Set for Life

Ewell debuts with a glib campus novel about a failed novelist riding his wife’s coattails. It opens with the unnamed narrator landing at JFK after a summer fellowship in France, where he wrote nothing. Before going home to his wife, Debra, a published novelist, at the college in Upstate New York where they both teach, her star power having garnered him a consolation position, he meets up with another married writer couple, Sophie and John. After a drunk John stays out past last call, the narrator hooks up with Sophie. Back on campus, his life spirals out of control as he drinks too much, then allows one of his students to teach his class so he can visit Sophie to continue their love affair. After going through Sophie’s journals, he purloins some of her writing to share with an agent on her behalf. Ewell nimbly juxtaposes intellectual pretention with human fragility in his portrayal of the protagonist (“I thought of poor Vladimir and Estragon waiting with their trousers at their ankles for Godot to show up and save them from their gloom,” the narrator recounts after a therapist asks if he wants to talk about God). Often, though, the humor feels as muted as the drama’s emotional impact. Ewell shows flashes of talent, but he needs a better story to tell. (Feb.)