Obligatory Franzen Review Roundup
Posted by Jason Diamond Please don’t mistake the title as snark, it’s that I haven’t read Freedom yet, so I’m basing my early judgments on the bazillion reviews I’m reading. “the novel of the century” – says The Guardian. “Freedom is nearly 600 pages of what our damn problem is.” – says the Chicago Sun Times. “asking whether one person’s flight toward freedom may forge another person’s chains.” – says the Dallas Morning News. “I fear that expectations are outpacing […]
Weekend Bites: Cemetery Gates, James Ellroy, Franzen, Jewish Writers, and More
The cemetery where e.e. cummings and Eugene O’Neill are buried. (Boston Globe) The Guardian talks about James Ellroy. Jonathan Franzen vs. Richard Stark. You know how people are always saying “there are so many great Jewish writers”? Here is your chance to learn how to be one. Carrie Brownstein stars in a new video by The Thermals. (Brooklyn Vegan) I think this article about Zola Jesus in The Guardian officially means she’s “Blown up”.
Mad Literary Name Dropping Takes Place in the Times Review of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom
I think they liked it? “19th-century realist” “even as he condescendingly attributed to them every venal quality from hypocrisy and vanity to paranoia and Machiavellian conniving.” “not Nietzschean stereotypes easily divided into categories of “hard” (shameless, ambitious brutes) or “soft” (pathetic, sniveling doormats)” “But it is neither this heavy-handed leitmotif nor the twisty, Dickensian plot” “threatening to turn them into authorial pawns subject to simple Freudian-Darwinian imperatives.”
Franzen on Time Magazine Cover: First Author in Ten Years, Possibly the Last one Ever?
I was happy that Lev Grossman pulled some magic (get it?), and got Jonathan Franzen on the cover of Time. I haven’t read the article yet, and I’m not really sure how many people actually read Time (a lot? A lot less than ten years ago?), but it seems like a step in the right direction. And I hate to ask, but I wonder if it will be the last time an author graces the front page of the magazine […]
Passover Bites: Franzen’s Cover, Warhol’s Pals, Cheever’s Story, Atwood’s Addiction, Kerman’s Excerpt, Neil Young on Skype, and More
Jonathan Franzen has a new novel coming out and The Millions show us the cover. The New Republic posted a John Cheever story from 1936. Margaret Atwood might need a Twitter intervention. Levi Asher on Reality Hunger. An excerpt from Piper Kerman’s book, Orange is the New Black. Andy Warhol had a lot of friends that he took pictures of. Neil Young, Jonathan Demme, and Skype. Titus Andronicus and rock from New Jersey. Bluto, Otter, D-Day, Boehner, Cantor, Brown, and […]
Bites: Russian chess, Franzen is #1, Murakami interviews, craziest town hall EVER, and more
Yeh, how did Russians get so good at chess? HTML Giant: Mazel tov on turning one year old. Lit. Jonathan Franzen is #1!!! (The Millions) An interview with Haruki Murakami Boston Globe takes a look at “gangster chic“ The Moby Dick emoticon. Stephanie Kuehnert, Author of Ballad of Suburbia, picks “Bastards of Young” as one of her songs on Largehearted Boy’s Book Notes. A.V. Club says “here are the rest of the books we think you should read for 2009”. […]
Bites: The real “deal” about Palin, can we get a book deal?, Simpsonsize Me
I guess you can thank HarperCollins for getting Sarah Palin to quit her job as governor of Alaska Brooklyn Rail wrote about bloggers getting book deals, and The Rumpus continues the conversation. I think the title “James Wolcott on Cultural Snobbery” say it all. The guy who did Super Size Me is directing an episode examining The Simpsons cultural impact on the world called (according to Comedy Central) The Simpson’s 20th Anniversary Special In 3-D on Ice. Brilliant. As if […]