BY Led Black (@Led_Black)
Today is the day – hooray, hooray. Matthew Gallaway’s first novel The Metropolis Case is officially in stores today, so make sure you go out and support this local writer, blogger and friend to the UC. Mr. Gallaway is an amazing novelist but don’t take my word for it, this is what the NY Times had to say: “It’s to the credit of Matthew Gallaway’s enchanting, often funny first novel that it doesn’t require a corresponding degree of obsession from readers, but may leave them similarly transported: the book is so well written — there’s hardly a lazy sentence here — and filled with such memorable lead and supporting players that it quickly absorbs you into its worlds.” The NY Post also listed The Metropolis Case as required reading recently. Even with all the hustle and bustle associated with a book release, Matthew still had some time to answer a few of our questions.
Q: Congrats on the rave review in the NY Times. How does it feel to see your work described in such glowing terms?
A: It’s beyond amazing and I’m still totally buzzed from the whole thing because I didn’t know it was happening until it appeared. It’s really a dream come true to work so hard for so long and then to receive some serious critical acclaim in the spotlight.
Q: How long from start to finish did the book take?
A: I started drafts of the book maybe a year or so before 9/11, so it really took me the better part of a decade to finish. (Most of the past three years were spent revising it, first with my agent and my editor.)
Q: Are you already hard at work on the next one?
A: Yes, I’ve spent most of the past year working on a new one and have a draft that’s about as long as THE METROPOLIS CASE. That said, it still needs a ton of work, and I wish I could say that I felt 100-percent confident about it, but I think part of the process is always to have some doubts about the quality of your work. (Or at least, that’s my process, LOL.)
Q: What part does Uptown play in the novel?
A: Several of the characters spend part of their lives in Washington Heights. I think the neighborhood (which as we all know is so often forgotten or ignored in comparison to the rest of Manhattan) serves as a symbol of outsider status, and dovetails nicely with other aspects of the characters that make them outsiders (whether it’s being gay or fat or having the talent to be a world-class opera singer or even dating someone outside their age/ethnicity/etc). I believe that one of the reasons to write fiction is to break down stereotypes, and to me uptown is a perfect place to do that.
Check out the NY Times Review: Here
Check out the NY Post article: Here
Check out our Uptown Artist post on Matthew: Here