In addition to regularly writing for
The New York Times, Kunkel has written for the magazines
Dissent,
The Nation,
The New York Review of Books,
The London Review of Books,
The Believer, and
The New Yorker.
Indecision, published by Random House, garnered a a fair amount of attention. On the cover of the
New York Times Book Review (unusual for a first novel), Jay McInerney dubbed it "the funniest and smartest coming-of-age novel in years," but only after Michiko Kakutani's odd, ambiguous review written completely in the voice of Holden Caulfield.
Publishers Weekly, in contrast, described the novel as "annoying but accomplished."
Indecision begins with the acknowledgment, "For
n+1." Kunkel has written two short stories and one book review for the print journal he started with friends from college and graduate school. In the Fall 2004 issue, he published the short story "Horse Mountain," about an aging man. In the Spring 2005 issue, he published a review of J.M. Coetzee's works, imitating Coetzee's recent novel
Elizabeth Costello. In the Fall 2005 issue, he published a short story "Or Things I Did Not Do or Say," about a man determined to kill another man.
Writings and interviews
Archives of his articles for other magazines
- Archive of Kunkel's writings for The Nation (1999—2005).
- Archive of Kunkel's writings for The Believer (2003).
Reviews
- "The Ideal Husband" — A review of D. H. Lawrence's The Lost Girl. Published in the New York Review of Books (February 24, 2005).
- "The Unreal World" — A review of Don DeLillo's The Body Artist, (February 14—20, 2001).
- "The Sea of Love" — A review of Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson, in The New York Times (May 1, 2005)
Interviews
- "Benjamin Kunkel's Tale of Indecision" — Kunkel reads from his novel on NPR, (September 17, 2005).
- "Welcome to the political world" — Interview with Benjamin Kunkel in The Observer, (November 20, 2005).
- "Attack of the listless lads" — Half-flippant, half-serious conversation with Kunkel about dating, relationships, and more theoretical gender relations in Salon, (September 20, 2005).
- Writings featured in n+1
- "Failure" — Fiction about a man's encounter with Failure.
- "On Susan Sontag" — Obituary for Susan Sontag.
Benjamin Kunkel