First we had a publicist promise Sam Lipsyte’s forthcoming novel, The Ask, would usher us back into the time of Pynchon, Roth, and Heller; now Shalom Auslander is getting set to present us a funny book about genocide. and the term “comic novel” pops up again. This time, it’s in his essay, “Go for the Kill” on Tablet. Best quotes: “I’m a fun guy. I read about the Armenian Genocide, and about the Herrero Massacre, and about the Holodomor, and […]
Bites: Lipsyte Bringing Back “Comic Novels”, Emma Straub Asks About Updike, Loving Zadie Smith, and More
A press release included with Sam Lipsyte’s forthcoming novel, The Ask, gets Mark Athitakis on the subject of “comic novels”. Emma Straub wants to know if John Updike’s Rabbit trilogy is a classic. Stealing from bookstores. Reason #21 we love New York: “Because we fight over poetry“ If the Virtual Victorian is excited about the Sherlock Holmes film, it’s gotta be good. William Faulkner’s relationship with Meta Carpenter Three Guys One Book love Zadie Smith. Our hometown Pictures from “the […]
James Yeh Drank the Kool-Aid, but Redemption Maybe at Hand
James Yeh: Founding Editor of Gigantic Magazine, silky smooth dancer, and guy who puts Vecktamist by Grizzly Bear at the top of his best of list over at Big Other. Okay, James, I love you man, but how could you put that snoozer above things like Sam Lipsyte’s story in Harpers, the Real Estate album on Woodsist, and Bolaño’s The Skating Rink? Fair warning, I’m tracking you to the Literary Death Match that you are scheduled to take part in […]
Weekend Bites: Sam Lipsyte to Tour With LCD Soundsystem?, Eno on Uncool, Harry Smith, Cheever’s Biography, Airplanes Saving Magazines, and More
Next time we do bites, the Rick Moody/Electric Literature Twitter Fiction project shall begin. Sam Lipsyte and LCD Soundsystem on the road together in 2010? Over at Drowned in Sound, James Murphy considers it. Reading the new Sam Lipsyte novel “the ask” now, which comes out around the time the LCD record does, so maybe we could have the most absurdly awkward co-headlining tour together… Brixton and bookstores?? New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year. Even though the […]