Earbrass, LTD: Writers in search of reassignment?*
“First, try to be something, anything, else.” That’s the famous first line of Lorrie Moore’s “How to Become a Writer,” and it’s funny because it’s true. Many writers do consider another path initially.
Roberto Bolaño, for instance, wanted to be a spy, Kate Christensen a rock star, Joan Didion an actress. Chris Adrian went [...]
A curmudgeon’s literary paraphernalia
It has not always been so, but few aspects of online aspiring-writer culture are more irritating to me nowadays than “literary lifestyle” tips and paraphernalia. (Library-scented perfume. Dictionary wallpaper. Moleskines. Bookshelves fashioned of reference books pulled from library dumpsters. The onslaught is maddening.)
But every curmudgeon is at least something of a hypocrite, and I [...]
The hopeful cover of Editor & Publisher
“Snagged this from my managing editor’s desk,” said a friend who works at a newspaper, following the announcement that Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews will be shuttered. “The teaser in the upper right… Oof.”
Empanelled! Also, questions and more questions.
I guess my cardigan and the cat hair I couldn’t lint-roll off of it must’ve screamed “truly, I have renounced every aspect of being an attorney,” but, in light of my background, I was surprised to be selected for a civil jury today.
Evidently the trial is an expedited, one-day affair. I’ll be at [...]
One for the reading list: The German Mujahid
Europa Editions, one of the most interesting and beautifully curated publishers of works in translation, has just put out Boualem Sansal’s The German Mujahid, a novel inspired by an Algerian mayor who was a former SS officer.
In an evocative review at Words Without Borders, Emma Garman calls Sansai “a novelist at the absolute [...]
Talent, power, and girls: Marie Mockett’s first novel
If you were riveted by her Letter from a Japanese Crematorium, you’ll be glad to hear that Marie Mockett’s first novel, Picking Bones from Ash, is out at last.
Judging from the advance reviews at Amazon, some readers seem to expect The Joy Luck Club, but for Japan, which is not at all the story they [...]
Evolutionary (and writerly) advantages of depression?
Emma and I enjoyed the novelist Margaret Drabble’s recent observation that depression is useful “for stripping off ways of getting through life that prevent you from having to think.”
“Happy and buoyant don’t force you into action on the page,” Drabble (pictured, in an earlier era) told Daphne Merkin.
These kinds of arguments in favor of depression [...]
When is a book not a book?
Even as the printing press was taking hold, the Abbot of Sponheim urged his monks to keep copying texts by hand. The written word on parchment, he said, would last a thousand years, whereas words printed on paper were cheap and fleeting.
His argument has echoes in the ebooks debate. [...]
The lives — and books — of teenage girls
Today at The Second Pass, Emma Garman returns to Françoise Mallet-Joris’ The Illusionist and Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse, two compelling and remarkably amoral novels narrated — and written — by teenage girls in the middle of the last century.
The Illusionist centers on the protagonist’s affair with her father’s mistress, while [...]
Publishing and writers in the Great Depression
Amid all the discussion of massive layoffs and restructuring in publishing, I keep hoping someone will take a detailed look at how books fared during the Great Depression, and consider how the current economic crisis compares.
Conventional wisdom holds that books have done well in hard times, because they’re cheaper than [...]
Will e-books expand the trashy exposé market?
Late last week, a friend forwarded a press release entitled “Publication Date Set for ‘Manhattan Madam’ Tell-All EBook.” It announces that Kristin Davis’ “biographical peak inside NYC’s sex-industry” will go on sale February 20.
Says my friend, “‘EBook’ in the headline of the press release? Classy. But perhaps it’s shrewd — no shameful shuffling in the [...]
Some books and essays I’ve enjoyed this year
By request, and in the hopes of doing some small part to ease the struggles of great bookstores like Powell’s, here is an incomplete list of books and essays I enjoyed this year:
Fiction: Richard Price’s Lush Life, Aleksandar Hemon’s The Lazarus Project, Marilynne Robinson’s Home, Claire Keegan’s Walk the Blue [...]
What does the Random House reorg. mean?
Huge realignment at big-R Random House the day after the publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt tendered her resignation.
The Doubleday and Nan Talese imprints wind up under Sonny Mehta’s Knopf. The Dial Press, Bantam, and Spiegel & Grau imprints are shifted under the Random House Publishing Group umbrella. Crown takes on…
Ah, screw it [...]
On irrational prejudices and Morris’ The Dart League King
If I had a dime for every poorly-conceived novel written in close third person, with alternating chapters from alternating perspectives, that arrived in the mail, I’d be well on my way to free train fare to my sister’s place.
For this proliferation I blame Jonathan Franzen, but not in a bad way. Say [...]
Leak prevention in a Twitter world
Last week a publishing CEO typed a few excited words about a celebrity manuscript into his Twitter feed. Although he seemed a little nonplussed when Publisher’s Weekly reported and pored over the entry, you didn’t hear Lynne Spears or her agent complaining.
The discussion since has centered on Twitter’s potential as a buzz-builder, but [...]