Coetzee fiction teaser
The NYRB excerpts J.M. Coetzee’s forthcoming novel, Diary of a Bad Year.
Goldman on daiquiris and writing — and Bolaño
Francisco Goldman drank the water in Mexico City and finally wrote his novel. Elsewhere, read his appreciation of “The Great Bolaño,” whom he also praised at a tribute in April.
From the Book Review
In the NYTBR: Mark Sarvas calls I Love You, Beth Cooper “less a novel than a novelization of a movie not yet made,” and Min Jin Lee’s 1st novel is compared to Middlemarch.
Pancake’s birthday (and initials)
Writer Breece D’J Pancake, who took his own life at 26, was born 55 years ago today in South Charleston, West Virginia.
Grass/Mailer NYPL event
Günter Grass & Norman Mailer discussed Nazi ties and U.S. presidential hopefuls at the NYPL earlier this week. (Via & via.)
The cosmic realism of Annie Dillard
Marilynne Robinson admires Annie Dillard’s The Maytrees, a book “about wonder.” Elsewhere Dillard suggests she’s done with writing. (Via.)
Faux Hebrew
Why is this font different from all other fonts?
Writers protest Mugabe
J.M. Coetzee, José Prieto, and many other writers will participate in a worldwide reading to protest the regime of Robert Mugabe. (Via.)
Weekend greetings from Shellmound
A reader named Sebastian tells me this spiked tire/hook apparatus “is for tilling the ground in preparation for planting. You break up the soil and left over stalks of last year’s crops to prepare the ground for this year’s seeds.”
I took the photo near Shellmound, a plantation best known from its fictional [...]
Edward P. Jones on Southern writing and identity
Edward P. Jones initially declined the invitation to edit the forthcoming New Stories From the South 2007, but accepted upon remembering how heartened he’d been by the inclusion of one of his own stories in a prior year. I read his introduction shortly before heading down South and have been thinking about it on [...]
Hello from Oxford, Mississippi
Sorry for the silence. I’m in Oxford, Mississippi, where I have consumed approximately fifty-nine pounds of fried catfish and seventy gallons of sweet tea and enough wine to give an ox a migraine.
I won’t start getting into everything I ate in the Delta, but if you ever find yourself in Greenwood, don’t miss [...]
Baldwin’s correspondence with Turkish actor Engin Cezzar
James Baldwin’s letters to Istanbul expose all aspects of his character, says James Campbell. (Via.)
The media’s Mrs. bias
“Studies that support traditional roles for women get swarmed on by the media, while more nuanced research just can’t seem to generate any noise.”
Quick note (from the Delta) on Faulkner’s childhood
Poor Billy Faulkner. From Carolyn Porter’s forthcoming William Faulkner, the latest installment in Oxford University Press’ Lives & Legacies series:
While Murry Falkner was a figure of weakness in his first son’s eyes, his wife Maud was the opposite. On her kitchen wall hung a sign saying “Never explain. Never complain” (a Victorian [...]
The Smart Set: Lauren Cerand’s weekly events
The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30pm and highlights the best of the week to come. Special favor is given to New York’s independent booksellers and venues, and low-cost and free events. Please send details to lauren [at] maudnewton.com by the Thursday prior to publication, [...]
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