“…there’s a high order of sustained intelligence at work that knows how to defer the ultimate pleasures of literature until just the right time.” At Three Guys One Book, Dennis Haritou begins an extended look at Alan Hollinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child.

• Nathan Heller on Nicholson Baker: “a high-Romantic writer in disguise, heir to the tradition of Coleridge and Keats.”

• Michaelangelo Matos reports on The Rapture’s recent show in Brooklyn.

• Today is E. Annie Proulx’s birthday. Here’s a look back at her 1993 novel The Shipping News.