- Giuliani’s speech last night, which involved getting the crowd to shout “Drill baby drill,” was one of the slimiest speeches I think I’ve ever seen at a convention, laced with disingenuous fabrications rightly pointed out by Slate‘s Fred Kaplan. Wet Asphalt’s J.F. Quackenbush brings this characterization to Palin’s speech. But I thought Palin’s speech was better than expected, even if her barbs directed at Obama reminded me less of a vice presidential candidate (or even a hockey mom who likes to censor books) and more of a human resources manager scolding you for taking too much vacation time. Make no mistake: this was a circus. And I suppose we should be grateful that this crew played the 9/11 card sparingly. But Palin offered almost nothing on policy, few ideas, and little outside of Alaska grandstanding. We don’t know more than we knew before. And while one expects a surfeit of rhetoric at these affairs, if the Republicans can’t be bothered to frame their message within an action plan, then they have a serious case for “change” they they will need to make to the American public. Unless, of course, they think that the American public represents nothing more than a bunch of rubes. We’ll see what the polls say. But in the meantime, Joanne has more interesting observations.
- This morning, New York Sun editor Seth Lipsky announced that the newspaper may cease publication at the end of September because of lack of financial backing. In light of the fact that, for all of its tendentious faults, the Sun still runs a fairly comprehensive books section, this is certainly bad news for long-form reviews. (via Sarah)
- As widely noted, a new issues of The Quarterly Conversation is out.
- Hot on the heels of Tod Goldberg’s tie-in article, SF Signal has queried a number of people on the subject. (via Andrew Wheeler)
- New science: Daydreaming is essential to the human mind.
- RIP Bill Melendez.
- Writers on the rocks / Ain’t no surprise / Pour them a drink / And they’ll run to their lies / Got something to lose / So they just write the sober blues all the time (via Booklist)
- More bad news for Random House: Frank Warren has accepted £115,000 in libel damages.
- Thomas Frank on Norman Mailer’s Miami and the Siege of Chicago and political writing. (via Bookninja)
- The 50 greatest arts videos on YouTube. (Saw this earlier, but forgot to link to it. Hat tip to C-Monster for the reminder.)
- Yeah, who did vet Giuliani’s speech anyway?
- Early Word is tracking People book coverage on a weekly basis so that you can avoid a trip to the newsstand.
- The Publishing Contrarian takes on book covers.
- Finally, I do so love mikes that happen to be left on.
Roundup
– September 4, 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. (
I think in this election we have the choice between making history . . . or repeating it.
Mr. Obama has my vote.