6.8 /10 1 Votes
Originally published 2013 | 3.4/5 Goodreads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Scouting for the Reaper, The Man Who Wouldn't, Phoning Home, Einstein's Beach House, Miracles and Conundr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Biology of Luck is a 2013 American novel by Jacob M. Appel. It is a reimagining of James Joyce's Ulysses and is set in New York City.
Contents
Plot
The novel alternates between the adventures of "New York tour guide Larry Bloom" who works "a nine-to-five grind herding privileged tourists through the city" and chapters from a book manuscript he has written "about the light in his listless life, Starshine Hart, a 29-year-old, job-jumping beauty who attracts the gaze and adoration of nearly every man in the Tri-state area."
Reception
Kate Duva of Word Riot wrote that Appel captures the essence of New York City and starts off well, but the large eccentric cast and lack of characterization for the main protagonists may leave some readers ambivalent. Will Donnelly of Green Mountains Review described the novel as "strange genius".
It won the Beverly Hills Book Award for "literary fiction" in 2014 and was short-listed for the Hoffer Society's Montaigne Medal.