Uncommonly Well-Written for Tin House

Here's the thing about Tin House. No matter how you get to them, no matter how personal your relationship is to the editor who promises her colleague, who is your friend's friend, that she will read the manuscript personally; no matter how often you are invited to send more , the damn thing always gets read by an assistant, who pretends to represent the whole place. In this case, Tony Perez, who decides my fate by adding a tidbit to the standard rejections thusly: "We found [title of novel] to be uncommonly well-written and, for the most part, [an] interesting read." We? Doubtful. But, it is a nice little bone he tossed me, so I should shut up and be happy. Oddly, Perez has rejected this novel before for a different editor there (without reading it, I surmise), so I guess I should also be happy someone had an actual look at it. But here's the thing: Nanci McCloskey should have read the thing herself, as promised, but she did not.

Oh well, that's just how they roll over there at the house of tin. I hear it's a snake pit in there. (BTW, for those keeping track, I only have one more rejection to go before I shut this effort down for awhile.)