NSFW: A Novel

by Isabel Kaplan

Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION'S FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • “An intoxicating exploration of male-dominated workplaces . . . NSFW is gripping, with a lot to unpack, making it excellent book-club fodder.”—TIME

Named an Amazon "Best Book of 2022" for Literature and Fiction

The thing about Los Angeles is that it’s awful and I hate it, but when I’m there, nowhere else exists, and I can’t imagine leaving. It’s a difficult place to be old or sick or fat or poor or without a strong social media presence. It’s not an easy place to be young, either.

So begins Isabel Kaplan’s electric and incisive debut novel about life at the bottom of the corporate ladder.

She’s young, she’s smart, she’s set up for success. She has a covetable assistant job at a television network, a well-connected feminist mother who only wants the best for her, a prescription for appetite-suppressing injections, and a relentless work ethic. What could possibly go wrong?

Compulsively readable and darkly comedic, NSFW explores the messiest parts of twenty-something life, from the indignities of entry level jobs to the elusive quest for self-acceptance. “Excellent book-club fodder” (Time), it’s a novel you’ll want to press into the hands of your coworkers and friends and one that marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250871497
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/27/2023
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	372,446
Product dimensions:	4.95(w) x 7.95(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Isabel Kaplan graduated from Harvard and holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU. She is the author of the viral Guardian essay “My boyfriend, a writer, broke up with me because I’m a writer” and the national bestselling young adult novel Hancock Park. She was born and raised in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

Named one of Debutiful's "Best Debut Books of 2022

“Ambition bites back in NSFW . . . So visceral . . . NSFW makes your brain spin on the #MeToo merry-go-round that’s come derailed from the base and spontaneously set on fire. Bleak and brave, this novel is a reminder of how skewered women are, no matter ‘how far we’ve come.’”
—The New York Times

"Explosive . . . [NSFW] lays bare the many troubling elements of Hollywood's corporate culture, from veiled sexism to blatant sexual harassment."
—The Hollywood Reporter

"Haunting and hilarious in equal measure . . . This sharp, unflinching novel takes a magnifying glass to the cognitive dissonance required by women who dare to exist—or even succeed—in a male-dominated world. The rich nuances of the narrator's personal and professional life in Hollywood, which blur together with every page, are as farcical as they are strikingly realistic. A must-read."
—BuzzFeed

“A wholly engrossing and shrewdly observational novel that puts the transactional nature of relationships—both professional and personal—on full blast. NSFW is the rare kind of read that made me giggle just as much as it left me gutted.”
—Zakiya Dalila Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Black Girl

“I devoured NSFW. The complexities of who we are, what we stand for, and what we hope we stand for—plus the ramifications of all the choices we make—are beautifully explored. I learned from this novel and I am grateful for it.”
—Jamie Lee Curtis

“A frank account of leaning in and its inherent filthiness. Kaplan captures the psychological and, at times, literal gymnastics required of striving women.”
—Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster

“Kaplan peels back the curtain to examine the culture of a television network in this sharply observed, completely absorbing debut novel . . . Kaplan’s authentic insider knowledge makes her piercing first outing a cut above the plethora of Hollywood-set novels.”
—Booklist

“Incisive and painfully resonant . . . [NSFW] is an unexpectedly funny book, given the subject matter, and features frustrating, complex, and profoundly human characters.”
—Electric Literature

“With tons of dark humor . . . This is a novel that captures the contemporary moment of work culture and more.”
—Book Riot

“Frank, funny, and unputdownable, Isabel Kaplan's NSFW takes you on an ambitious young woman's wild ride through Hollywood. Her mother's a famous feminist lawyer, and she's a rising executive star, mistress of her destiny. But behind the glitter and the justice, everyone is tarnished and compromised including even our narrator. Kaplan, with her sharp and nuanced eye, sees it all, and tells it brilliantly.”
—Claire Messud, New York Times bestselling author of The Burning Girl and The Woman Upstairs

“Isabel Kaplan is as sharp-eyed and witty as they come. NSFW is a great, hilarious romp in the grand tradition of Hollywood novelists like Carrie Fisher and Bruce Wagner. Delicious and naughty and adorably bleak, much like L.A. itself.”
—Elisa Albert, author of Human Blues

“Brilliantly deadpan and spiky in all the right ways . . . An accurate, darkly funny but also brutal portrayal of everyday workplace and world power dynamics. I couldn’t put it down!”
—Emily Itami, author of Fault Lines

“I inhaled this deliciously sharp, ridiculously funny, and surprisingly heartfelt debut. NSFW is many things: a canny portrait of mother-daughter codependency, an incisive look at pre Me-Too era Hollywood dynamics, and a nuanced portrait of one young woman's quest for self-knowledge. The only time I willingly took a break from reading was to text various friends about how much they're going to love this book. I cannot wait to discuss it with everyone I know.”
—Coco Mellors, author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein

From the Publisher

05/09/2022

The daughter of a prominent victim’s rights attorney navigates the treacherous pre-#MeToo television industry in Kaplan’s well-crafted but unilluminating adult debut (after the YA novel Hancock Park). The unnamed narrator returns to her hometown of Los Angeles after graduating from Harvard and, after using her mother’s connections, begins climbing the ladder at XBC, an upstart broadcasting network. As the narrator internalizes fatphobia and unrealistic beauty standards, and capitulates to and chafes against the casual misogyny at XBC, she tries to stay afloat in an environment teeming with sexual misconduct. Most intriguing, though, is the narrator’s Sisyphean relationship with her famously feminist mother, who simultaneously longs for her daughter’s success and resents it. Kaplan takes on heavy topics with an appealing frankness and snappy prose but doesn’t offer anything new regarding the no-win scenarios faced by survivors of sexual violence when deciding whether to go public (“Come forward and your career is probably tanked. Stay silent and he won’t have to answer for any of it,” the narrator says to a colleague), and as a result her depiction of the double bind comes off as rather mundane. As a Hollywood coming-of-age story, this does the job, but those in search of a new take on the larger issues at play will be left unsatisfied. (July)

Publishers Weekly