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Local author's debut novel brings a blogger's life to the page.

Everywhere you look, modern technology is sneaking its way into old, steadfast forms of entertainment. In one thriller movie trailer, I saw a kidnapper send a pix message to the hero to let him know that his family is okay. You've Got Mail is eight years old, and it dealt with e-mail. So it was only a matter of time before today's hottest trend (to the behest of those of us who have done it - well - for a while now), blogging, made an appearance in old media. Though it may not be the first time your favorite writing pastime and mine has made it to the pulp of those hefty rectangular things old people call books, Andy Greenwald's Miss Misery is certainly a worthy representative of the movement.

Miss Misery is about David Gould, who IRL (in real life, for those of you keeping score at home) is a writer up against the deadline for his book about the lively, exciting, often dark diaries youngsters keep online. Left by his girlfriend at the beginning of the book - not breakup; she's going to work in Europe for a while and he's staying behind in New York - David sees no reason to continue work on his book. Instead, he stay cooped up in his apartment, avoiding his editor's phone calls and stalking his book's subjects, particularly Miss Misery, who IRL is twenty-two-year-old Cath Kennedy, a stranger with perfect taste in music and, if her journal is to be believed, a social life that far exceeds "butterfly" levels.

Stretching for anything to do to avoid his deadline, David begins writing a fictional online diary, one where he has the kind of nightlife that Miss Misery would want to be a part of. But when Cath Kennedy actually moves to New York, David's journal - and the life attached - are hijacked by a David lookalike. The real David spends the remainder of his summer chasing down the doppelganger and learning how interesting life can be when you take a stake in it.

Greenwald, who apparently used to work at the Borders in Bryn Mawr, has also published a non-fiction book about the history of emo and writes for Spin magazine, so it's no surprise that his fiction story is laced with references to real music that will make even the most amped-up aficionado's head spin. These bands and songs play a huge part in David's life, but if you're not hip enough to nod your head at all of the music choices (I think I could only understand Death Cab, Dashboard, The Decemberists, and Jimmy Eat World), Greenwald's prose is welcoming enough that you can glaze over them and get the story. His writing is rich and descriptive, sometimes to a fault, and you can really feel the scenes as you read them.

The evil twin angle is a bit goofy, but it churns the story along at a lightning pace. What's at the heart of Greenwald's book is his characters (and yes, the music, I guess), and he writes them well. David is a likable guy, even when he's making terrible decisions. Cath carries ample mystery and accessibility. Tangential characters, like Ashleigh Bortch and Franta the bartender, provide hilarious side stories that level the wild A-plot.

The end of Greenwald's novel is a bit of a train wreck, and I think it ends with more of a thud than an easy stop, but you can come out of it unscathed and happier for having taken the ride.

Rating: * * * of 5