Marc is starting writing classes with an infamous lit-diva.

(from The Secret Society of Demolition Writers)

From the very beginning — a quaint lil quote attributed to the book’s editor, Marc Parent — you know this is a very self aware story. One way or another, lots of Demolition Writers (and some not included in this collection) get shout-outs, name checks, allusions. Let’s see. Two of the main characters are Marc and Alice (as in Sebold, a point emphasized by the description of her “lovely bones.”) There’s also an Aimee (Bender), a Cheever (Benjamin), a Rosie (O’Donnell, you’ve really made it), a McCracken (Elizabeth). Sometimes authors are just named outright, as in this awkward sentence: “Her hand passed over Anna Quindlen’s Blessings, Sebastian Junger’s Fire, and Claire Marvel by John Burnham Schwartz.”
Oh boy. It’s past pretension and back into comedy. Why not, I say.
The story itself was decent and interesting, although clearly handcffed by its ulterior motives.