In our afternoon reading: an interview with Daniel José Older, Amelia Gray on unsettling books, fiction from John Keene, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Daniel José Older Interviewed, Highsmith on Film, Jerry Stahl, John Keene Fiction, and More
Communal Needs and Individual Desires: A Review of Amos Oz’s “Between Friends”
Between Friends by Amos Oz Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 179 p. After a lifetime of international acclaim for your writing, what do you do? Do you “retire?” like Philip Roth, or do you simply rest on your laurels and enjoy your accomplishment? Both sound pretty great, and you couldn’t begrudge anyone for choosing either. But Amos Oz continues to churn out important and impressive work that serve as a sort of State of the Union on the Israeli soul and Jewish […]
Morning Bites: Sarah Vowell’s a Nerd, Lit Rags of Brooklyn, “Immoral” Israeli Writers, and More
The Millions gets right to the point in their review of Unfamiliar Fishes: Sarah Vowell is most frequently called a popular historian, but really she’s a nerd 3:AM examines the life and work of “cult” crime writer, Dorothy B. Hughes. The best free literary rags of Brooklyn at Brokelyn. An interview with Willard Spiegelman, editor of The Southwest Review. An Italian writer doesn’t seem to like that Amos Oz and David Grossman “pontificate against” Israel: “the morality of Israeli writers […]
Bites: Literary award kvetching, Bradbury paints, Obama is the big winner, Woods do Daytrotter, and more
Remember yesterday when I said more Jewish people will kvetch about Amos Oz or Philip Roth not getting the Nobel Prize for Literature? Tablet mentions the Tribe losing out, talks about Herta Mueller, and ties it all up with “Also intriguing: the Times notes that her father served in the SS during World War II.” Lit. Ray Bradbury was a regular Bob Ross. The Forward talks about Elie Wiesel’s “meandering, sometimes, narcissistic ruminations” on medieval French commentator of the Talmud […]