Pynchon’s crime novel
Tibor Fischer, on Pynchon’s latest: “If you had handed me the first 30 pages, I would have staked my life I was reading … the new Elmore Leonard.” (Via.)
John Freeman is acting editor at Granta
With Alex Clark’s departure, American editor John Freeman has stepped into the role of Granta’s acting editor and will divide his time between NYC & London.
Literary quips, observations, and warnings #6
Many writers say that they write what they do because the novels they want to read don’t exist.
I don’t think about my own book quite that way, but to me one of the most frightening things about writing fiction is the corollary to this idea: namely, if you have an [...]
The patience of Wyndham
Francis Wyndham waited nearly thirty years to publish his own stories after they were rejected during World War II. (Via.)
Charles McGrath, on using the Kindle
“[E]ven if you are an unreconstructed book lover, [reading e-books] will not be as hard to get used to as you imagined.”
On the origin of stories, etc.
George Scialabba admires three new books on the role of storytelling, language, and cooking in human evolution. (See also.)
Little talk of literature in new Eliot bio?
Brenda Maddox’s biography of George Eliot reportedly focuses on the salacious, such as the author’s marriage, at 60, to a much younger man.
Also in The Writer’s Notebook: Allison, Bass, Bender, Shephard
This week TEV runs Susan Bell’s essay on Fitzgerald’s masterful Great Gatsby revisions, from Tin House’s new The Writer’s Notebook.
Dante show at Hammerstein Ballroom
Roberto Begnini’s “Tutto Dante†ranges from Italian political satire to dissection of the poet’s verses, capped by a dramatic recitation.
Carrie Spell on subtractionist Mary Robison’s fiction
Below writer and professor Carrie Spell offers an appreciation of her former writing instructor Mary Robison’s latest novel, One D.O.A. One on the Way, in the context of the author’s larger body of work.
In their memoir Double Down, Frederick and Steven Barthelme describe a trip to a Mississippi Gulf Coast casino with their colleague, story [...]
Hannah on writing and Twain
“Just start talking, as Mark Twain did”: from Barry Hannah’s (handwritten) writing tips, scanned at HTML Giant. (Via; via.)
The Smart Set: Lauren Cerand’s weekly events
The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled and posted by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30 pm, 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 Ms. Cerand at lauren [at] maudnewton.com [...]
LRB blog
The London Review of Books has a blog. Topics under discussion include the Orwell Prize for political blogging & the world hum.
On U.S. evangelicalism & the free market
For the summer issue of Bookforum, I wrote a joint review of Eileen Luhr’s Witnessing Suburbia, on the development of the Christian youth culture, and Bethany Moreton’s excellent To Serve God and Wal-Mart, on the making of Christian free enterprise. Here’s an excerpt:
Books claiming to decipher evangelical Christianity for [...]
This year I’ll be the guy in the codpiece
Fellow Gemini Carrie Frye and I were born the same year, two weeks apart, and are watching the eye wrinkles develop on roughly the same schedule. Her birthday note to me this morning was divinely inspired. It reads:
Last night I was watching American Idol (I know, I know) and [...]