That tweet by Marc Maron to Bret Easton Ellis is a perfect example of why it is perfectly alright to stay on Twitter past midnight. We are also hopeful that this is Maron’s invite to Ellis to appear on his WTF podcast. Meredith Blake at The Paris Review meets Lady Fiona Herbert, the eighth Countess of Carnarvon, and talks about her book Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey. Rob Horning at The New Inquiry on Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. A Wisława Szymborska […]
Indexing: Jet-lag literature, Nabokov, The Believer, Edith Wharton, and more
Tobias Carroll And lo: there was the literature of jet-lag. The second time around, the strengths of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition remained intact: haunted characters and a pinpoint command of culture. Its flaws — notably, a conclusion that effectively sidelines the novel’s protagonist — remained present. And still, Pattern Recognition may well be my favorite of Gibson’s books: a morally resonant, deeply contemporary thriller that hits nearly all of my sweet spots. (Mysterious films, subcultural intrigue, globetrotting.) Were I fond of […]
Morning Bites: Ford’s Grapes, Easton Ellis on Charlie Sheen, Pizza Island, The Ex, and More
When John Ford met John Steinbeck: The New Republic looks at the film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath. It’s great when Flavorwire dorks out and does something like the A-Z of Typographic Book Covers. At first you think to yourself that it’s a pathetic grab at bettering their SEO value, but then you realize the article, “Charlie Sheen is Winning,” was written by Bret Easton Ellis A bunch of women, hanging out and drawing at a place called Pizza […]
Bret Easton Ellis Weighs in on Ricky Gervais’ Hosting of the Golden Globes
Posted by Jason Diamond Judging by his latest tweet, I now think Bret Easton Ellis holds Robert Downey Jr. responsible for the Less Than Zero film adaptation that Ellis supposedly hated.
Blane from “Pretty in Pink” knows how to Travel
Posted by Jason Diamond I know he probably hates to be thought of as “Blane from Pretty in Pink,” “guy in the Less Than Zero film adaptation” or “tolerable dude in Weekend at Bernie’s,” but until 30 seconds ago that’s what I always thought of when I thought about Andrew McCarthy. So it was something of a surprise to learn McCarthy is a travel writer that is good enough to win Travel Writer of the Year by the Society of […]
A Sad Ass Attempt to Explain Why I Liked Richard Yates by Tao Lin
Posted by Jason Diamond Melville House 208 Pages Tuesday was the official release date of Tao Lin’s latest book, Richard Yates. Judging by the fact that this is the our second post in two days that talks about Tao, I feel comfortable saying that it’s officially Tao Lin week in Vol. 1 land. Since I started paying attention to his work, I’ve noticed there are several different schools of thought regarding Lin as a person and as a writer: People […]
Huffington Post Books Attempts to Create Bret Easton Ellis Scoop, Fails
Huffington Post Books tweeted that Bret Easton Ellis had broken his silence over controversial Twitter comments he made right after J.D. Salinger died. Me and about fifteen other dorks would really care, but the thing is, he talked about that months ago in an interview with Vice: Well, you’ve written my favorite Twitter that anybody’s ever written. What? The Salinger one. On the day he died, you posted: “Yeah!! Thank God he’s finally dead. I’ve been waiting for this day […]
Should I Trust the Good Taste of Todd Zuniga?
Todd Zuniga (Opium, Literary Death Match) has good taste, and he seemed to like Imperial Bedrooms. Is this the final clue from God that I should read the (possibly terrible) follow up to one of my favorite books ever? The dark undergrounds of real-deal metropolitan cities (NYC, SF, LA, London, etc.) can be grim, horrifying places. We’ve all heard stories (or at least seen Requiem for a Dream). I don’t have the constitution to live in this world, though I […]