At 11:42 last night, Wednesday the 27th of October, the number of Amazon Book Categories superseded the actual number of books they sell. The category that put the tally over the edge was “Baking for Emo Vampire Teens,” created especially for a new cookbook, “Black Blood Sausages: Balancing Bodily Fluids and Dark Colors in Your […]
Ted Genoways has been exonerated from Kevin Morrissey's suicide by a University audit. Of course, the audit might be merely trying to cover the university's backside for lawsuit purposes. The overall conclusion is given in clinical terms: Overall, there were several institutional notifications of problems within VQR, but no specific allegations of bullying or harassment […]
I’ve been watching Mad Men. It frequently underwhelms me. It’s also frustrating, and the reason for my frustration overlaps onto some fiction. One of my main problems is that the show doesn’t portray a historical period as much as luridly exhibits all the aspects of that historical period that seem offensive. The misogyny, the ubiquitous […]
This morning the National Book Award Nominees were announced. These are the contenders in fiction: Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America (Alfred A. Knopf) Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule (McPherson & Co.) Nicole Krauss, Great House (W.W. Norton & Co.) Lionel Shriver, So Much for That (HarperCollinsPublishers) Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel (Coffee House […]
A few days ago Cormac McCarthy spiked in the betting pool rankings for who would win the Nobel. He rose past Philip Roth, Don Dellilo, Thomas Pynchon, and Joyce Carol Oates, going from 66/1 to 8/1 to 6/1 to 3/1 and now 5/2. Do I think McCarthy’s deserving? Absolutely. And do I adore his books? […]
It’s that time again when literary folk dust off their shattered predictions from years past and wager (money, prestige, honor) on who will win the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature. Most likely, you will be wrong. Most likely, virtually everyone will be wrong. Even people who do nothing other than read, study, and talk about […]
I'm interviewed over at Creative Writing Now about reviewing books. I don't know what was into me, but I felt rather playful and sarcastic the day I answered the questions. RE: below — I don't even have a cat! I even talked about the literary establishment's preference for Jonathan Franzen — I mean, for male […]
Granta has another list of Best Novelists . . . except this time, instead of focusing on British or American, they’re going Spanish. Love it. Despite all the complaints about lists and prizes (many of which are justified, since the criteria are often subjective or obscure), these type of hierarchies still serve a semi-useful function […]
Thanks to the Fictionaut blog for pointing me toward this Tin House essay. These first two paragraphs perfectly encapsulate the sociological shift that has overtaken writers in the last half century: I don’t suppose anyone has ever done an in-depth study of that interesting form of literary ephemera, the author dust jacket biography. But if […]
A new book, Los Angeles in Maps, by Glen Creason, showcases 72 maps from throughout Los Angeles history. Of particular interest to literary folk is the one that shows the library locations circa 1930. Apparently the city did not skimp on library branches even back before the depression. That particular map is not available online, […]
