A Wordsmith and a Worldsmith: Traymore Rooms reviewed by Akashic

Our friends at Akashic Books in Brooklyn, just posted a wonderful, appreciative review of Norm Sibum’s sprawling 700-pager The Traymore Rooms on their weekly “In Good Company” online review. Intern Alex Whelan’s astute take and fine stylings —”At times, Traymore smacks of an exceptionally erudite episode of Cheers where everybody knows both everybody’s name and the full text of Virgil’s Eclogues.” C’mon!— show that he’s got quite a future ahead of him. He sees in Sibum’s “screwball genre-hopping and erratic plotting” echoes of “Restoration sex comedy” and “the paranoid conspiratorial satire of Thomas Pynchon,” not to mention a “Hemingway-like elegy for younger and better days.” But ultimately, Whelan sees at the core of this ambitious novel a heartfelt peon to friendship:

“None of Traymore’s zeal would land, however, if not for the truth at the center of the novel: Calhoun’s—and Sibum’s—genuine, unashamed love for his friends. In the great tradition of Nick Carraways marveling quietly upon their Gatsbys, Calhoun seems well aware that he’s no match for the company that he keeps…For Traymore’s protagonist, there is no prospect more horrifying than not occupying himself with fellow Traymoreans from sun-up to sundown.”

Thanks Akashic and Alex!