Tartt’s Vietnam-era Mississippi masterpiece
I finally know why The Guardian deleted Donna Tartt’s “The Ambush” from its website. Tin House reprinted the story, and it’s collected in BASS 2006.
Amis’ extended creative meltdown
Hey, look at this. Gessen examines the fiction of Martin Amis — circa Yellow Dog. Dear Nation: encore, please? (Thanks, Christian.)
Cardinal Boldtype
Boldtype’s Deadly Sins issue is out.
Yeah, no, but, like
Twenty words make up 1/3 of teenagers’ vocabulary. (Via.)
Whose generation?
On the last day of her month-long sojourn, Bookslut’s Jessa Crispin listens to the latest Slate Book Club podcast and tries to choke back a wave of yellow bile.
The silence that greeted Dominion
Calvin Baker’s strangely neglected Dominion is one of the books I admired most this year.
I understand that a novel so allusive, in which invocations of myth abound and the richness of language recalls the King James, isn’t going to appeal to everyone. But I look at some of the hyped-up claptrap that has critics [...]
Fiction and poetry online
Eyeshot and Mississippi Review, two personal favorites, make Shauna McKenna’s list of best online fiction and poetry venues.
New Rupert Thomson novel in August
I’ve been longing for Rupert Thomson’s Myra Hindley-inspired novel since he told me about it in May. Only eight more months to wait! (Hear Thomson speak here.)
Nabokov’s nymphets
Richard Hell opines that Vladimir Nabokov really was attracted to 11-year-old girls. (See Nabokov’s remarks on the subject.)
Wole Soyinka recorded a farewell message to his dad instead of attending the funeral. Agents heard his voice, and moved in to arrest him. (Via.)
Editors are ditching the SASE in favor of CLMP’s Submission Manager.
Publishers talk with Kate Figes about their favorite books that didn’t sell, and other books they wish they’d published.
I hope someone assigns Martin Amis’ House of Meetings to Gary Shteyngart or Keith Gessen (or, ideally, to both) for review. Here’s a brief take from Esquire.
“The arsehole is much maligned in modern times.” So begins Lucy Ellmann’s appreciation of Gargantua and Pantagruel, a pre-Don Quixote mock-heroic novel.
The Rude Mechanicals’ Get Your War On opens Off-Broadway next month. (Sean Carman enjoyed the D.C. show.)
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