Fourteen Days: A Novel
February 6, 2024
HarperCollins
592 pages
The Authors Guild, Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston
$28.00
Best-selling author Douglas Preston approached the Authors Guild with an ingenious idea. A collaborative novel of the COVID days in a squalid downtown tenement. Thirty-six American and Canadian writers agreed to join this literary experiment. Some are well known: Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Meg Wolitzer, Scott Turow and Erica Jong. Different ages, different genres. Preston and Margaret Atwood co-edited the collection.
The result is “Fourteen Days,” purporting to be “transcribed from an unclaimed manuscript found in the property clerk division” of the NYC Police Department.
It’s early in the COVID days. Ambulances race down the Bowery. There’s the daily announcement of numbers of deaths by borough. Andrew Cuomo’s daily TV appearances … grim material. And yet, “Fourteen Days” is highly entertaining.
A key player in the story is the building’s new superintendent. “Most people don’t expect the super to be a woman, but I’m six feet tall, strong as heck, and capable of anything.” She was trained well by her father, a super in Queens.
The new super has discovered the “The Fernsby Bible,” which contains all the info about the building and its tenants, identified by nicknames like Eurovision, Vinegar, Florida, Lady with the Rings, the Therapist— with their apartment numbers. On the back cover of the bible, there’s a key Scotch-taped with a note: “Check it out.”
Intrigued, she tries every lock in the building until she finds a narrow staircase to the roof. The padlocked door opens.
“The rooftop was damn near paradise, never mind the spiders and pigeon shit, and loose flapping tar paper. It was big and the panorama was stupendous.”
She begins to come up to the oasis nightly, where she can imbibe her predecessor’s booze and watch the 7 p.m. banging of pots and pans for the city’s saviors. Despite changing the lock several times, the tenants slowly discover the space, bringing plastic chairs and snacks.
At first, the residents are reluctant to engage. They’ve been muted by the virus and devastating losses. But much like a modern-day “Decameron,” they start to tell their stories.
The tenants’ tales blend into each other. They are all unbylined. The only way to discover who’s written what is to go to the back of the book. For me, that was part of the fun of the book.
The idea of collaborative writing originated with the Surrealists, who called a collection of words or images collectively assembled “Exquisite Corpse.” Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule or by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed.
The Berkshire Edge has published two collaborative novels. Most recently, “Artificial Insanity,” an eight-part serial novel, which explored the fictional possibilities of artificial insemination, written by Rachel Siegel, Jess Bennett, Sam Bittman, Daniel Tawczynski, Matt Tannenbaum, Tom Cathcart, Daniel Klein, and me. As the caboose, meaning the last one to go, I had to incorporate everyone’s additions, especially Daniel Klein’s, who tried to sabotage the plot.
And, not unlike “Fourteen Days,” I also wrote a novel called “The Last Hotel: A Novel in Suites,” which The Berkshire Edge serialized for about 30 weeks in 2015. It was based on a residential hotel my father managed on West 72nd Street in Manhattan. Every story took place in a suite of the hotel, except for the story of the Sofa Club, which met in the lobby.
On Friday, February 9, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., The Bookstore in Lenox, Mass., will host readings from “Fourteen Days” by three of its contributors: Roxanna Robinson, Rachel Vail, and Mary Pope Osborne.
All proceeds from the book will go to support the Authors Guild Foundation, which ensures the broad diversity of stories that are essential for democracy to flourish, fights book bans and library closures, and advocates for causes important to authors.
The full list of participating writers includes Margaret Atwood, Doug Preston, Diana Gabaldon, Emma Donoghue, Sylvia Day, Dave Eggers, Tess Gerritsen, John Grisham, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, Erica Jong, R. L. Stine, Scott Turow, Meg Wolitzer, Roxana Robinson, Charlie Jane Anders, Jennine Capó Crucet, Angie Cruz, Pat Cummings, Joseph Cassara, Maria Hinojosa, Mira Jacob, CJ Lyons, Mary Pope Osborne, Alice Randall, Caroline Randall Williams, Ishmael Reed, Nelly Rosario, James Shapiro, Hampton Sides, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Monique Truong, Luis Alberto Urrea, Rachel Vail, Weike Wang, and De’ Shawn Charles Winslow.
