The novelist Felipe Alfau suggests that English imposes a stiff and unnatural logic on the Spanish immigrant. “He is a queer bird, the Americaniard … His health never suffered when he was at home, but the moment he learns a little English, he begins to consult the directory for physicians and psychoanalysts.” Meanwhile, Gary Shteyngart, when visiting his native Russia, . . .
The anthropologist as hero: Sontag praises Claude Lèvi-Strauss in the NYRB, circa 1963.
James Hynes, literary-horror storyteller extraordinaire, writes to second The Aspern Papers love — and reveals that he once wrote a screenplay based on the Henry James novella. “It got kicked around by a few people in the film biz (the way a cat kicks around a piece of prey before he snaps its neck),” he says, “but nothing ever came . . .
Inspired by her kids’ confusion over their grandma’s illness, Amy Koppelman will publish a children’s series: Is It Contagious? (Via.)