Earlier this year, I interviewed writer Tom Lutz at the Strand. The occasion was the release of his new novel Born Slippy, the story of two men — Frank, a self-taught carpenter, and Dmitry, an ambitious and amoral figure — whose paths cross again and again over the years. What begins as a wry character study slowly becomes a moral thriller along the lines of Graham Greene, making for a thrilling read. Before our event, I spoke with Lutz at a nearby coffee shop about his novel’s genesis, his work with the Los Angeles Review of Books, and more.
Morning Bites: Translating “From the Shadows,” Lynda Barry, Rion Amilcar Scott Fiction, Johanna Skibsrud, and More
In our morning reading: an interview on the process of translation, fiction from Rion Amilcar Scott, and more.
Poetry in Motion: Yankees, Red Sox, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Graham Greene, and the Impending Apocalypse
On Saturday night I attended a game at Yankees Stadium, between the local pinstriped and the visiting Boston Red Sox. It was an infinitely more engaging, pleasurable and humane version of a war reenactment, or a spirited salon. In this bloodbath, more of arms than wits, the Red Sox trounced the Yanks by the criminal score of 11-1. This slaughter began with a grand slam from Sox first basemen Mike Napoli, who at press time may have one of the […]
Indexing: A Visit to “Zeroville,” Graham Greene as Subway Reading, Charles Portis Collected, and More
A roundup of things consumed by our contributors.
Graham Greene’s Cocktail Breaks Rules, Is Pretty Great for Summer
Last week, Luke Honey wrote a post for The Dabbler about the Graham Greene Cocktail, a drink invented in a Hanoi hotel when Greene was a correspondent for Paris Match. According to Honey the drink officially came into this world in 1951, and I’ve seen elsewhere that the drink was concocted around the time Greene was writing The Quiet American. It was, by all accounts, his drink of choice, and the result has been deemed both “heinous” and “surprisingly good.” […]