Depression Lit

By Patrick Appel
Virginia Postrel gets an e-mail from author Sam Macdonald:

I just wrote a book (released November 25) about my own experience with starvation. Long story short, I was really fat and really broke after college, so I decided to live on 800 calories a day. I ended up losing 160 poounds and, eventually, digging myself out of debt.

I wrote the thing when the economy seemed rather strong. So it was never supposed to be "timely." But now it's intereting to see the way the media is reacting. For instance, here's a review in the LA Times stating that the timing is "... uncanny..." That is, that there are lessons for people to learn.

On the other hand, here's someone from Time magazine saying that the book WOULD be funny and interesting, but the timing is awful, somehow making it not funny anymore.