Grady as the typical novelist

Not having ever been a novelist myself, i cannot say for sure that my claim that Grady is a typical novelist can be made. However, especially towards the end of the book, i felt a sense of familiarity, not only with Grady's character but his position in life as well. In the beginning of the story, he starts by introducing the "midnight disease" that seems to claim most writers as they become consumed by their work. In the midst of his midlife crisis, during which his wife leaves him, his mistress becomes pregnant, and his pot addiction takes over his every conscious thought, Grady loses his writing "mojo" that started him as a writer. Grady does not suffer from the typical midnight disease, but instead suffers from the inescapable snares of his own faults. For seven years, his mammoth novel, Wonder Boys seems to have no end in sight and everyone seems to be on Grady's back for it.

Yet, when the manuscript of Wonder Boys becomes lost forever, Grady seems to snap out of a spell that the book had placed on him. Slowly, he starts to recompose his life. He marries his lover Sara, has a son, finds a new job, and claims his title as a writer once again. When he had once placed so much hope on Wonder Boys, thinking that it would save his job and perhaps his marriage, and propel him into his former glory again, he faces reality when his novel is ruined and scattered by the winds of fate.

Starting over, Grady knows that this time, things will be different. While Grady has admitted to himself that he had never expected his former marriages to last, by marrying his lover, and the mother of his only child, Grady seems to have finally tamed himself and in a way, found what he had been looking for.

Grady now is settled, writes at a more progressive pace, and truly dedicates himself to his writing. The turn of events that brought him to this place seems to have been a less-advertised form of a novelist's disease. Although Grady only knew and spoke of "the midnight disease", he himself suffered from a period of writer's block and desperation which seems to be common with most writers, until they reach an enlightening epiphany. Like Fitzgerald and Chabon himself, Grady had to endure a period of time during which he was constantly frustrated with himself and could not find satisfaction in his writing. Grady's journey to becoming a true genius author involved a reformation of his very desires, which he found by losing all his former ones.