- The great Ian Rankin appears on the Guardian’s latest Book Club podcast. (via Bookslut)
- Scott Esposito devotes his Friday column to the works of Michael Martone.
- At Critical Mass, Laura Miller discusses style and invokes Pauline Kael’s essay, “Trash, Art and the Movies.”
- James Tata isn’t a fan of the MP3 format. As one who dabbles in the format, I agree that it certainly has limitations, but I’m wondering if Tata’s objections stem from the fact that he listens to them primarily on his iPod. Any sound recording is only as good as its speaker system.
- Following up on the Ed Park firing, Maud Newton notes the New Times journalistic priorities.
- Is Foucault a neohumanist? (via The Reading Experience)
- There are apparently some roles that Orlando Bloom will say no to.
- New York Magazine‘s take on the Voice. (via The Publishing Spot)
- Lovecraftian perfumes. (via The Little Prof)
- Find free drinks in SF and NYC.
- Laila Lalami will be reading at Bumbershoot.
- Josh Wolf will be released. More from Jackson West.
Roundup
– September 1, 2006Posted 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. (