The republication of two of Gilbert Rogin's most popular novels - What Happens Next? And Preparations for Ascent - brings to a new generation of readers the comedy, pathos and keen observation that made him a favourite contributor to the New Yorker in the 1960s and 1970s. Elegant and very funny, these novels confirm Rogin's place beside contemporaries like Updike and Roth, but also his status alongside Woody Allen and Larry David as one of the comic geniuses of his time.