- Should a play that’s weeks from opening in New York be off-limits to Chicago critics? It seems that Steppenwolf seems to be denying Chicago critics coverage of its New York productions. (via About Last Night)
- Many “guy books” have become exceedling rare. That’s too bad. This will prevent others from truly determining if The Great Tool Emporium and Cab Forward is an underused Kama Sutra position.
- A too-brief Guardian blog post on Richard Brautigan. (via Bookshelves of Doom)
- Canada has taken a disreputable, privacy-invasive page from the American playbook. (via Classical Bookworm)
- Scott on Iris Murdoch.
- Dave Eggers won’t let you Friend him on Facebook. Well, that doesn’t seem terribly philanthropic, does it? If you’re feeling spurned by Eggers, then have no fear. I’ll happily add you as a Facebook friend.
- A Naughty American History quiz (via Smart Bitches)
- Slunch offers an open letter to Peter Sacks.
- A kid’s-eye view of laptop design. (via The Shifted Librarian)
- I read this story and imagined Bobby Brown singing “My Lobotomy.” “Everybody’s cutting all these lobes inside me / Why don’t they just let me think? / I don’t need remission / Make my own cognition oh / That’s my lobotomy.”
- Who knew that a novelist and NBC could come to terms on “a divorce project?” This divorce project sounds rather pleasant. Like a nice little summer crafts project instead of the pain, hurt, financial woes, and humiliation that come with the territory. So good on NBC for giving us divorce with an enthusiastic hobbyist’s smile!
- Some details on Lethem’s Omega: The Unknown revival.
- Is V.S. Naipaul a strange man?
- Mr. VanderMeer is selling books.
- If you’re going to be at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, please say hello. I should be there.
- Would Emily Dickinson be medicated today? (via Maud)
- No Tarantino and Heroes.
- C.S. Lewis is a relatively unknown name? You have to be kidding me.
- Fassbinder’s adaptation of Berlin Alexanderplatz is coming to DVD, and it will be just a tad slower.
- Doestoyevsky Comics.
- The AP fact-checks Bush’s speech from last night.
- What drives Naomi Klein?
- More controversy on italicizing comic strips at Other Ed’s. Personally, I don’t think Jumble should be italicized, unless someone here can reasonably argue that it is presenting a continuing narrative.
- The greatest beatdowns in history.
Roundup
– September 14, 2007Posted 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. (
You may live to regret announcing your facebook account Ed!
I also loved Lethem’s Omega The Unknown revival. Really an eye opening attempt. His Fortress of Solitude and short stories from the 1970s are my personal favs, and now, the latest novelist to give comics a go has also impressed me.