- Wi-fi is in rather abundant supply in the new pad. Alas, I dare not leave for coffee. Phone guys are rather finicky. They give you a three hour block. You leave for two minutes. They never come back.
- Haggis is excerpting A.M. Homes. On a similar note (and capsule still forthcoming), don’t miss this revealing A.M. Homes interview on Segundo.
- While it’s certainly true that writing sometimes pays at sweatshop levels, was there any need to turn it into an export processing zone? As Bill Peschel reveals, this selfsame exploiter also trumpets her own achievements as a freelancer. Or is that freeloader?
- The difference between bullshit and humbug. (via Books Inq.)
- Litbloggers found in school library. (via Bookshelves of Doom)
- Stephen Dixon profiled.
- The Encyclopedia Britannica? Maggots, all of them. (via Scott)
- Massacres at the Chron.
- David Ulin has details on Jim Crace’s Useless America.
- “How to Talk Mean and Influence People” (via Kenyon Review)
- “Transitory Cities” — the winner of the Boston Review short story contest. (via Laila)
- Phone guy’s here. More later.
The “Waiting for the Phone Guy” Roundup
– May 31, 2007Posted in: Uncategorized
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. (
Freeloader is harsh I think. Freeloads happen, even?