Benjamin Kunkel’s brilliantly comic debut novel concerns one of the central maladies of our time–a pathological indecision that turns abundance into an affliction and opportunity into a curse. Dwight B. Wilmerding is only twenty-eight, but he’s having a midlife crisis. Of course, living a dissolute, dorm like existence in a tiny apartment and working in tech support at the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer are not especially conducive to wisdom. And a few sessions of psychoanalysis conducted by his sister have distinctly failed to help with his biggest problem: a chronic inability to make up his mind. Encouraged by one of his roommates to try an experimental pharmaceutical meant to banish indecision, Dwight jumps at the chance (not without some meditation on the hazards of jumping) and swallows the first fateful pill. And when all at once he is “pfired” from Pfizer and invited to a rendezvous in exotic Ecuador with the girl of his long-ago prep-school dreams, he finds himself on the brink of a new life. The trouble–well, one of the troubles–is that Dwight can’t decide if the pills are working. Deep in the jungles of the Amazon, in the foreign country of a changed outlook, his would-be romantic escape becomes a hilarious journey into unbidden responsibility and unwelcome knowledge. How to affirm happiness without living in constant denial of the ways of the world? How to commit, and to what? At once funny and poignant, gentle and outrageous, finely intelligent and proudly silly, Indecision rings with a voice of great energy and originality, while its deeper inquiries reflect the concerns and style of a generation. "Here’s what Indecision gives you: sustained social and intellectual comedy, possibly the last but certainly the funniest Superfluous Man in modern literature, drive-by satire, plus detailed set-piece send-ups of Young Adult colgrads at work and play. The mockery is humane. The tale of Dwight Wilmerding is told with style and care. And there’s a surprising ending. Benjamin Kunkel, welcome!" – Norman Rush , author of Mating Twenty years ago, Don DeLillo, in "White Noise," created a character so beset by morbid anxiety that she begins taking pills that obliterate the fear of death. In our era of precision-targeted psychotropics, this scenario no longer shocks; it's drearily plausible. For similar reasons, the satirical springboard of Kunkel's first novel—a neurotically aimless New Yorker takes medication that he believes will instill in him the ability to make commitments—is rather creaky. Moreover, the Big Pharma plot only partially masks the fact that this is yet another novel in which a charming, Nick Hornby-style layabout is mechanically cajoled into semi-maturity. Kunkel's narrator has an appealingly rascally voice, and the author is expert at depicting highbrow buffoonery—at an all-night Ecstasy party, flesh and philosophy commingle to hilarious effect—but the book, for all its crisp prose, can't escape the staleness of its conceit. Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker The whiny, wisecracking narrator lifts this bildungsroman well above the clichéd masses. Dwight’s voice "blends astute and whimsical observation with cerebral gymnastics and tortuously modest, wistful introspection" ( New York Times Book Review ). Yes, some reviewers found Dwight annoying. But even they were ultimately won over by his childlike innocence, madcap adventures, and the debut author’s skillful prose style. Sure, reviewers were unsure how to handle the novel’s preachy, pseudopolitical twists. But this is a story about uncertainty; vacillating critics are par for the course. Kunkel "manages to make the whole flailing, postadolescent, prelife crisis feel fresh and funny again" ( New York Times Book Review ). He deserves your time. Probably. Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. A promising premise is plagued by subpar prose in this debut from literary critic Kunkel. Twentysomething Manhattanite Dwight Wilmerding suffers from a fictional condition called abulia-- the inability to make up his mind. Paralyzed by indecisiveness about his tech--support job, his complicated love life (there's Dutch bombshell Natasha who lives in Ecuador and coy Vaneetha in New York), and a distressing attraction to his psychiatrist sister, Dwight signs up for the trial drug Abulinix, which claims to tackle tentativeness with a little blue-and-white pill. Dwight travels to South America, only to discover that even the most potent pharmaceuticals are virtually powerless against the forces of fate. A graduate of the Columbia MFA program and founding editor of the literary magazine n+1 , Kunkel writes in a style that is uneven at best--clever one moment, stilted and cliche-ridden the next (he renders a few surprisingly poignant passages depicting post-9/11 New York). While Inde cision offers lively commentary on the pros and cons of personal freedom, its rambling narrative makes for a decidedly rocky read. Allison Block Copy