Kunkel, Benjamin

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Kunkel, Benjamin

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

Indecision (novel), Random House (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including Dissent, Nation, and New York Review of Books. Founding editor, n+1.

SIDELIGHTS: Benjamin Kunkel's debut novel Indecision is the story of Dwight Wilmerding, a bright, well-to-do, but unambitious man who is nearing the age of thirty. Dwight seems content to go through the motions at his low-level job at the Pfizer pharmaceutical company, relax in his apartment, and reflect on his unnatural attraction to his psychiatrist sister, Alice. After losing his job, he diagnoses himself as suffering from abulia, or an inability to make decisions. Dwight enters a clinical trial for a new drug being developed for the treatment of abulia, and soon begins to make dramatic changes in his life. He moves to South America, in search of his high-school love, and his adventures eventually land him deep in the jungles of Ecuador. A Kirkus Reviews writer commented that Indecision "isn't high art, but it's full of high spirits" and is "well-paced." Prudence Peiffer, a reviewer for Library Journal, vacillated between finding Dwight "annoying or appealing," and remarked that the author himself seems undecided as to whether the book as a whole should be a commentary on American mores or simply "a lighthearted romp." Nevertheless, Peiffer recommended Indecision as "a promising first work."