I enjoyed this post and this diagram by Lydia Netzer about "the difficult second novel." I have long suspected that such a phenomenon was real (akin to bands' struggle to record their follow-up albums to big hits) but rare is the author who will be open and honest about it.

I'd give Netzer's first novel SHINE SHINE SHINE, which came out this summer, an F for "fantastic prose" and a D for "Definitely cried on the subway while reading."