Books To Jump Up and Down Over
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (Bat Segundo interview with Murphy)
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (Bat Segundo interview with McClear)
Archive for October, 2005
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Leave It to Updike to Pop Those Cherries
Posted on October 31, 2005 | No CommentsJohn Updike takes on the new Gabriel García Márquez novel. He decries the book’s narrator for not considering “the atavistic barbarism of buying girls in order to crack their hymens.”... -
Sufjan Stevens: The Kieslowski of Indie Pop?
Posted on October 31, 2005 | 3 CommentsBookish reports that singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens is now writing 50 songs for 50 states. -
Men Who Read Magazines: Easily Bored or More Complicated?
Posted on October 31, 2005 | 1 CommentBusinessWeek reports that men aren’t reading magazines the way they used to. I’m going to suggest something radical: Could it be that men are more complicated than the current lad... -
Shorter and Shorter
Posted on October 31, 2005 | 1 CommentDuring a particularly harsh bout of insomnia that involved carrying on a colloquy with my skull, I buzzed down my hair to the shortest length that it has ever been.... -
Chick Lit, Feminism and the Double Standard
Posted on October 31, 2005 | 10 CommentsFunny how when it comes to a form like comics being bastardized, Jessa Crispin has no problem broadsiding the critics for declaring a specific genre less than literary. But that... -
Scariest. Halloween. Ever.
Posted on October 31, 2005 | 4 CommentsTrailer for Halloween: Washington — (MP3) (57 seconds) -
Chris Ware: the Next Jim Davis?
Posted on October 30, 2005 | 2 CommentsI think it’s time for the Yankee Potroast guys to start summarizing Chris Ware’s The Strip: Building Stories. Because much as I love Jimmy Corrigan, this ain’t going nowhere and... -
Lovebirds in Prison
Posted on October 30, 2005 | 1 CommentIf, like me, you’re looking for that special someone, it’s always good to keep your options open. But if you’re the type to play with fire in this department, thankfully,... -
In Which Jennifer Weiner Is Assaulted by the Marina People
Posted on October 28, 2005 | No CommentsJennifer Weiner is back home and she notes this strange question about a woman asking her at the San Francisco Barnes & Noble if she was “self-actualized.” This is not... -
“Mr. Franken, I Served With Jonathan Franzen. I Knew Jonathan Franzen. Jonathan Franzen Was a Friend of Mine. Mr. Franken, You’re No Jonathan Franzen. And Nix the Tie While You’re At It, Sir!”
Posted on October 28, 2005 | 1 Comment -
Colors of the Rainbow
Posted on October 28, 2005 | 1 CommentWilliam T. Vollmann’s The Rainbow Stories, the illustrated version. (An incredible find from the Rake.) -
Excerpt from Lewis Libby’s Next Novel
Posted on October 28, 2005 | 1 CommentCBS News: From 1982 until 1985, he served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. It was perhaps this post that inspired him... -
Lost & The Third Policeman
Posted on October 28, 2005 | 3 CommentsThe Book Standard asks if a reference to Flann O’Brien’s great classic The Third Policeman on the television show Lost has had any sales impact. Aside from confusing O’Brien’s book... -
“Don’t Call Me Tiny” Takes On a Whole New Meaning
Posted on October 28, 2005 | No CommentsGeorge Takei comes out. -
The Bat Segundo Show #11
Posted on October 28, 2005 | No Comments[PRODUCER'S NOTE: Jorge was unavailable this week. So we were forced to enlist a man who claimed to have performed voiceover work for the 1970s incarnation of Battlestar Galactica to... -
The Coolest Brush in the World
Posted on October 27, 2005 | No CommentsThe I/O Brush. -
At Theatres: Atwood
Posted on October 27, 2005 | No CommentsMargaret Atwood has made her acting debut. Sort of. The deal is that there’s a staged reading in the works of The Penelopiad, Atwood’s latest novel. The book is a... -
Wickett Rejuvenated
Posted on October 27, 2005 | No CommentsThe erstwhile Mr. Wickett has returned from vacation and, once again, he’s demonstrated to the world that he has the stamina of ten men. (Might he be a literary Hercules?... -
On the Job, Going Postal’s a Close Second to Blogging
Posted on October 27, 2005 | No CommentsForbes Magazine has peered into the workplace and determined that it’s the bloggers who are evil incarnate. Good to see time and money spent on exposing the real threats to... -
Conversation from Deep Within the Pentagon — Last Night
Posted on October 27, 2005 | No CommentsHANK: All these millions of dollars they’re giving us. HAL: Billions, Hank. Billions. HANK: Alright, billions. HAL: I understand, Hank. It’s hard to maintain a little humility around here. But... -
Powell’s — Another Outlet Promoting Online Classism?
Posted on October 27, 2005 | 6 CommentsWhat M.A.O. said. Dave Weich can keep living in a glass tower as long he wants. But to take on the attitude that one must have a credit card in... -
Chronicle of Outsiders
Posted on October 26, 2005 | No CommentsThe Expatriate Literary Circle (via Largehearted Boy) -
The Golden Boys of Literature
Posted on October 26, 2005 | 5 CommentsThe inestimable Tito Perez sends along this Sam Sacks item concerning Dave Eggers’ Best American Nonrequired Reading Series, largely because of the Vollmann shoutout. Sacks decries the “wriggling spinelessness of... -
Anthony Burgess: Liar But Fantastic Journalist
Posted on October 26, 2005 | No CommentsThe Telegraph has a review of Anthony Biswell’s long-awaited biography of Anthony Burgess (now available from Picador). But it looks as if the Telegraph has their crosshairs locked on Burgess’... -
In Lieu of Meaning
Posted on October 25, 2005 | No CommentsLitkicks offers a contrarian take to the Lethem-Birnbaum colloquy. Legion (via Brandywine Books). Hemingway and Dos Passos, war buddies. (via Rake) At Galleycat, various folks comment on this Elizabeth Royte... -
Outrageous Fortunes
Posted on October 25, 2005 | No CommentsFirst Warren Buffett, now Terry McAuliffe. Sweet Jeebus. What provokes these nutball seven-figure advances? Sure, Buffett and McAulife have both proved quite adept in the cash-raising department. But why do... -
Small Wonder
Posted on October 25, 2005 | No CommentsThe Wonder Chicken returns, although he’s playing hard to get and feeling a bit introspective about this aging thing: a existential predicament that we can certainly relate to. -
The Dartboard, Alas, Is Not Represented
Posted on October 25, 2005 | No CommentsIdea Generation Methods (via MeFi) -
Target: Refusal Clause Happy
Posted on October 25, 2005 | No CommentsIt looks like Target policy involves refusing to fill emergency contraception prescriptions. In a Missouri Target store, a 26 year old woman was refused an emergency contraception prescription. When she... -
Is the AAP’s Google Lawsuit Truly Reflective of Its Members?
Posted on October 25, 2005 | 1 CommentRichard Nash has returned from Frankfurt and he’s now blogging up a storm. Perhaps his most interesting entry is this exchange between Nash and the Association of American Publishers over...