Gary Shteyngart's blurbs have become legendary. They've been described in the New York Times and Time magazine, and spawned their own Tumblr.
And now, there's a Shteyngart blurbing documentary, created by Edward Champion, viewable above.
The documentary features some of our favorite book people, including Ron Charles and Rebecca Schinsky as well as authors Karen Russell, A.M. Holmes and Dinaw Mengestu. Though it begins in a jokey fashion, it's a thoughtful reflection on why we want blurbs at all, and asks (without conclusion) if his blurbing is something of a distributed art project.
He describes it himself as "irrational exuberance... some books you read for as long as you have time to read, and get a general sense that it's something you would enjoy reading to the end if you had the time."
Shteyngart's blurbs show no sign of slowing. When we asked, he even blurbed that Time magazine article about blurbs. At the time of reporting, he had not yet blurbed the documentary - but it's surely only a matter of time.
Blurbs originated in 1907 - click here to see the first-ever blurb.
Do you care about blurbs on book covers?
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