Arthur Nersesian: New York's Best Kept Secret

There is a line by the late, great, gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson that states, the hardest thing in this world is to be yourself while all around people are trying to change you into something you’re not.

This line could easily be applied to the characters that inhabit Arthur Nersesian’s New York City novels. Writers, artists and actresses, all with one common goal; the pursuit of their art while living the struggling, starving artist lifestyle.

In a world full of corporate clones selling out en masse in order to keep themselves in Starbucks lattes, Nersesian’s characters willingly leap onto New York’s sacrificial alter, giving hope that there are still a few people out there who are willing to risk everything and not be lured by the corner office with a nice view.

Reading an Arthur Nersesian novel for the first time is similar to chancing upon a classic Indie movie late at night while channel surfing through mindless mainstream dross. A line of dialogue grabs you, and you slowly begin to realize that you have happened upon something meaningful. The characters, dialogue and plotlines in Nersesian’s work ring true and this is down to the writer himself being the real deal.

Nersesian has lived in New York City for almost 50 years and has endured the struggling writer lifestyle. His first and best-known novel is The F*ck-Up, a beautifully written tale of an aspiring writer stumbling around a 1980s, East Village.

The anonymous slacker is the blueprint for every twenty-something who knows there is something out there worth searching for; it’s just taking a lot of hard work to find it. Although The F*ck-Up is now in its 18th printing, it was only picked up by a publisher due to Nersesian’s sheer tenacity.