Marilynne Robinson for Obama
Nick Antosca is tracking writers’ political contributions. If you find more, add ’em in his comments.
Nick Antosca is tracking writers’ political contributions. If you find more, add ’em in his comments.
So far I’ve read only the first chapter of Steve Toltz’s 544-page first novel, A Fraction of the Whole, but when I get around to unpacking my future-reading pile, the book will be waiting at the top of the box. Toltz’s narrator begins his story from prison, the morning after a rousing, mattress-burning riot. “It’s always something here,” he says. . . .
Should those of us who write nonfiction or twist life into fiction invade others’ privacy only after they’re dead?
I admit it: I started into Mary Swan’s The Boys in the Trees more out of curiosity than interest. The story of a brutal crime that shocks a 19th-century community and destroys a family, etc., etc. — the description didn’t grab me. But it seemed so unusual that a novel would bear enthusiastic blurbs from both the sharp-witted, gimlet-eyed Hilary . . .
The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled and posted by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30 pm and highlights the best of the week to come. Special favor is given to New York’s independent booksellers and venues, and low-cost and free events. Please send details to Ms. Cerand at lauren [at] maudnewton.com by the Thursday prior to . . .