The novel of ‘(dis)quiet’

This chapter asks what happens to ‘the quiet novel’ in the noisy environment of the city. Through a discussion of two strikingly similar debut novels by Teju Cole and Ben Lerner, this chapter first examines historical and cultural notions of urban noise and, second, asks how Cole and Lerner integrate the din of the city into the body of their quiet texts. In this, the chapter asks what kinds of information can be read as quiet and what exactly determines a novel’s volume.