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Your own personal New York City

“You are a New Yorker the first time you say, That used to be Munsey’s…” Finally getting around to Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York.

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Rahimi’s The Patience Stone

Emma Garman admires Afghan novelist & filmmaker Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone, “a slender, devastating exploration of one woman’s tormented inner life.”

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Edward Said bio incoming

At last. Edward Said: The Charisma of Criticism, the biography by my friend and former professor H. Aram Veeser, appears next month. See also.

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Earbrass, LTD: Writers in search of reassignment?*

“First, try to be something, anything, else.” That’s the famous first line of Lorrie Moore’s “How to Become a Writer,” and it’s funny because it’s true. Many writers do consider another path initially. Roberto Bolaño wanted to be a spy, Kate Christensen a rock star, Joan Didion an actress. Chris Adrian went to medical school, and the seminary. Herman Melville . . .

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