Robert Christgau – Page 5 – Vol. 1 Brooklyn

Afternoon Bites: Charles Yu on George Saunders, Matt Bell Excerpted, Tracey Thorn and Samuel Beckett, and More

March 1, 2013 1 Comment

Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana and Donnybrook, is interviewed at The Awl. “Although Bedsit Disco Queen was written in fits and starts and ends for no good reason in 2007, it’s a gem by the wretched standard of the rock memoir, and also by the stiff-necked standard of theses on Beckett’s fiction, another literary genre Thorn has under her belt.” Robert Christgau reviewed Bedsit Disco Queen and Big Day Coming. Guernica has an excerpt up from Matt Bell’s forthcoming novel. Morrissey chatted with Rookie. “…characters, each […]

Bites

Afternoon Bites: Literary Dublin, New Alexander Chee Fiction, Robert Christgau’s Best of 2012, and More

January 15, 2013 No Comments

“With the book, you give something of yourself—something that may hold some of your thoughts and deliberations in the form of notes, or indicate part of your personal history in that the book may be heavily used or not used at all; it may be a special edition or translation; it may show traces of having been dropped in the bath, speaking to your reading habits.” Antonia Hirsch talks The Surplus Library at Triple Canopy. Colm Tóibín on literary Dublin. There’s new […]

Bites

Afternoon Bites: Inside “Joseph Anton,” Patton Oswalt in Bushwick, Dylan Meconis on Comics Criticism, and More

September 19, 2012 No Comments

A very happy 49th birthday to Jarvis Cocker. Salman Rushdie’s Joseph Anton is out this week. Rushdie spoke to Charles McGrath at the New York Times, and Sarah Weinman looks at the books of Rushdie’s ex-wife Marianne Wiggins. Eric Nelson on the time Patton Oswalt showed up at Brooklyn Fireproof. Dylan Meconis on ways you should not write comics criticism. Irvine Welsh talks about his latest novel, Skagboys, at Lit Reactor. How David Byrne listens to music. Steve Stern’s The Book […]

Bites

Afternoon Bites: Zadie Reads O’Hara, Fiona Sings Macca, Nike Sells and Sells, and more

June 19, 2012 No Comments

It’s going to be unbearably hot this week. Can someone farther downtown get us an ice cream sandwich? They’re not businessmen; they’re a business, man. A great essay on punk skaters and Nike’s insidious strategy for selling to them. Zadie Smith reads Frank O’Hara’s “Animals,” and we swoon. Fiona Apple covered Paul McCartney on Jimmy Fallon’s show last night, and at least one Vol. 1 editor freaked out. An architecturally inspired tanning booth begets an article in LA Weekly that […]

Bites

Afternoon Bites: William Gibson, Clarice Lispector, Robert Christgau, and more

January 12, 2012 1 Comment

Graeme McMillan says a number of smart things about the overlap of music & comics, touching on everything from Phonogram to the Neil Gaiman-written/Alice Cooper-featuring The Last Temptation. McMillan’s new blog The World That’s Coming is also highly recommended for fans of smart music writing. Hey, it’s Robert Christgau’s favorite albums of 2011. William Gibson is interviewed in The Paris Review. Magdalena Edwards on Clarice Lispector’s The Hour of the Star. Victor LaValle contributes to Full Stop’s “The Situation in American Writing” […]

Bites

Afternoon Bites: Christgau on Lethem, Sarah Glidden on Occupy Miami, Bittman on Roth, and more

November 29, 2011 No Comments

“At 47, Lethem is 11 years older than Mailer was in 1959, so he’s had time to get more reading in. But that’s hardly the biggest advantage of an omnivore who devoured a book a day on the subway in high school and has spent 15 years working in bookstores…” Robert Christgau reviews Jonathan Lethem’s nonfiction collection The Ecstasy of Influence. Sarah Glidden visits Occupy Miami. Keith Gessen on his arrest at Occupy Wall Street. Here’s a combination of writers […]

Bites

Afternoon Bites: Joe Hill, Robert Christgau, Ted Leo on Fugazi, and more

November 23, 2011 No Comments

“From where I sit inside the whale, ’70s rockmags and alternaweeklies generated a lost trove of American criticism. With Willis and Nelson added to the eight other names now compiled one way or another — Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Robert Palmer, Richard Meltzer, Dave Marsh, Nick Tosches, Jon Landau, and myself — the early record is in a sense complete.” Robert Christgau on recent books by or about Ellen Willis and Paul Nelson. Joe Hill on where he does his […]