Fiction is Freedom: Martin Amis Live at Bookcourt

The audience brims with British gents young and old. Geezers with smoke-crinkled sinews mix with Hugh Jackman lookalikes in Tom Ford specs, chrome neckties, and the pale blues of Futures traders. In front of all of them sit mostly women aged fifty and over, hedged with me in the front rows. “I’ve been coming to readings for years,” says one. “I used to have the biggest crush on George Plimpton.” Her friend pipes up. “Mine was on Tyrone Power, but […]

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Morning Bites: Todd Akin Like Borges, Amis Doesn’t Want Followers, Jazz Age Lawn Party, Wharton Introductions and More

  Photos from the Jazz Age Lawn Party at Racked. “It’s like Borges, but Todd Akin.” – Juli Weiner at Vanity Fair tries to sum it up. Edith Wharton’s introduction to William Gerhardie’s Futility. (Which is coming out next month as part of Melville House’s The Neversink Library.) “I don’t want to follow anyone and I don’t want anyone to follow me.” – Martin Amis talks to Royal Young for Interview. Warner Brothers passes on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower.  Boo […]

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Weekend Bites: Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Martin Amis, Willy Loman to Mitt Romney, and More

“People talk about pilgrimages to Graceland or Cooperstown, or to see Saturn Devouring His Children at the Prado, or just to Flushing to get good soup dumplings, so one of the challenges I faced was how to limit the discussion.” Gideon Lewis-Kraus (above) talks to World Hum about A Sense of Direction. “If Martin Amis hasn’t exactly mellowed with age a certain degree of tenderness has nevertheless entered his more recent work.” – Morten Høi Jensen on Martin Amis at Los Angeles Review […]

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Morning Bites: Amis Advice, Don’t Mess With Wharton, Young Keith Haring, Whit Stillman Primer, and More

Rozalia Jovanovic checks out the work of the young Keith Haring for Gallerist. Thought Catalog catalogs some writing advice from Martin Amis. Note to Jonathan Franzen: You fuck with Edith Wharton, you get an Edith Wharton scholar on your ass. The Coffin Factory went to the Muumuu House reading. Mira Ptacin shares an excerpt from her memoir “about the uterus and the American Dream.” at Guernica. A Whit Stillman primer. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and our Tumblr.

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Morning Bites: Lost Martin Amis Video Game Masterpiece, Literary Jeremy Lin, Anthony Shadid, And More

    Why the heck would Martin Amis want to distance himself from his 1982 classic Invasion of the Space Invaders? Everybody weighs in on the death of journalist Anthony Shadid. Alexander Chee on “The Jeremy Lin Economy” at The Classical. We aren’t sure if the Lin Economy includes the book deal he’s going to land. The American boosterism of Junot Díaz and Garrison Keillor. Want to look like Juliet from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet?  Rookie tells you how. Joe Fassler at The Atlantic […]

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Morning Bites: OWS poetry, Bookish bad boys, Dyer in Queens, Beethoven’s letter, and more

A great video of poetry being read at Occupy Wall Street is up at Coldfront featuring folks like Justin Taylor and Kendra Grant Malone. Alexander Hamilton was born on this day in 1755 or 1757.  We looked at two ways to celebrate his birthday last year. Geoff Dyer talks Andrei Tarkovsky in Queens on March 11th t the Museum of the Moving Image. Kingsley Amis!  Martin Amis!  Lord Byron!  And other literary bad boys at Flavorwire. Diplo’s got a book. A letter Beethoven wrote […]

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