Mantel on Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives
These are great days for the worried well. Hilary Mantel considers hypochondria. (See also.)
These are great days for the worried well. Hilary Mantel considers hypochondria. (See also.)
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.)