Book Rate

Random literary links

2009-07-09T09:59:00.004-05:00

Over at Fictionaut's Blog, they have started a new series featuring places where writers write. The lovely Lauren Cerand is the most recent writer to be featured.

Speaking of Lauren, you can see her talk and many other publishing professionals/authors over at Book Expo America's Blip website. Lots of good stuff there, including a conversation between Richard Russo, John Irving, and Charles McGrath. I was lucky enough to see part of this live while I was at the Javits Center.

A very creative new project called Significant Objects pairs writers with objects. The writer comes up with a story influenced by the object. (via Bookslut).

Laird Hunt has a playlist up over at the Paper Cuts NYT blog.

Monday's Margins: A review of another Brian Evenson story.

2009-06-29T03:00:00.000-05:00

Ed. note: Blake Butler has been reviewing stories from Brian Evenson's forthcoming story collection Fugue State (Coffee House Press, July) at his website. He agreed to let us share two of them with you here. This review is for the story "Dread."

‘Dread’ - the fifth story in the collection - is immediately different than any of the other stories thus far in this book, in that it is fully illustrated, the text and narration used to direct a black and white cartoon, drawn by artist Zak Sally, whose art also accompanies each of Fugue State’s other stories in small head plates depicting minor cavities from each text. The art adds a wonderful deepening to what is essentially a simple, if quite dreadful reckoning, much more in the mode of Edward Gorey or Poe, in contrast to the more conceptual and language-fixed terrains we have been through in the text so far. The thing about ‘Dread’ that most struck me, beyond its art, was the reflection of the matter of the story onto the act of the reading of the book itself. The piece begins, writ on pure black drop, inlaid with the story’s title and a small depiction of an open book, “I’d read once, in what book I no longer recall, a phrase that for no apparent reason came to haunt me.” We are shown the phrase on the next page, amid more abstract images of textures and webs, which as the story continues to wind from there, building as with the earlier ‘Mudder Tongue’ in a series of medical escalations, mirrored in Sally’s imagery by more and more direct images of the narrator’s surroundings, and his body. The result, as might be expected, is quite haunting for its own direct propulsion, the narrator’s inward spiral, spiraling out, but also, again, for that introductory claim that puts the reader in the mind of reading, as if from a book within a book. The rest of the story’s execution, then, takes places within the confines of that embedding, which, when applied to the reader’s own act of reading, in some way replicates that strain inflicted on the narrator as a potential fate also in Fugue State’s reader, you. As you too do read that sentence, do you not? And it is there, stuck in you doubly, given its textual terrain. Smartly, Evenson, even in his giving of the sacred sentence for the purpose of storytelling, comments: “Its original context, what I could recall of it, as nothing to incite any particular feeling whatsoever.” The benign made volatile, and eating, then, so that even in your understanding of the injection, you are left with a kind of residue that insists itself, however far along. In some hands, such a perhaps “meta” device could be overworked or done wrong, but here it is only something taken away if you ask it: a hidden door. Ah, yes. Another door in all these doors here. This Fugue State is becoming quite a little nasty box, if quite delicious, and infecting.

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Blake Butler is the author of EVER (Calamari Press, 2009) and Scorch Atlas (forthcoming from Featherproof Books). His work has been published in Ninth Letter, Fence, Unsaid, New York Tyrant, Willow Springs, etc. He lives in Atlanta. To read his other reviews of each story in Fugue State, visit his blog.

Monday's Margins: A review of a Brian Evenson story.

2009-06-21T14:55:00.011-05:00

At four pages, this is the shortest text in the collection, butted up against the second longest, ‘Ninety Over Ninety.’ It is compelling, amongst a variety of reasons, in that it manages to beautifully meld Evenson’s two most primary modes: that of the cerebral noir, and that of the grotesque humor, a juncture point between the two that successfully serves as a re-transition toward the emphasis of the first half of the book.

‘Invisible Box,’ then, coming from the previous story’s bent toward the latter mode, opens with the sentence: “In retrospect, it was easy for her to see it had been a mistake to have sex with a mime.” Clearly Evenson’s bleak guffaw gloves are on again, and hilariously, though quickly we find that this story is not meant to stay seated in the realm from which it comes.

The humor, amazing in its small punches of what-the-fuck (the mime is described as “…naked save for his face paint and beret and white gloves.”), quickly reroutes itself to more of the internal existential of Evenson’s other mode - a mode which, herein, again works to blur and disintegrate at the protagonist’s consciousness and aura, drawing her into a pattern of awful loops. Like others in book before her, she finds herself caught in a momentary small gesture that continues to haunt her (the mime’s inexplicable miming during sex that they are in an invisible box), opening another door (by closing in).

In four pages, then, Evenson shifts the entire trajectory of the novel back toward where it began, as if on a new leg of the same loop, around its central void.

Also important here is how the protagonist, as she continues to be affected by the haunting presence, losing her sleep, she begins “thinking with two different parts of her head at once.” This is a common element to many of Evenson’s psychically fucked presences - people operating on two (or more) modes at once, if often so far below their own awareness that they have no idea (or seem not to). The skewing therein, which leaves, in this case, the protagonist in an irreducible quandary that even the author can not deign to resolve, is also a great source of the terror and disruption that makes so many of his characters as memorable (and perhaps identifiable) as they are even in the face of their own lack of commonality with the reader.

That Evenson can, in such often cold and sickened twists of phrase, connect us to the blackest and most buried sections of our understanding of ourselves is yet another of his great gifts, and another reason why he is one who will be remembered in the manner of the sublime.

Another note about his endings, also: ‘the twist,’ as in: a surprising moment that seems to change the whole landscape of a story abruptly, has been a much maligned thing in the world of fiction. Too often it seems contrived and with a specific want for direction in mind. Evenson’s shifts, though, (I can not call them twists, as to do so would be to demote them to that ill state) - they work because they mostly do not attempt to change the flow of the story to somewhere outside, but in. The funneling of the energy of the story onto itself, as here, where the doors are left wide open, results not in an obviously contrived or bent up method for the new, but instead a kind of mirror affect, a door - like holding the story up to its own reflective face and causing the replication of the strange surfaces there embedded to redouble again and again, becoming more.

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Monday's Margins: The I'm So Tired from BEA I Don't Know What I'm Typing Version

2009-05-31T23:33:00.005-05:00

I got back today from a wonderful weekend at Book Expo America, held this year at the Javits Center in New York City. In honor of that, I present you with links to mostly Book Expo stuff, and some literary news. Watch my own blog for a more personalized recap in the next couple of days:

David Varno talks about the Book Reviews 2010 panel over at Critical Mass. The highlight of attending was getting to meet the very smart Bethanne Patrick, otherwise known as thebookmaven on Twitter.

Over at Baby Got Books, Russ Marshalek provided some of the funniest BEA updates. Really. Go look.

SPEAKING of Russ Marshalek, there was this massive gathering known as a tweetup where a bunch of tweeps met and drank Michiko Kakutinis and other wild literary concoctions. I was supposed to be there, but sadly didn't make it in time. You can read all the juicy details at Jacket Copy.

Congratulations to John Freeman. It was announced on Granta's website on Thursday that he is now Acting Editor of the magazine.

A new book has just been published by Bellevue Literary Press (the same folks who published Tinkers by Paul Harding). A.N. Devers brought it to my attention. It's called The Jump Artist and it's by Austin Ratner. Publishers Weekly named it one of the ten promising debut novels of 2009. It sounded so good that I immediately walked over to Three Lives & Company Bookstore (hands down one of the most jaw-dropping indie bookstores you will ever see) and bought a copy.

An article on re-reading in The New York Times. (via @curiousmartha).

Obama: literate

2009-05-26T19:40:00.004-05:00

President, Mrs. Obama To Be Honorary Chairs of National Book Festival

Ninth Annual Event on Sept. 26 Will Draw Book-Lovers to the National Mall

(Vocus/PRWEB ) May 26, 2009 -- President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will serve as Honorary Chairs of the 2009 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress. Now in its ninth year, this popular event celebrating the joys of reading and lifelong literacy will be held on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th Streets from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (rain or shine). The event is free and open to the public.

"We are delighted that the President and Mrs. Obama are committed to bringing this inspirational event to people of all ages nationwide," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "The National Book Festival has become a true American institution. It is a joyous and very popular celebration of books and reading in the Washington, D.C. area."

The 2009 National Book Festival will feature about 70 award-winning authors, poets and illustrators in pavilions dedicated to book subjects ranging from history and biography to mysteries, thrillers, poetry and prose, and books for families and young people. Festival-goers can meet and hear firsthand from their favorite authors, get books signed, have photos taken with PBS storybook characters and participate in a variety of learning activities.

The Pavilion of the States will represent reading- and library-promotion programs and literary events in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. trusts and territories.

The popular Let's Read America pavilion will offer reading activities that are fun for the whole family. The Library of Congress Pavilion will showcase the cultural treasures to be found in the Library's vast online collections and offer information about Library programs.

The 2009 National Book Festival will be made possible through the support of Distinguished Benefactor Target and many other generous supporters.

The Library of Congress, the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, is the world's preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled collections and integrated resources to Congress and the American people. Many of the Library's rich resources and treasures may be accessed through the Library's website, www.loc.gov, and via interactive exhibitions on myLOC.gov.

Public contact: Roberta Stevens (202) 707-1550, rste(at)loc.gov
Press contact: Jennifer Gavin (202) 707-1940, jgav(at)loc.gov

Monday's Margins: Really brief Memorial Day edition.

2009-05-25T13:00:00.001-05:00

... There's an iPhone app on the way for Bookmooch.

... The Fictionaut blog has started a "Rediscovered Reading" series. First up: Father Must by Rick Rofihe.

... Real or hoax, I love it (and would love to see it copied everywhere): high school student opens his own lending library, of banned books, in his locker. Nice!

Monday's Margins: Ha Jin, Paul Auster, a new e-book reader, and tools for readers and writers.

2009-05-18T10:44:00.005-05:00

... The Granta summer fiction issue is available for purchase; it has Banville, an excerpt from Paul Auster's forthcoming novel Invisible, and a new Ha Jin story, which you can also read here.

... Another entry in the e-book reader market: the COOL-ER. Their store has over 750,000 titles, their device will accept various formats. It isn't the Kindle. (That's a good thing.)

... The new search engine WolframAlpha has some nice features for readers and writers, some of which may be sampled here and here.

... Reading online? You will want to make frequent use of the following: Readability, PrintWhatYouLike, and PageZipper.

Monday's Margins: Jeanette Winterson, Italo Calvino, The Critical Flame, and more

2009-05-11T21:58:00.004-05:00

Better later in the day than never...

Jeanette Winterson writing about Italo Calvino makes me very, very happy. Two of my all-time favorite authors.

There's a new journal of literature and culture called THE CRITICAL FLAME. (Via Conversational Reading).

I want to read Matthew Pearl's The Last Dickens after hearing his recent interview on NPR. Here I thought bookaneers were just people who like to hang out with Tina Fey.

The lovely Marie Mockett interviews Colson Whitehead over at Maud's blog. Sag Harbor is getting terrific reviews. Colson should get a reward for being one of the smartest authors on Twitter. He really knows how to interact with readers in an engaging way.

I recently read (and LOVED) Joe Meno's latest novel, The Great Perhaps. I got to interview him over the weekend, so watch for a forthcoming author interview published here at Identity Theory. In the meantime, you can watch Joe read from the first chapter of his book.

Monday's Margins: Short stories, end of Sentences, value of writing, end of deep reading.

2009-05-04T15:35:00.004-05:00

Short Story Month is in full effect.

Wyatt Mason is closing up shop at Sentences and moving on to other matters. Look through the archives for lots of good material.

In other countries, when the manuscripts of a treasured author are transported to a permanent archive, it is done under a veil of secrecy. Here, eh, probably FedEx.

If you've made it this far, here's an article about "the end of deep reading."

Monday's Margins: An audio/visual book club, Evenson online, "Gilead" and the left, reference books, swine flu, and eARCs.

2009-04-27T09:22:00.006-05:00

The Onion's AV Club has started an online book discussion group. Katherine Dunn's Geek Love is the first book up for chatting.

A new online lit magazine, Wag's Revue, has a Brian Evenson story for your enjoyment. Evenson (The Open Curtain) has two new books right now: the detective/noir/gothic/psychotic Last Days and the short story collection Fugue State. One of the stories in that collection features a literary agent whose supervisor has a particularly unpleasant way of pushing for books that will sell, as opposed to books with literary merit. There's also a Dave Eggers interview with more of the same about What.

Marilynne Robinson's Gilead "has potentially deep implications for the left."

In a world where reference is largely done online, there still remain essential reference books. Not everyone thinks The Elements of Style is one of them.

Author Daniel Hernandez is in Mexico City and is blogging about swine flu and updates related. This, at this moment, seems to be the best possible reason for the Internet. ...I don't know about you, but it makes me queasy to think about President Obama shaking an archaeologist's hand only to have said archaeologist die from the flu the next day.

The electronic Advanced Reader's Copy, or eARC, gets the shakedown and publishers, look and see, you can save bags of money. Send everyone a Kindle (I just became queasy again) and the publishing industry will emerge in the black. The problem is that unscrupulous pirates might take the eARC of a forthcoming book - say, David Mitchell's new book, coming next year - and distribute it via the internet to everyone, which would then sink the publishing industry. Or, maybe not, since ARC's aren't exactly nice to look at, or hold, or shelve, whereas finished copies of books are looking better all the time - and if someone's wanting a book that badly, that far in advance, aren't they likely to buy it anyway once it's properly released? Summary: send me the new David Mitchell right now, in any format; I promise I'll buy it. Pinky swear.

Monday's Margins: Random House's biggest first printing EVER, lost works, a famous poet's kitchen, and joyful geek humor!

2009-04-20T10:55:00.004-05:00

Random House has announced their largest first print run in the history of the company for--you guessed it--Dan Brown's next book, set to be released on September 15th of this year. The new book is called "The Lost Symbol" and the narrative is set over the course of twelve hours.

In honor of Shakespeare's birthday on the 23rd of April, I present you with a fascinating article from the Wall Street Journal called "Longing for Great Lost Works". I never realized this tidbit of information: "Like most dramatists of the period, Shakespeare didn't care about his plays after their performances, made no effort to publish them and received no money from their publication." (Via Bookninja)

Ever wonder what Edna St. Vincent Millay's kitchen looked like? See a slideshow here. (Via The Book Bench)

Comic geeks will rejoice at this hysterical video that I came across thanks to @bookavore on Twitter:

Monday's Margins: Amazon Hates on the Gays; Towards a National Short Story Month; New Stories from Stephen Dixon, Chris Adrian, and Lydia Davis

2009-04-13T09:35:00.004-05:00

People at Amazon.com must be wishing for a lot of things this morning, not least of which would be an established presence on Twitter, which was swamped over the weekend with discussion of Amazon de-listing the sales figures for books that in some way involve gay and lesbian issues. The online retail giant's search engine is structured in such a way that such a policy ensures that you're incredibly unlikely to find a book - even if searching for a specific title - if it involves what the policy refers to as "adult content." The book reading public is outraged over being told what they can and can't read; the gay and lesbian community are outraged over being discriminated against; and authors are outraged at being blacklisted when books like Ron Jeremy's autobiography are still easily found and purchased. For more on this, see Ed Champion's site, which includes telephone numbers for Amazon's board of directors (and while you're there, do me a solid and tell them that the Kindle sucks) and follow the discussion on Twitter at #amazonfail and #glitchmyass.

In a more positive development, some enterprising bookish folks are looking into how to make a National Short Story Month a reality. Join in the discussion at Readerville.

Finally, some good news: a new Stephen Dixon story, a new Chris Adrian story, and apparently this fall will see a Collected Stories of Lydia Davis being issued by FSG. Available soon for preorder, and if you'd like to get it somewhere other than Amazon, might I suggest looking into IndieBound and the always-reliable Powell's.

Gary Lutz's Stories in the Worst Way Reissued

2009-04-10T09:20:00.003-05:00

Kevin Sampsell of Future Tense Press recently noted that Gary Lutz's Stories in the Worst Way is being reissued by Calamari Press.

Sampsell wrote, "This is my favorite book ever and a book that should never go out of print."

Former Identity Theory music editor Ross Simonini put it like this in his 2005 Believer interview with Lutz: "Lutz has published two short-story collections--Stories in the Worst Way and I Looked Alive--both of which should be read by anyone even mildly interested in the capacity of language."

Monday's Margins: Book Snobbery, Short Stories, Reading the Classics, and Author Interviews/Reviews

2009-04-06T13:42:00.006-05:00

...Over at the Virginia Quarterly Review's blog, Mandy Redig talks about book snobbery. "Despite its world-wide popularity and the fact that Stephenie Meyer's debut novel has sold 17 million copies, I just can't help my tendency to, well, smirk."

...A.O. Scott talks about one of my favorite literary forms, the short-story, over at The New York Times in an essay called "In Praise of the American Short Story." I'm not sure how I feel about his claim that the Kindle will help with a resurgence of short-story readers.

...Lydia Kiesling has been blogging about Modern Library books over at The Millions. Her latest post talks about the Alexandria Quartet.

...The April issue of Bookslut has a wide variety of author interviews and reviews as usual, including some contributions from yours truly.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible! (in paperback)

2009-04-01T11:48:00.002-05:00

April 7 marks yet another beginning of, well, everything. That is, if you're a believer in the Old Testament, Jonathan Goldstein style.

Goldstein, contributing editor to This American Life and author of Lenny Bruce Is Dead, has re-imagined neurotically, meticulously and laugh-out loud funny some of his favorite Old Testament heroes. Publishers Weekly says of Goldstein's ancient Israeli characters that David kills Goliath not so much for his people as for laughs, and Jonah's lesser-known brother Vito fears that God's hand in Jonah's stint inside the whale has less to do with Jonah than Vito's own role in a youthful penis-touching incident.

So far my personal favorite in the collection (some of which you can listen to online) is Adam and Eve in the Garden, not because Goldstein nails Adam and Eve in all their contemporary humor and yearning, not to mention Adam's boredom and Eve's postmodern ken of sexual power, but because of The Snake--one wicked-funny adorably winning evil thing that channels, magically, the souls of Iago, Bugs Bunny, and we imagine Goldstein himself.

-Post contributed by Stacy Muszynski
Purchase Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible at Powells.

Monday's Margins: Blue words; Vocabulary; Putting the Rooster to bed; first class.

2009-03-29T23:00:00.006-05:00

... Best blurb: " The asshole Thomas Bernhard -- and I say this even though I dislike speaking ill of the dead -- the asshole Thomas Bernhard, it's fairly certain to say, only wrote a single good book. This book appears only now, even though he already wrote it in 1980, and it demonstrates what an asshole he was." (via Conversational Reading)

... "Schott's Vocab is a repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles - some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy. Each day, Schott's Vocab explores news sites around the world to find words and phrases that encapsulate the times in which we live or shed light on a story of note. If language is the archives of history, as Emerson believed, then Schott’s Vocab is an attempt to index those archives on the fly." (via Readerville)

... The fifth annual Tournament of Books comes to a close this week, with a (relatively under)dog contender going against a couple of heavyweights. Sadly, no Rooster for The Dart League King, which you really should read.

... First class is in session. The American Novel Since 1945:

In this first lecture Professor Hungerford introduces the course's academic requirements and some of its central concerns. She uses a magazine advertisement for James Joyce's Ulysses and an essay by Vladimir Nabokov (author of Lolita, a novel on the syllabus) to establish opposing points of view about what is required to be a competent reader of literature. The contrast between popular emotional appeal and detached artistic judgment frames literary debates from the Modernist, and through the post-45 period. In the second half of lecture, Hungerford shows how the controversies surrounding the publication of Richard Wright's Black Boy highlight the questions of truth, memory, and autobiography that will continue to resurface throughout the course.

Sharing the poetry love

2009-03-25T00:03:00.014-05:00

T.S. Eliot might have said April is the cruelest month in The Waste Land, but I personally have a fondness for the first full month of spring. Living in New England means never knowing what sort of weather to expect next, but at least once you get to April, you're that much closer to warmer weather. Not that there's anything wrong with the cold. Dropping temperatures inspire people to stay indoors and read. Yet there's something about the promise of sunny days that can influence our reading choices, and the transition period always makes me want to read poetry. Perhaps it's the awakening of the senses after the long, sometimes cruel winter months.

One of my favorite parts of April is that it's National Poetry Month. In preparation for that, I offer you a podcast from Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness' blog, Books on the Nightstand. I review a new book of poetry put out by Norton and edited by Robert Pinsky, called Essential Pleasures. It's a wonderful new anthology dedicated to the sheer enjoyment of reading poems out loud. Norton is launching a website starting April 1st where Robert Pinsky and other poets will blog about this process. It's definitely a site to add to your bookmarks. In addition to my review, the Books on the Nightstand podcast includes an in-depth interview with Vermont poet Michael Schiavo, and poet & bookseller Marie Gauthier offers her opinion of The Plath Cabinet by Catherine Bowman.

Speaking of poets, one I can't recommend highly enough also happens to be the coolest person in the world. Her name is Mekeel McBride. I studied with her at the University of New Hampshire, and she is truly one of the most free-spirited, talented writers I know. She makes writing seem effortless when we all know it really isn't. Her poems do what poetry can do best: paint dazzling bursts of images. Her poem, "The Mechanics of Repair", published in Ploughshares, starts:

"How did I spend my evening?
By coming home in rain that slowly
translated itself into curtain after curtain
of oriental beads that I brushed through
cold and very tired."

Read more here.

Monday's Margins: Still Hungry, Still in Style, John Wray in 5.

2009-03-23T11:46:00.009-05:00

...Happy Birthday to The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Booktrade: "20th March, the first day of Spring, marks the official launch day of the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, a book which sells one copy every 30 seconds somewhere in the world, day and night. Translated into more than 45 languages, this special picture book has now sold over 29 million copies."

MediaBistro: "The famed caterpillar actually began his life as an ordinary worm. After some fortuitous experimentation with a hole puncher, Carle got to thinking about a bookworm and created A Week with Willi Worm, which ended with the title character growing into a morbildy obese worm. "I showed it to my editor, Ann Beneduce, and she didn't like the worm so much," explains Carle in a video on his website. "She said, 'How about a caterpillar?' And I said, 'Butterfly!'" And the rest is history.""

...Happy Birthday to The Elements of Style, which was first published ten years before The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The Seattle Times: "...William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White worked four decades apart, yet the little known turn-of-the-century Cornell University English professor and his universally famous student produced a classic that has become one of America's most influential and best-known guides on grammar and usage. "Strunk and White's The Elements of Style" has sold more than 10 million copies since its initial publication in April 1959. Its present-day publisher, Longman Publishers, has put out a special black leather-bound, gold-embossed edition in tribute of the 50th anniversary. ...The 50th anniversary edition has 95 pages, but also includes several pages of testimonials from famous literary figures past and present, Angell's foreword, an introduction written by White to the 1979 edition and an afterword by Charles Osgood, anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning."

I have a copy here; it's very nice, compliments my Elements of Style audiobook nicely. (I'm not joking.) My only gripe is that Longman did not "omit needless words" when they included a testimonial from "famous literary figure past/present" Ben Affleck. (I'm still not joking.) (Kind of wish I was, though.)

...Finally: John Wray, author of the acclaimed Lowboy, has a story appearing this week at the excellent Five Chapters website.

Google Book Search, National Grammar Day, David Foster Wallace

2009-03-04T16:49:00.006-05:00

NY Times on Google Book Search: "The almost comically sweeping attempt to reach the world's entire literate population is a reflection of the ambitions of the Google Book Search project, in which the company hopes to digitize every book -- famous or not, in any language, published anywhere on earth -- found in the world's libraries."

According to The Elegant Variation, today is National Grammar Day.

Birnbaum's waxing about Zen and gardening.

The L.A. Times reports on David Foster Wallace's unconventional posthumous book deal.

The Telegraph reviews Dali and I: Exposing the Dark Circus of the International Art Market.

Literary links, sans comment

2009-02-25T16:32:00.003-05:00

THE 2008 BELIEVER BOOK AWARD: Editors' Short List

The Nation reviews George, Being George: George Plimpton's Life as Told, Admired, Deplored, and Envied by 200 Friends, Relatives, Lovers, Acquaintances, Rivals

The personal blog of Richard Nash, who is leaving Soft Skull.

The Complete Review asks of the Warwick Prize judges, "Dear god, is this what literary commentary has been reduced to?"

Sci-fi author Philip Jose Farmer is dead.

The Boston Globe reviews Two Dudes, One Pan.

Joyce Carol Oates on "Zombie"

2009-02-23T18:23:00.003-05:00

Joyce Carol Oates talks to the NY Times about the stage adaptation of her novella, "Zombie":

"It's a one-man play...a monologue, as if from the inside of a very troubled man's head. You're really descended into his soul."

From the NY Times' review of the play:

"Quentin P. seems a familiar type at first. In his 30s, Quentin (Bill Connington) lives alone in the basement of what used to be his grandmother's house. His voice and demeanor are somewhat childlike.

When he announces, 'I am an admitted sex offender,' it is a shocking confession. But that is only the beginning of the story..."

The New Yorker launches online book club

2009-02-18T16:44:00.005-05:00

In brainstorming possible additions for the new version of Identity Theory (coming soon!), I thought, "Why not an online book club?"

It turns out the New Yorker was on the same wavelength, as they launched an online book club of their own this week (after a month of "beta testing").

The first book they're having members read is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. Not exactly an obscure title there, and we're guessing the film version is going to inspire more people to pick up the book than 1,000 online reading groups could. But it makes sense to start with a really popular title, so kudos to them for this effort.

"No" to AWP, "Yes" to Chris Bohjalian

2009-02-11T18:21:00.002-05:00

No, Identity Theory is not attending AWP this year. We have never, ever attended AWP. 2009 seemed like a good year for that to change, but the combination of Chicago + Winter + Valentine's Day did not exactly motivate us to endure the trials and tribulations of flying tiny regional jets.

So, more power to you, Monkeybicycle. Way to go, Art Spiegelman.

Maybe we'll catch you next year if you move the conference to Havana, which should be quite the hot spot by then. (Actually, Denver in April seems pretty feasible...)

One literary event we did attend was the launch of Chris Bohjalian's new Skeletons at the Feast book tour in South Burlington last night.

A summary: he hates all of his old books but absolutely loves his new one--though apparently not enough to actually read from it.

For more in-depth coverage of his new book, Bohjalian fans can listen to his Vermont Public Radio interview online.

Monday's Margins: Shepard Fairey, 2666, Kindle

2009-02-09T13:42:00.003-05:00

n+1 on Shepard Fairey, creator of Obama "Hope" poster: "The problem that Shephard (sic) Fairey presents also leads to a fear: that he may be, in fact, the perfect portraitist to render Obama. The purveyor of radical aesthetics is rendering the visage of radical hope--neither of whom is very radical."

Robert Birnbaum writes: "This is a propitious time to celebrate and re-view the (arguably) most significant photography monograph since the Second World War, Robert Frank's The Americans."

The New Republic reviews Roberto Bolano's 2666: "A young man can still get up in a Mexico City bookstore and declare war on the literary establishment."

Maud Newton's "Portrait of My Father" at Granta: "Exactly how long the prostitute, unbeknownst to my father, stayed at our house and slept in my bed is hard to gauge."

And finally, if I hear one more mention of Kindle 2 this afternoon my head is going to asplode.

Here's Looking at You, Susan Sontag, Words Without Borders

2009-02-04T15:53:00.002-05:00

The February edition of Words Without Borders is online (theme: graphic novels).

Here's Looking at You: Robert Birnbaum does his TMN digest thing with Jonathan Baumbach's You: Or The Invention of Memory.

"Sontag: The Precocious Years": Luc Sante reviews Reborn: Journals and Notebooks 1947-1963, a collection of entries from Susan Sontag with an intro by her son, David Rieff.