Reif Larsen Is My Favorite Novelist

Reif has written a book that comes close to capturing the full extent of his soul-shattering genius. The dragon has been loosed from its chains. The world will never be the same! Listen to this mini-interview, check out this profile

A practicing Zen Buddhist, albeit the most animated one on the planet, he seems genuinely devoid of angst and ego.

and buy the damn book.

Some of you are thinking, “Oh man, hipster twee. Spoon my brain out, please.” Well, you’re a bozo. You’re not necessarily a bozo. But seriously, don’t let your “contrarian” prejudices keep you from reading a rare and really brilliant book. If you’re embarrassed about reading the same book all of the foxy babes on the L and F trains will be reading, wrap it in a brown paper bag. Seriously. Grow up.

Here’s another review/profile.

I’m slightly uncomfortable with the objectification of Reif — yes, he has boyish blond hair. But he’s also thinker with thoughts! The mere fact that he’s handsome doesn’t mean that you can pinch him without buying him a drink first. Come on, people. Were you raised by wolves?

What’s more, he has done so as he turns 29 — a fact not lost on his publisher’s publicity department. Its job has also been made easier by the author’s natural amiability and boyish blond hair. One American journalist opened a typically fawning piece on The Selected Works of TS Spivet by calling Larsen “one of the kindest, sharpest, gentlest, most spectacularly funny and impressive people I’ve ever met”. The spectacularly funny and impressive Larsen, however, says that he is not lost in the hype.

As it turns out, that American journalist was actually a deranged and undermedicated lunatic.