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The 10 Most Recent Dispatches
- The Bat Segundo Show: Stephen Fry
- The Bat Segundo Show: Deborah Scroggins
- Komen for the Cowards: Betraying Breast Cancer
- The Bat Segundo Show: Susan Cain
- Forgotten Writers: Dorothy Uhnak
- Dwight Garner’s Revisionist Ignorance: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Forgotten Writers: The Novels of John P. Marquand
- The Situation in American Waffles
- The Bat Segundo Show: Elliot Perlman
- The Death of the Heart (Modern Library #84)
Modern Library Reading Challenge
On January 10, 2011, Managing Editor Edward Champion pledged to read the top 100 fiction books from #100 to #1. Read about his progress as he makes his way through the Modern Library canon!
84. The Death of the Heart (January 6, 2012)
85. Lord Jim (November 30, 2011)
86. Ragtime (October 30, 2011)
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)
Eggers, Dave Archive
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Oscar Villalon Abruptly Leaves McSweeney’s
Posted on March 3, 2010 | 2 CommentsThe SF Weekly‘s Joe Eskenazi reports that former San Francisco Chronicle books editor Oscar Villalon has abruptly left his position as publisher at McSweeney’s. Villalon has not returned calls to... -
Dave Eggers and the Journalism Sweatshop Model
Posted on January 5, 2010 | 3 CommentsIn recent months, Dave Eggers has continued to insist that newspapers, contrary to recent developments, are not dying. In May 2009, Eggers spoke before a crowd and announced, “If you... -
An Open Letter to Dave Eggers
Posted on May 21, 2009 | 6 CommentsDear Dave: Seriously, man, do not fuck with people’s emotions. I’m with you for lifting up people’s spirits. I’ve done quite a bit of that myself in ways you can... -
McSweeney’s Sells Its Lifetime Subscribers the Brooklyn Bridge
Posted on March 14, 2007 | 26 CommentsSometimes, Gawker is good for something. Apparently, Dave Eggers has sent out a notice to lifetime subscribers of McSweeney’s, begging these lifetime subscribers to switch over to a normal yearly... -
Hipster Provenance?
Posted on February 20, 2007 | 4 CommentsDownsyn: “Anyway, I am sure you are much cooler than I am so you will love this book so don’t pay any attention to this review and go out and... -
Easy Dinero for a Good Cause
Posted on November 30, 2006 | 8 CommentsThe Rake has called for Eggers to offer an explanation for his critical flip-flop on Infinite Jest and, having failed to hear back from Pynchon for $49, he’s pledged to... -
A Heartbreaking Interview
Posted on September 14, 2006 | No CommentsEgghead talks with Eric Idle. -
Infinite Jest (A Decade Running)
Posted on August 11, 2006 | No CommentsThe Howling Fantods reports that the 10th anniversary edition of Infinite Jest will include a foreword by Dave Eggers. No news about whether it will contain anything else, but perhaps... -
And That’s Just His Blurbs, Mind You
Posted on May 4, 2006 | 1 CommentCBC: “Eggers’s approach to blurbing is novel; the slightly absurd tone is not. Every newly published book heaves with hyperbolic quotations — and the language is getting more and more... -
Wholphin, Eggers and Why I Can’t Believe
Posted on January 11, 2006 | 6 CommentsI picked up the January 2005 issue of The Believer, partly with the intention of seeing if the magazine was showing any signs of shedding its feel-good trappings (short answer:... -
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... -
Roundup
Posted on October 11, 2005 | 4 CommentsFrances Dinkelspiel covers the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. This week, in the City, it’s Litquake. We’ll be crawling ourselves this Saturday, in more ways than one. Word on the... -
We’ve Stopped Making Fun of E____, But For Those Who Need a Laugh
Posted on September 6, 2005 | No CommentsTMFTML: “Dispatches from Dave E_____, Misunderstood American Living During the Era of Irony -
Chuck Klosterman: A Manboy Who Must Be Stopped
Posted on August 24, 2005 | 29 CommentsBack when Chuck Klosterman’s Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs came out, Mark Ames penned a remarkably vicious review for the New York Press. At the time, I was only familiar... -
Personally, We’ve Always Thought Hunger Involved Food Stamps, Barely Getting By, Remaining Isolated, Depressed and Lonely, Hoping to Hell That the Electricity Isn’t Shut Off — The Kind of “Hunger” Knut Hamsun Wrote About. But That’s Just Us.
Posted on February 22, 2005 | 1 CommentDave Eggers interviewed at the Onion AV Club: “I would disagree about “isolated” or “lonely.” Those are two things that I don’t know very well, so I can’t write about... -
AMR
Posted on November 1, 2004 | No CommentsJonathan Stroud unveils his favorite fantasy novels. “Hot” John Sayles talks about his short story collection with the Globe. The Hag has new digs (and she’s now read Marquand to... -
Inside A Young Genius
Posted on January 28, 2004 | No CommentsWhile walking along Valencia St. a few nights ago, I came across a crumpled piece of paper on the sidewalk. I didn’t have any reading material on me, and, seeing... -
The Eggers Rumor
Posted on December 23, 2003 | No CommentsOkay, folks, here’s what I know about the Eggers-Where the Wild Things Are connection. I contacted Playtone Productions, the production company that’s behind Where the Wild Things Are. (I won’t... -
Quickies
Posted on December 23, 2003 | No CommentsInfinity expert A.W. Moore compares David Foster Wallace’s Everything and More against two other books specializing in the subject and concludes that DFW is wrong: “The sections on set theory,... -
An Open Letter to Sara Bauer
Posted on December 10, 2003 | 16 CommentsDear Young Woman Who Writes Snotty and Unfunny Open Letters for McSweeney’s: The first moment I read you, I knew you were the same. The same as all those other...