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 Miéville'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.
Tanenhaus, Sam Archive
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Ben Schott: Absconding With Personal Experience?
Posted on March 26, 2007 | 4 CommentsAll that apparent vetting and editing at the NYTBR wasn’t enough to stop L’Affaire Schott from sullying Tanenhaus’s pristine gates with redolent taints. The story is this: Ben Schott wrote... -
Tanenhaus Won’t Have You at Hello
Posted on March 9, 2007 | 2 CommentsThe underrated filmmaker Samuel Fuller said that a good story has to grab the audience by the balls from the get-go. Combing through the ledes in this Sunday’s NYTBR, it... -
The NYTBR Jumps the Shark
Posted on February 16, 2007 | 5 CommentsReview Lede: “Ron Jeremy has a big penis.” -
Sam Tanenhaus is the Misinformed One
Posted on February 14, 2007 | 9 Comments“I find they write about us, but I don’t find they write about authors and have that many interesting things to say about literature. Maybe I’m missing them? It seems... -
Tanenhaus Has Shortcomings, To Be Sure
Posted on February 4, 2007 | 5 CommentsSam Tanenhaus: “Shortcomings, to be sure. But so what? Nature doesn’t owe us perfection. Novelists don’t either. Who among us would even recognize perfection if we saw it?” With these... -
The New York Masturbatory Sock Puppet Review of Books
Posted on January 21, 2007 | 1 CommentOnce again, Sam Tanenhaus demonstrates how little he cares about journalistic integrity by throwing a bone to Lee Siegel this week. You might remember Siegel as “sprezzatura,” a sock puppet... -
Believe It or Not, There’s Someone Lazier Than Dave Itzkoff
Posted on January 7, 2007 | No CommentsWhat Jenny D said. It strikes me as anti-intellectual to waste time in a review bemoaning the length of a book (and in this case, it isn’t even the book... -
Reason #142 Why Dave Itzkoff is a No-Nothing Assclown
Posted on January 7, 2007 | 5 CommentsNew York Times: “All science fiction has some element of titillation — a strategy of taking known facts and stretching them to the limits of credulity, for the purposes of... -
Finally, Tanenhaus Does Something Right
Posted on January 5, 2007 | No CommentsRichard Powers is in this week’s NYTBR. -
No Surprise: NYTBR Slacks Off on Popular Fiction Too
Posted on December 29, 2006 | 1 CommentMichael Blowhard observes that the NYTBR is a failure on the popular fiction front as well: “To use an analogy: imagine a movie magazine. It doesn’t announce itself as avant-garde,... -
Sam Tanenhaus: Finding Chicks Who Write Nonfiction is Just SO GOSH DARN HARD!
Posted on December 17, 2006 | 2 CommentsLee Kottner writes a letter to Tanenhaus about the NYTBR‘s well-documented lack of women nonfiction coverage and receives a response. Tanenhaus claims, “The truth, at least as far as we... -
Sylvester Stallone KOs Sam Tanenhaus
Posted on December 11, 2006 | 1 CommentSure, you could ask Sam Tanenhaus your questions and watch him ignore any query even remotely critical of the NYTBR. (Tanenhaus, incidentally, has refused mutlple interview requests to appear on... -
I Confess. I Heart Dwight Garner.
Posted on December 1, 2006 | No CommentsDwight Garner’s Inside the List column has, at long last, found a pleasantly cranky voice. Consider Garner’s most recent column, particularly the item on Washington Post reviewer Patrick Anderson. Garner’s... -
Summarizing Rachel Donadio
Posted on November 17, 2006 | 2 CommentsHi, I’m Rachel Donadio and I’m working off of the literary feud article boilerplate. Let’s see. Mailer. Mailer. Rushdie-Updike. Tom Wolfe. You know the drill. Don’t mention Queenan-Jacobs because Sam... -
Tanenhaus Gets Hip?
Posted on November 17, 2006 | 2 CommentsJohn Waters appears in this week’s NYTBR, writing about Tennessee Williams. -
Dave Itzkoff: Firm Champion of White Male Speculative Fiction Authors Everybody Else Has Heard Of
Posted on November 3, 2006 | 1 CommentIt’s bad enough that Sam Tanenhaus feels that Dave Itzkoff’s science fiction column is only worth an appearance once every solstice. (His last column appeared on September 24, six weeks... -
Memo to Tanenhaus: Liesl’s Your Only Shot
Posted on October 27, 2006 | 3 CommentsDear Mr. Tanenhaus: Nearly every serious literary person knows that your finger ain’t exactly on the pulse of contemporary fiction. Your coverage, even when it does concern itself with literature,... -
Sam Tanenhaus Crosses the Line Between Advertising and Editorial
Posted on October 27, 2006 | 2 CommentsIf there was any doubt that Sam Tanenhaus lacked integrity after his unethical assignment of John Dean to review Mark Felt’s memoir, Galleycat uncovers this disgraceful juxtaposition of an ad... -
No Brownies for Dwight Garner Either!
Posted on October 20, 2006 | 3 CommentsIn this week’s Inside the List, Dwight Garner remarks upon the Observer’s riff upon the NYTBR list and notes, “One sad and striking thing about this list of beautiful books... -
Keep That Timely Literary Coverage Coming, Tanenhaus!
Posted on October 13, 2006 | 2 CommentsDaniel Mendelsohn reviews Jonathan Franzen’s The Discomfort Zone in the October 15, 2006 edition of The New York Times Book Review. It’s a fair enough review, but it’s worth pointing... -
Sam Tanenhaus: Bestseller Lists You Don’t Know About, Yes. Substantial Fiction Reviews & More Women Writing, No.
Posted on September 15, 2006 | No CommentsEditor and Publisher: “You won’t find the new politics bestseller tally in the print edition of Sunday’s New York Times Book Review. The line-up is only being posted on the... -
Keywords for Dwight Garner
Posted on August 21, 2006 | No CommentsReturn of the Reluctant has uncovered a secret BlogSpot blog belonging to Dwight Garner. Unfortunately, the blog was taken down shortly after we discovered it, but we were able to... -
Spit? Slap? Try Baking Brownies.
Posted on August 11, 2006 | No CommentsJason Pinter has an amusing list of “Great Moments in Literary Feuds.” To my considerable surprise, Sammy Boy and I made the list, although since no blows were ever exchanged... -
Liesl Schillinger: Putting the Petty in Lori Petty
Posted on August 10, 2006 | No CommentsRe: Liesl Schillinger (hereinafter referred to as “Floozyl”), what Mark said, but with one major difference. The blogger who allegedly “grumbled” actually had a more dimensional take than what Floozyl... -
Tanenhaus Actually Gets It Right for Once
Posted on August 9, 2006 | 3 CommentsCould it be? Joe Queenan has temporarily put away the hatchet (and the hubris)? Well, it’s true. And Sam Tanenhaus is (wait for it) to be commended for not only... -
Tanenhaus: Just Say No to Podcasting
Posted on July 24, 2006 | 2 CommentsWhile I have given up the Tanenhaus Brownie Watch, did you know that Sam Tanenhaus is in the podcasting business? Every Friday, NYTBR editor Sam Tanenhaus releases a new installment... -
Pitches for the NYTBR
Posted on July 23, 2006 | 3 CommentsSince the NYTBR seems content to keep literary coverage firmly in the toilet, I thought I’d do Sammy Boy a favor and give him some story ideas for future issues.... -
In Praise of David Orr
Posted on July 10, 2006 | 3 CommentsWhile the Tanenhaus Brownie Watch may be discontinued, Levi Asher has picked up the slack with his “Reviewing the Review” blog posts. This week, Mr. Asher made the claim that... -
Save the New York Times Book Review
Posted on June 27, 2006 | 3 CommentsThe time has come to take a stand. The New York Times Book Review is no longer a book review section that matters. It is beyond repair, save through one... -
He’s Probably Thinking About Whether the New Chiffonier Will Work with the Bedroom Decor
Posted on June 27, 2006 | No CommentsThe Literary Saloon: “Tanenhaus’ approach is so antithetical to almost everything we believe in that we really find it hard to believe anybody could approach book reviewing in this way....