Saving Salinger From Himself

Salinger is suing, as we know. Ron Rosenbaum, who revisits the “What the fuck has he been doing all these years?” question, at Slate seems to think that we the people, as some kind of right, deserve to see Salinger’s work. Most of Rosenbaum’s speculations are unlikely. Because let’s face it, we know there are finished works locked in Salinger’s freezer, and I think there’s going to be a masterpiece hidden in there. What strikes me most is the fact […]

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A Napoleonic Love Story

Even Insubordinate Rulers Get Angsty About Love. Napoleon Bonaparte’s romantic novella, Clisson and Eugenie, which he wrote after a failed relationship with a woman named Desiree, will be translated into English in October and published by London-based publisher Gallic. The Guardian calls his novella “an early precursor of chick-lit.” Oh God, could Napoleon really be partially responsible not only for the Civil Code and his own personalized brand of warfare, but also for such cultural frontispieces as The Devil Wears […]

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Modern Literary Adventurers

Although I’m not super outdoorsy, I recently picked up a copy of Outside Magazine while at the gym. I did it because I had forgotten my own reading material, but I also found the irony of reading such a magazine while moving statically indoors amusing. And while I couldn’t quite relate to narratives of daring, dangerous travels through Argentina or over precipitous mountains in far-off regions, I came upon a feature by Wells Tower, author of newly released book of […]

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Conversation: Agriculture Reader No. 3

A warm and welcoming term, “agriculture” at its simplest cultivates and gives way to growth, in turn providing food and other fundamental necessities. And the writing in this annual arts journal, as well as Joey Parlett’s artwork, is in this sense fantastically cohesive and naturally grown, cultivated with care from the minds of thirty talented contributors. Nearly every piece embraces an introspective, philosophical undertone, while at the same time maintaining a naturalness characteristic to writing that has sprung organically from […]

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Where the Wild Things Are: A Forthcoming Filmic Rumpus (for All Ages)

Where the Wild Things Are is a children’s classic, and it should make an excellent film: Original author Maurice Sendak is directly involved, the screenplay is written by Dave Eggers (who always does his best to make lit fun), and for crying out loud, it’s 15 years in the making. Plus, Catherine Keener will be there. Keener only makes good movies, she just does. And if the trailer is any indication – which, I know, I know, it often isn’t […]

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In France, Rebellion By Actually Reading National Classic

In America, we love to ban books. When something — violence, sex, devil worship, the “n” word, the list is endless — offends, someone out there is sure to attempt to keep others from being exposed to it. Consequently, in a somewhat silly act of Freedom, we hold a yearly Banned Books Week during which one can choose, in protest, to read nearly any book ever written. The French, on the other hand, don’t really ban books. They really like […]

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Extra, Extra! John Wray Writes to Music.

New York’s latest literary initiate and Vol. 1 alumnus John Wray, whose third novel Lowboy was published to critical acclaim last month, has provided the New York Times’ Paper Cuts with a playlist of seven songs that helped him write the book. Apparently, his last two novels were written in silence, inside and at a desk — an “office” in all senses of the word. But Wray has always coveted “workspaces,” if only for the romantic idea that loud, unrestrained […]

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Is Barack Obama the Shakespeare of Politics?

The New York Review of Books has finally printed British writer Zadie Smith’s “Speaking in Tongues,” an essay based on her lecture given at the New York Public Library last December. In character with the 34-year-old novelist, Smith’s lecture is timely and timeless, youthfully sage, and fantastically put together both in terms of syntax and conceptual significance. In her lecture, Smith contrasts Barack Obama’s plight as a politician with William Shakespeare’s easy status as “everyman”: “Shakespeare’s art, the very medium […]

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