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The 10 Most Recent Dispatches
- A Sense of Proportion
- The Bat Segundo Show: Robert A. Caro
- Review: Dark Shadows (2012)
- Wayne Shannon: A Video Tribute
- The Bat Segundo Show: Stewart O’Nan II
- The Bat Segundo Show: Annalena McAfee
- The Bat Segundo Show: Eric Kandel
- Remembering Wayne Shannon (1948-2012)
- The Bat Segundo Show: Jeanette Winterson
- The Bat Segundo Show: Tom Bissell, Part Two
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!
82. Angle of Repose (April 10, 2012)
83. A Bend in the River (February 15, 2012)
84. The Death of the Heart (January 6, 2012)
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (Bat Segundo interview with Bissell)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China MiƩville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious.
McEwan, Ian Archive
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“On Chesil Beach” Excerpt Online
Posted on March 12, 2007 | 1 CommentI don’t know how I missed this a few months ago, but you can read a portion of Ian McEwan’s forthcoming book online. -
My Uncle is Thomas Pynchon, But I’m Waiting Until He’s Accused of Plagiarism Before I Go Public
Posted on January 17, 2007 | No CommentsBBC: “An adopted brick-layer who traced back his family history discovered his brother is the internationally celebrated author Ian McEwan.” -
Against the Fray
Posted on December 5, 2006 | 5 CommentsThomas Pynchon may not have been susceptible to the Rake’s $49 check (and neither apparently is Dave Eggers), but the Ian McEwan flap has had Pynchon issuing a letter in... -
Plunging the Depths of Research
Posted on August 2, 2006 | 1 CommentIan McEwan wanted to know how long it would take to hack off another man’s arm. Really. Read this. -
I Think It Was the Fourth of July
Posted on January 7, 2006 | No CommentsAs pointed out by my colleague at the Literary Saloon, you’d never see a literary reassessment in Tanenhaus’s pages. The Times has taken a second look at Ian McEwan’s Saturday,... -
Saturday — Overhyped or Misunderstood?
Posted on December 16, 2005 | 3 CommentsAs my colleague Scott Esposito (who, for the past day or so, has seen his thoughts after December 11 undisplayed, along with several other noble Typepad bloggers, thanks to the... -
The Interwining Legacy of Things That Inexplicably Scare the Bejesus Out of You and Fiction
Posted on August 3, 2005 | No CommentsWritten just after the author stepped into rush hour traffic and before he dared to look out of his own window before returning to his computer, Ian McEwan’s novel “Saturday”... -
If It Isn’t Art, It’s Memorex
Posted on March 30, 2005 | No CommentsIan McEwan has said that “life imitates art.” In the last year alone, McEwan reports that he witnessed a balloon accident and was stalked by a mentally ill man, published... -
I Should Probably Sleep, But…
Posted on February 17, 2005 | No CommentsWhile we’d never expect USA Today to give us a call (we’d probably spend most of the time making fun of the infographs), we’re nevertheless delighted to see some of... -
Solid Contentions
Posted on December 28, 2003 | No CommentsApparently, Ewan McGregor’s uncle (Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy) turned Ian McEwan’s infamous short story,”Solid Geometry,” into a film last year. [Denis Lawson...