The Bakeless Prize has rockstar taste. Last year they published Belle Boggs’ “Mattaponi Queen,” which went on to garner a bouquet of accolades, and this year they’re publishing the astonishing “American Masculine” by Shann Ray, a frontrunner for my favorite book of the year. “American Masculine” is the perfect title. The stories are rough and raw, […]
I read David Foster Wallace’s “The Pale King” in late April, soon after its release date, but our introduction felt secondhand. It was like meeting a friend whose reputation had preceded him. Every page seemed filtered through the viewpoints of pundits of every stripe and pedigree, whom I’d consumed in the media frenzy anticipating the […]
Despite the firestorm (1, 2) over the WSJ article about YA fiction, I did agree with this paragraph by Meghan Cox Gurdon, which she talks about the process of guiding what young people read: “In the book trade, this is known as ‘banning.’ In the parenting trade, however, we call this ‘judgment’ or ‘taste.’ It is a […]
BookFox turns the venerable age of five today. Five years, thousands of books, infinite fun. Thanks to all my faithful readers. I hope that the news and books covered here inspire your journey. Year One (thoughtful account of writing energy)
In this quirky tribute to the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, Harper’s Magazine offers a forum called “King James, Revised,” which includes three poems (Paul Guest’s on Acts 26:28 is my favorite), one dramatic retelling (John Banville re-imagines 2 Samuel 18), two essays (Marilynne Robinson weighs in on 1 Corinthians 15:51-52) and a […]
The title I stole from Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote a polemic describing his idea of the literature of commitment, by which he meant that literature needs to be politically engaged. Let me tell you a story that offers a competing vision of literature. I was teaching a Borges short story, “The Gospel According to Mark,” […]
At the Los Angeles Review of Books, Mark McGurl, the author of "The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing," responds to critics who lament the originality of writing in the contemporary fiction: But more broadly, I think what is going on in these indictments of the mediocrity of contemporary fiction is […]
Quiz Time: Out of these six novelists, how many can you identify? (Answers at the bottom of the post). All these images are taken from the literary card game Notable Novelists. Since I’m a board game and book aficionado, it was pleasant to combine my obsessions. The rules aren’t complex — it’s a souped up […]
The Famous Graffiti Wall of What People are READING: Everyone was disoriented because of the location change to USC: Jonathan Lethem is absolutely brilliant. Best session of the weekend. And Carolyn Kellogg did an excellent job interviewing. After the “Future of the Book” panel, there was a madcap rush to the stage to accost and […]
BookFox normally sticks to short stories and literary novels, but every once in a while I break my self-imposed limitations and dabble in other genres. Czeslaw Milosz is a poet that can make me break my own rule. An Invisible Rope: Portraits of Czeslaw Milosz is a biography consisting of remembrances from thirty-two friends, colleagues and […]
