2003)
- The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl (Random House, 2003)
Suspense
“A smart, perceptive novel about the temptations and rewards of the news industry…Mr. Ignatius deserves praise for an ending that recognizes that betrayals and mistakes have indelible consequences.”
—The New York Times Book Review
- Need by Lawrence David (Random House, 1994)
- The Living One by Lewis Gannett (Random House, 1992)
- Sacrifice of Isaac by Neil Gordon (Random House, 1995)
- Dark Debts by Karen Hall (Random House in1996; revised edition from Simon & Schuster in 2016)
- The Student Body by Jane Harvard (Villard, 1998)
- A Firing Offense by David Ignatius (Random House, 1997)
- The Sherlockian by Graham Moore (Twelve, 2010)
- Hooked: A Thriller About Love And Other Addictions by Matt Richtel (Twelve, 2007)
- Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia (Villard, 1999)
- Casual Rex by Eric Garcia (Villard, 2001)
- Hot and Sweaty Rex by Eric Garcia (Villard, 2004)
- Matchstick Men by Eric Garcia (Villard, 2002)
