Archive for February, 2009


Portrait of my father, at Granta

Granta’s Fathers issue includes nine writers’ recollections of their fathers. For Granta.com, the magazine has invited newer writers, including Jim Shepard, Gary Shteyngart, Rabih Alameddine, lê thi diem thúy, and me, to reflect on a photo of their dad. My contribution is up today; here’s the first paragraph: Exactly how long the prostitute, unbeknownst to my father, stayed at our . . .

Read more



Tartt on Delta water towers

“Water towers occupy such a striking place in the Southern imagination because the landscape is so flat,” says Donna Tartt. (Here’s Minter City’s.)

Read more




This site’s readers translate Beauvoir interview

One of the delights of this website, and one of the things that continues to surprise me even now, after nearly seven years of blogging, is the email from readers far more knowledgeable than I am. Very late Tuesday night I posted a clip of an old Simone de Beauvoir interview about The Coming of Age, and wished aloud (okay, . . .

Read more



Newsletter Signup

For regular updates, subscribe to my free newsletter.