Posted by Jason Diamond I’m nearly 600 pages into the book that Marc Tracy at Tablet called “the Josh Cohen of the McSweeney’s set,” Adam Levin’s The Instructions. At the same time, I’m peeling open Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (which I think the NY Times likes. Not totally sure.) I’m not quite sure if it’s good for my mental state to read two large books at the same time, but I’m willing to find out. I decided to undertake […]
Politics & Prose not Doing Well in D.C.?
Over at Tablet, Marc Tracy discusses the future of a D.C. institution: The future of beloved Washington, D.C., bookstore Politics & Prose is up in the air since its founders announced they are selling it. This story is hugely important in the D.C. area. It is also of almost astonishing importance in the literary world.
Bloomsday is the Cinco de Mayo for People Who Read
Tablet continues the Jewish takeover of Bloomsday, talking to Joshua Cohen. Things discussed include big novels, sacred books, and Pynchon. Not discussed is the possibility that Tablet’s Bloomsday celebration could become an all out chug fest after Cohen and Ben Greenman get finished reading. But wait! There is also Radio Bloomsday on June 16th! A national broadcast on the Pacific Radio Network from the WBAI studios in New York City from 7pm to 2am EST on 99.5FM in NYC and […]
Jews Taking Bloomsday Back
As a Jew growing up in a predominantly Irish city, I always felt a little left out on St. Patrick’s Day. Not that marching in parades and vomiting green beer is my idea of a good time, but I’ve always been a bit jealous of their Irish and their ability to party. So it made me grin a bit when I read that Tablet was deciding to take one back for the Tribe and reclaim Bloomsday with a pretty stellar […]
When Oral Sex in the Shtetl Goes Horribly Wrong
Over at Tablet, a story that could be something like a b-movie, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Pretty in Pink, all rolled into one. A young girl from the wrong side of the tracks, a guy named Feivel Goldschwartz gets engaged to a girl named Ruzhe Shulkleynot; he breaks it off because she’s poor, then she bites off half of his penis in front of a whorehouse as revenge.