September 15, 2006
Short Takes
“Unflinchingly honest” indeed – here’s James Frey’s first interview since Oprah railed on him. NPR reports that we may have discovered the oldest writing system yet, and it’s in Veracruz, […]
September 14, 2006
Bookermania
Now that the Booker Prize shortlist is out, one of my year’s rituals can begin. Unfortunately, only one of the books I already own, Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, […]
September 14, 2006
Short Takes
The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize for fiction was announced today. The list includes Kiran Desai‘s The Inheritance of Loss, Kate Grenville‘s The Secret River, M.J. Hyland‘s Carry Me […]
September 14, 2006
Please, think of the puppies.
Another good reason to think clearly and thoroughly: if you don’t, you’re going to make this puppy terribly sad. Clarity above all else!
September 14, 2006
More on The Sound and the Fury
In my last entry I suggested that tragedy in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury consists in entrapment in an interpretive framework, mediated by language, that fails to make sense […]
September 13, 2006
Short Takes
It’s here: Amazon’s e-reader. Call me crazy, but I don’t feel inspired to carry one of these outside with me on a picnic blanket for a peaceful afternoon. Perhaps I […]
September 12, 2006
If This James Frey Thing Goes Through…
A non-exhaustive list of books I would like my money back on (in no particular order): A Heart-Breaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers – The book that made […]
September 11, 2006
Short Takes
Thank you, John, for reviewing the Review‘s response to September 11th. The news has an overwhelming number of stories recounting the attack; here are ten books about it, though thousands […]
September 11, 2006
In Commemoration
The Kenyon Review presents selected excerpts from past issues in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of 9/11/01.
September 10, 2006
The Editor’s Confessions About the Slush Pile
Ask anyone involved with literary publishing what’s the biggest, most wearying task they face. Sooner or later they’ll confess. Sooner, actually. It’s the seemingly endless, the truly endless slog through […]
September 8, 2006
Your Cheatin’ Heart
J.T. LeRoy interviewed by Paris Review–NY Post reports, brags about her ability to fool NY Times in its headline. Dogs cheated on intelligence test, not as smart as previously thought; […]
September 7, 2006
Relativism is Boring
This book, if reviewed by someone other than Richard Rorty, could have potentially started a very interesting conversation. Unfortunately, relativists are more famous than virtue ethicists, if only because they […]