John Freeman observes that the galleys of Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day are now being circulated, with the recipient’s name on the galley.
I just sent the following email to Paul Slovak:
Paul:
Seeing as how you folks are personalizing the galleys, which, aside from the understandable reasons, is quite nice and saves some of us from writing our names in it, I was wondering if it was possible to obtain a galley of AGAINST THE DAY. If you need a specific name to use, “Bat Segundo” will do.
Thanks and all best,
Ed
Should Viking come through with this personalization request, I will post a photograph.
If “Bat Segundo” is unacceptable, I will happily accept anything under the following names:
Mark Foley’s Second-String Bitch
Carmen “He Packs the Banana” Miranda
“Easy Ed” Champion
Arthur “Two Sheds” Jackson
[UPDATE: Megan observes in the thread to Freeman's post that booksellers have been told that there will be no galleys. Was Penguin lying or did they decide upon the galleys at the last minute?]
[UPDATE 2: I have sent an email to Tracy Locke asking for clarification on the bookseller galley front (as well as a galley). Locke reports that galleys were planned all along. Alas, no "Bat Segundo" or "Edward Champion" galley is in the cards.]
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. (
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. (
Anybody know what the first line of the new novel is? I’m dying to know.
Ed…what else do you know about the new Pynchon book? All’s I know about it is the Amazon blurb…