Another “34th Street” writer follows his dreams

“Jeremiah and Mo — two Orthodox Jews at an Ivy League school — are best friends. They are also bitter rivals: for a girl’s affection, for academic success and for the position of campus literary star (they both write newspaper columns). “How Delightful Is the Day” is Jeremiah’s journal, which has been published by Mo following his friend’s untimely death. In it, every nuance of their relationship will be revealed — and in the process, so too the betrayals and hook-ups that led to the end. How did it happen? And why did Mo reveal the details? The questions keep coming, and the answers are always farcical and sometimes heartbreaking in Gabe Oppenheim’s glimmering and erudite debut. His voice, almost old-fashioned in its ornamental description, brings that style back to life. It is not to be missed.”

What was Gabe’s path that led him to this point as a published author?

At Penn, Gabe was an involved undergrad who was a DP columnist, a 34th street writer and a WQPN radio host and a host of basketball pregame/halftime/postgame shows.  At time, Gabe also took non-fiction writing courses and interned at The Washington Post in the summer of 2008. “The fiction thing was a bug that bit me my senior year of college. I can’t say why it happened then; it just did.”

Currently, Gabe teaches English and college preparatory courses in Connecticut and lives and writes in Manhattan.

Read an excerpt of How Delightful Is the Day which features the main character — Jeremiah — taking a trip to Student Health to address a rather embarrassing problem:

Incidentally, Gabe isn’t the first 34th Street writer to go onto success.  There’s:

• THIS novelist
• THIS screenwriter who penned Harold and Kumar and his friend:
• THIS screenwriter friend of his who wrote Hot Tub Time Machine.

More Penn authors HERE

• 34th Street
• Daily Pennsylvanian
• Gabe Oppenheim