Local Writers Celebrate Failure of Novelist's Second Work

The author who put Budapest on the map as an important expat literary capital has gotten some downright dismal notices for his second novel, causing widespread rejoicing among the region's legions of struggling unpublished writers. While hopes were high that the follow-up to Arthur Phillips's phenomenally successful 2002 debut Prague would be bad, local scribes are overjoyed by just how chilly the reception The Egyptologist is receiving. Phillips, who lived in Budapest for a brief period in the early 1990s and now resides in Paris, received in excess of a half-million dollars for his first novel, and is also tall and handsome.

In a scathing appraisal reprinted in newspapers around the world, the influential New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani said Phillips's "much ballyhooed" first novel demonstrated that "cleverness and brio can go only so far." And while giving the new book points for not having the same "pretensions" as Prague, Kakutani said that "by the book's midpoint, the reader has begun to tire of all the narrative shenanigans and smart banter, and has begun to wonder why this novel is as long and long-winded as it is."

Finally, Kakutani concluded, "Phillips's own storytelling, sadly, grows increasingly self-indulgent and bloated as the book progresses, and combined with the reader's knowledge of the 'surprise ending,' it makes for a disappointing conclusion to a novel that got off to such a promising and bouncy start."

Reached by telephone yesterday, one local writer denied he was taking grim pleasure in Phillips's sophomore slump, a fate common among very successful first-time authors.

"I really liked Prague," the would-be novelist said, unconvincingly. "No, really."