La misere de la condition humaine: Eliot on Nightwood
T.S. Eliot’s 1936 letter to Geoffrey Faber about Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood refers to possible “fines and damages” the publisher might face for publishing the book that ultimately became known, in the words of Jeanette Winterson, as “an important milestone on any map of gay literature — even though, like all [...]
Nabokov’s final instructions?
Nabokov’s last Original of Laura notecard is “a list of synonyms for ‘efface’—expunge, erase, delete, rub out, wipe out… obliterate.” (Via.)
Like Cormac McCarthy, but funny?
Ed Park offers an appreciation of Charles Portis, author of Dog of the South & True Grit. (Many thanks, Jack.)
Pynchonmania
Bookstores plan to stay open till midnight for release of Pynchon’s Inherent Vice on 8/4. Also: early reviews & Pynchon Guide to LA.
The hot young author debate, circa 1882
Cultural theorists often portray the modern preoccupation with authors’ appearances as symptomatic of our uniquely shallow, soulless society.
Shallow it may be, but new? Probably not. Consider the collection, in the current Harper’s, of journalists’ reports on the flamboyant clothes Oscar Wilde wore in 1882 while traveling the U.S. and Canada for a speaking tour. [...]
Joining my to-be-read stack
Junot Díaz praised Achy Obejas’ Ruins at NPR. Last week she in turn spoke about the novel, which is set in Havana in 1994.
Two poets’ houses
As John Keats’ home reopened in London after a costly renovation, Langston Hughes’ sold for $16K in a foreclosure auction.
LaValle profiled
My friend Victor LaValle’s Big Machine — about which more soon — inspires comparisons to Pynchon’s work, and to horror films.
Samantha Peale interviewed
Kurt Andersen talks with Samantha Peale, author of The American Painter Emma Dial, about creative passion & her work for celebrity artist Jeff Koons.
Doomed love list at The Week
In honor of the appearance of Love is a Four-Letter Word,* The Week invited me to contribute this week’s “best books” list.
It’s devoted to “doomed love,” and a reader says it’s available now.
Instead of focusing on autobiographical stories, I chose first-person works of fiction** that (mostly) take the form of confessions: Lolita, Les [...]
Twitter: news, ephemera, & sentence fragments
A reminder: Until I do a redesign that incorporates my Twitter feed, check there when it’s quiet here.
Skurnick on teen classics we never stopped reading
Shelf Discovery, inspired by my friend Lizzie Skurnick’s relentlessly entertaining Jezebel column, Fine Lines — “in which we give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wizened look at the children’s and YA books we loved in our youth” — is just out.
The book collects Lizzie’s insights on classics [...]
Huxley packed light & would’ve love-hated the Internet
Lapham’s Quarterly reprints a great 1924 Aldous Huxley essay on travel reading.
The trick, he says, is to abandon the idea that you’re going to work your way through the Western canon on a two-week tour of France.
A perfect book to take along on a trip is one “of such a kind that one [...]
Gustave Flaubert’s letters to he woman he called “my youth”
While researching Victorian grande dame Gertrude Tennant, David Waller unearthed Flaubert’s tender letters to her.
Lives they left behind
For obvious reasons, I want to read Luxenberg’s Annie’s Ghost, about a long-lost institutionalized aunt.
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