For your afternoon reading: a collection of William Gass interviews, thoughts on Chris Abani’s new novel and a twenty-year-old Morrissey album, writing from Sean H. Doyle, comedy in music, and more.
This afternoon: Roxane Gay on Jenny Offill’s new novel, visiting the site of Haruki Murakami’s jazz club, a trailer for a new Dostoevsky adaptation, watching the Pixies when sick, and more.
Look at Chris Abani‘s new novel The Secret History of Las Vegas and you’ll find familiar ingredients: a veteran detective doggedly pursing an unsolved case; a morally compromised central character; a figure who knows more than they’re letting on. But in Abani’s fiction, elements that might border on the archetypal are deconstructed: here, the buried history of Las Vegas and the aftereffects of apartheid-era abuses in South Africa converge, and the lives of Abani’s central characters will be forever affected. This my second […]
Chris Abani talks art and politics, thoughts on MoMA’s latest expansion, the importance of novellas, an interview with Tavi Gevinson, what Robert Christgau’s been reading, and more.
The debut album from Boston’s Debo Band uses Ethiopian jazz and pop of the 1960s and 1970s as a starting point for a sound that incorporates numerous musical traditions into a refreshing, catchy whole. In his review of the album for Pitchfork, Joe Tangari noted that “you’ll hear plenty of fresh ideas here, as the band spikes its arrangements with hints of Romany brass and even Celtic melody.” We caught up with saxophonist and bandleader Danny Mekonnen via email.