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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)
Franzen, Jonathan Archive
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What Jonathan Franzen Didn’t Include in His New York Times Op-Ed
Posted on May 30, 2011 | 6 Comments"You can't deconstruct and undress at the same time." Hatred, trash talking, and more First World problems in Jonathan Franzen's original speech at Kenyon College. -
Solipsism is for Cowards. Go for Full-Fledged Hubris.
Posted on May 29, 2011 | 10 CommentsJonathan Franzen delivers a Very Important Speech. But there's something more than a little off with his logic. -
Jonathan Franzen vs. Richard Stark: Which Writer Really “Knows” the World?
Posted on August 20, 2010 | 10 CommentsSam Tanenhaus: “Once again Franzen has fashioned a capacious but intricately ordered narrative that in its majestic sweep seems to gather up every fresh datum of our shared millennial life.... -
Exclusive! Cover for Franzen’s Newest Novel!
Posted on March 29, 2010 | 1 Comment(UPDATE: Ellen Wernecke also has a cover. Should there be a Photoshop contest or something?) -
Bad Neighbors
Posted on June 8, 2009 | 33 CommentsWalter and Patty Melted were the young products of Franzen Hill — the first dreadful characters to spit out of the misanthropic novelist’s mind since the old heart of The... -
The Brooklyn Book Festival: Hopelessly Manhattanized?
Posted on June 15, 2008 | No CommentsI don’t wish to sound ungrateful for the gratis plastic cup of wine that I enjoyed on Friday night, but the Brooklyn Book Festival launch party was more than a... -
Terry Gross Responds
Posted on November 27, 2007 | 5 CommentsTerry Gross, recently referenced in this story involving a Jonathan Franzen interview that had been cut for broadcast, has been kind enough to respond to my questions. She informs me... -
Did Jonathan Franzen Cut a Censorship Deal with Terry Gross?
Posted on November 24, 2007 | 12 CommentsOn October 26, 2001, Dennis Loy Johnson reported on the Franzen fiasco: Three days later in an interview on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” he told host Terry Gross that... -
NBA 2007 Podcast #1: Jonathan Franzen
Posted on November 14, 2007 | 16 Comments(This podcast is part of our National Book Awards coverage for 2007, in which five bloggers are attempting various journalistic experiments using unusual technological methods. For more posts and other... -
This Just In
Posted on October 1, 2007 | No CommentsJonathan Franzen has disappeared from Facebook, presumably heading to that isolated edifice where Greta Garbo once resided. Oh well. It’s too bad J-Franz is no fun. But on the bright... -
So What Just Happened Here?
Posted on September 30, 2007 | 1 CommentOne can only assume that Franzen decided against friending me after nearly choking on his lunch. -
Reason #426 Why Jonathan Franzen is No Fun
Posted on September 26, 2007 | 9 CommentsJonathan Franzen does not want to be my Facebook friend. He is, however, Howard Junker’s Facebook friend. This is understandable, because Howard Junker is Howard Junker. Nevertheless. Many of my... -
Superman II: Donner Cut vs. Lester Cut
Posted on December 2, 2006 | 11 CommentsI don’t believe Richard Donner’s cut of Superman II (recently released on DVD) is necessarily better than the 1981 theatrical cut directed by Richard Lester, but it is still fascinating... -
Franzen is Funny
Posted on October 31, 2006 | No CommentsTwo “funnies” anyway from Lorrie Moore. Of course, at the New Yorker, every contributor is funny. Particularly when you’re contributing too. -
The Discomfort Zone
Posted on August 29, 2006 | 3 CommentsThere’s a good deal of commotion over Michiko Kaukutani’s review of Jonathan Franzen’s The Discomfort Zone. Has Michiko gone too far? Having read most of the contents of this disgraceful... -
Comic Strips for Everyone
Posted on August 11, 2005 | 2 CommentsThis Comic Strip Generator is a hoot. I very quickly created a Jonathan Franzen-related strip, if anyone’s interested. [UPDATE: It seems that one Madinkbeard has used the comic strip generator... -
Morning Pileup
Posted on April 28, 2005 | 4 CommentsFrederick Forsyth has decided to run against Tony Blair. Well, if this is what it takes to get him to stop writing, count me in as one of his most... -
A Special Therapeutic Column from Jonathan Glandzen
Posted on November 23, 2004 | 1 CommentIn May 1981, a few months into the Reagan administration, my father and my brother Colin and in fact every member in my family started fighting. They weren’t fighting about... -
J-Franz Returns
Posted on November 2, 2004 | No CommentsRake points to a new story from J-Franz in the New Yorker. Our immediate impressions can be summed up as follows: Hey, J, ever heard of paragraph breaks? Was there... -
J-Franz Gets a Phone-In
Posted on January 24, 2004 | 4 CommentsA new tell-all book on the Kennedys is coming out. But this time, it’s from the inside. The book is authored by Christopher Kennedy Lawford, and will include an essay...