“Debate/Discuss/Rend Garments”

Over at Electric Literature, Ryan Chapman interviews Teddy Wayne, whose third novel, Loner, seems to effortlessly blow by the clichés of the campus novel: as Ryan calls it, “the writer’s equivalent of the pop ballad.” Wayne begins by citing “non-campus” novels as influences—The Talented Mr. Riply, Lolita, Notes from Underground—and he’s clearly transcended college culture to get at entitlement culture and class more broadly. High praise from Chapman, “We have to tip-toe around the plot, since the ending is a forehead-slapper that makes one want to immediately grab the nearest bystander, form an impromptu book club, and debate/discuss/rend garments.”