It’s going to be a Jean Rhystravaganza around here for a little while. Next week Granta online will publish some correspondence between novelist Alexander Chee and me about Rhys’ affair with Ford Madox Ford, and the novels they wrote afterward. And today at The Second Pass, I review Lilian Pizzichini’s new biography, The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys. . . .
Michael Bierut’s brief but fascinating currency design slideshow includes this ¥5000 note, which features 19th century Japanese novelist Ichiyo Higuchi on the front, and a field of irises on the reverse. (Via.)
It’ll be raining for the next week anyway, so why not brave the G train and the weather tonight, and come out to celebrate the publication of the amazing Kate Christensen’s Trouble, with some sangria and salsa at WORD? She’ll read, and I’ll interview her briefly, and it might even be more fun than our last night out — barbecue . . .
The third volume of Coetzee’s fictionalized autobiography takes the form of interviews with people from Coetzee’s life conducted after his death.
Oxford American launches OA Pulse, a new aggregator devoted to Southern literature, food, music, and more.