June 24, 2014
Fundamental, and Also Fun
In Lorrie Moore’s short story “Charades,” the central character Therese recalls a conversation with her brother Andrew: Last year, at least, they had joked about their upbringing. “I scarcely remember Dad […]
June 16, 2014
Their Aim Is Just Off
We all have our people: writers or singers or actors or comedians who shaped us and sustained us and to whom we remain loyal, because to forget them would be […]
May 31, 2014
Ha, Ha
Last week I bought a book because of its epigraph. The book is Joshua Ferris’s To Rise Again at a Decent Hour; the epigraph is “‘Ha, ha’ – Job 39:25.” What […]
May 24, 2014
The Future, The Present, The Past
So, 2150 looks to be a terrible year. We’ll still be ordering plastic junk and inadvertently killing one another. But at least irony will survive! As will a trace of sweetness. […]
May 8, 2014
Russell Edson: A Farewell
As many of us are just learning, Russell Edson died a little over a week ago. His influence was enormous: he taught several generations of aspiring writers that poetry could […]
April 21, 2014
Sports Report
I used to want Calvin Trillin’s job at The Nation—and I still do, I guess—but the job I really want belongs to Beau Estes at NBA.com. Estes provides the commentary […]
April 16, 2014
Second Sleep
So, like I said (or like Chekhov said), We shall rest. But that rest may still be a long way off. In the meantime (ominous word, meantime), we have Karen […]
April 10, 2014
Art Spiegelman, Through the Looking-Glass
Tonight in Ypsilanti, Art Spiegelman gave a talk titled “What the %@&*! Happened to Comics?” The crowd was a mix of EMU students and fiftysomethings in nylon windbreakers; Spiegelman took […]
April 8, 2014
First Sleep
I downloaded Karen Russell’s Sleep Donation last week on the same evening my partner and I were sleep-training (or trying to sleep-train) our four-month-old daughter. Why read about sleeplessness, when […]
March 26, 2014
Not-So-Deep Thoughts
Slate is running a series of articles this week adapted from Peter McGraw and Joel Warner’s forthcoming study The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny. (The […]
March 22, 2014
Chekhov. Carver.
Paging through Tom Nissley’s recent (and wonderful) A Reader’s Book of Days, I’m reminded that March 22 marks the start of the action in “Errand,” the last story that Raymond […]
March 16, 2014
Among Forty-Two Ferns
More than 54,000 people went to HealthCare.gov after watching President Obama spar with Zach Galifianakis last week; I went to the Between Two Ferns homepage and binge-watched the series’ other […]