- I’m about three reports behind on the New York Film Festival. And I’m about to conduct my third Segundo interview in 24 hours. So here’s a quick roundup of links in the meantime.
- Don DeLillo blogs the White House.
- Graham Robb investigates some of the reasons why the new Les Miserables translation is 100,000 words longer than the current gold standard. (via Maud)
- Carolyn Kellogg discovers the sad future of book reviewing.
- Not only does South Dakota need an apology, but I think Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey owe us an apology for this smug and mostly tedious anthology.
- Do comic tats violate copyright? (via Joanne)
- So here’s the question: will all those who defended chick lit from the snobs go after Stephen King for his generalizations about the male reader? (via Tayari)
- Yes, it’s true. We Champions are certainly making a case for these words staying in the Collins dictionary. For shame!
- Connie Willis at the Rocky Mountain News: Interview and story. (via Sarah)
- 3AM talks with Stephen Dixon. (via Condalmo)
- Stephen Fry on the universal remote control.
- Well, it had to happen sooner or later: Contra James Wood, an anti-Wood blog. I’m still waiting for a Typepad blog called Opposing the Mendelsohn Brothers or a LiveJournal named Adam Kirsch is the Enemy of Literature and the Enemy of the State. (via Dan Green)
- And you are either with us or against us on the hot dog question. (via Jenny D)
Quick Roundup
– September 29, 2008Posted in: Roundup
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. (
Will DeLillo (or rather, “DeLillo”) be blogging the NYSE?
“They have to walk slowly to accommodate their awe.”
This was fairly close and pretty funny but they haven’t quite gotten the dialogue down…
Thanks, Ed. I’m still working on the anti-Mendelsohn Bros. and anti-Kirsch blogs, though, OK? I can only do so much!
Cheers!