Another event on my “absolutely must see” list at the Decatur Book Festival is author Lev Grossman at 2:30 on Sunday. I loved his wildly inventive novel, The Magicians. Check out my glowing review. Just make sure that you get behind me in the book signing line. Thanks.
Authors, Books, Happenings | Tim | 
September 2, 2010 8:52 am | 
Comments (1)
So far this week, we’ve been subtly referencing some of the goings-on at this weekend’s Decatur Book Festival. Those days are over. The remainder of the week will be given over to “OMG, I can’t wait to see this” fanboy posts.
One of the events that I am truly looking forward to takes place on Saturday at 1:45PM. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be in conversation “Tavis Smiley-style” about storytelling with Lain Shakespeare of the Wren’s Nest. Adichie is the author of the brilliant Half of a Yellow Sun (read our reviews here and here) as well as the novel Purple Hibiscus and the short story collection That Thing Around Your Neck.
The best part of this event is that BGB is totally responsible. You can read all about how awesome we are at the Wren’s Nest Blog.
Authors, Books, Happenings | Tim | September 1, 2010 8:07 am | Comments (0)
I was able to get an early peek at the new Jonathan Franzen novel Freedom when President Obama loaned me his copy. Thanks, Barry. The early reviews have been rolling out for a few weeks now, and each one seems to be trying to outdo the others in the superlatives heaped upon it. So far the novel has been called “the novel of the century” and “a masterpiece of American fiction”. Franzen is “alone in his willingness to tackle America’s big issues,” insists another critic. And then the backlash started before the novel was even released. I had to stop reading if I was to ever be able to offer an opinion of my own.
I should start by noting that I was not especially a fan of The Corrections. It was heralded as a Big, Important book. It was certainly a good book, but that’s as far as I was willing to go. My problem with Franzen’s cast in that novel is that they were almost dripping with the author’s scorn. He didn’t like them at all, and they were each clearly representative of a “type” that the author seemed intent on skewering. If the author didn’t care for these people, why should the reader (me) care about what happened to them? The praise for The Corrections was near universal, and mine appeared to be the minority opinion. Fair enough.
Freedom is an enormous book, a veritable advertisement for the Kindle, and it is divided into several sections. The novel begins with an introduction to Walter and Patty Bergland, urban pioneers to a newly gentrifying neighborhood in St Paul, Minnesota. This introduction is often humorous and spot-on in its description of the travails of urban living:
…the collective task in Ramsey Hill was to relearn certain life skills that your own parents fled to the suburbs specifically to unlearn, like how to interest the local cops in actually doing their job, and how to protect a bike from a highly motivated thief, and when to bother rousting a drunk from your lawn furniture, and how to encourage feral cats to shit in somebody else’s children’s sandbox, and how to determine whether a public school sucked too much to bother trying to fix it.
After a mostly light-hearted introduction to the Berglunds, the next chapter is ominously titled “Mistakes were made.” This section is written by Patty at the advice of a therapist. It is written in the third person, as Patty says that she finds it easier to write about herself from a distance (and it was probably easier for Franzen, too). Despite being an “autobiography,” the chapter is fairly direct at laying bare the mistakes that Patty has made in her life. Patty doesn’t commit the only mistakes in this novel, but she is the only one who gets to provide her own account.
Walter and Patty are both trying desperately to escape their pasts, which include dysfunctional families in the Midwest and the East. True to Tolstoy’s famous quote on the matter, each of their unhappy families “is unhappy in its own way.” Despite their efforts, the dysfunction begins to creep into their quiet Midwestern home. Walter and Patty have two children, Joey and a girl. (You don’t need to know the girl’s name, because she may be the least developed character in the novel.) Joey rebels against his liberal parents by shacking up with the “white-trash” next door neighbor and becoming a committed conservative. (It reads like a horror novel at stretches for parents everywhere.)
For volatility, Franzen adds Walter and Patty’s friend Richard Katz, the iconic indie rock star, to the mix. Richard was Walter’s roommate in college and the man that Patty passed up to marry Walter. Tall and devastatingly handsome with cool to burn (even though he’s described as looking like Muammar Gaddafi), it can’t be a good thing to have this guy hanging around the family.
I’ll confess that I was concerned in the middle third of the novel when I feared that Franzen was returning to the form that I disliked in The Corrections. Many of the characters become completely unlikable and begin to lose some of their dimension. Add to that some observations bordering on caricature like, this one:
Walter wasn’t really even a neighbor, he didn’t belong to the homeowner’s association, and the fact that he drove a Japanese hybrid, to which he recently applied an OBAMA sticker, pointed, in her mind, toward godlessness and a callousness regarding the plight of hardworking families, like hers, who were struggling to make ends meet and raise their children to be good, loving citizens in a dangerous world.
…. and I feared the worst. Luckily, the final third of the novel rides in to save the day.
The novel tackles many Big Ideas. Franzen examines toxicity from both external (environmental) and internal (personal drama) standpoints, and highlights the extensive damage of both. The author also explores the profound impacts of the choices that we make, whether well considered or barely acknowledged, on the direction of our lives. Franzen also shows the blindness that we often have concerning our own actions. For example, when Walter accuses his son of “conniving with monsters trashing the country for their personal enrichment…”, he seems to be oblivious that this is precisely where he finds himself.
Of course, “Freedom” in its various forms is also a central theme to the novel. When Joey is pursuing the sister of a well-connected college friend, the girl’s father delivers the following oration over a (just) post-9/11 dinner:
Freedom is a pain in the ass. And that’s why it’s so imperative that we seize the opportunity that’s been presented to us this fall. To get a nation of free people to let go of their bad logic and sign on with better logic, by whatever means are necessary.
Do nefarious Republican oligarchs really speak that way? Or do we (Franzen and I) just imagine that they do? Really, I have no frame of reference.
Another kind of freedom the author brings to mind comes from disentangling oneself from family, loved ones, and any kind of meaningful personal attachments in order to live life “unencumbered.” However, Franzen shows in the third act that this type of freedom is illusory and empty. Our families/loved ones provide nourishment for our souls and provide the only real paths to forgiveness and acceptance. These are hardly the ironic hipster sentiments that I was expecting. Is irony truly dead?
As I’ve mentioned, the novel’s concluding third saved the novel for me. It turned the novel away from what I was expecting, into largely unexpected territory. Overall, I thought that this was an exceptional novel. There were quibbles that I had along the way, some of which I’ve mentioned here, that leave me wondering about Franzen’s coronation as our greatest living writer and this the great novel of our times. Time and perspective will tell.
Jonathan Franzen will be delivering the keynote address and signing books at the opening of this year’s Decatur Book Festival. I’d love to hear the author talk about this book. The event is free, but it requires a ticket. If you waited, like me, to get your tickets, I’m sorry to say that there are no more available. Come on down anyway and join me on the sidewalk outside looking for kind souls with extras.
Books, Fiction, Review | Tim | August 30, 2010 8:09 am | Comments (1)
Last night the Georgia Center for the Book unveiled its inaugural selection of the top 25 books all young Georgians should read. You may recall that in May, they announced the fourth list of 25 books all Georgians should read. Says The Center:
The list, selected by the writers, educators, librarians, and media representatives who comprise the Center’s advisory council, represents the first time a compilation of some of the best of children’s literature by Georgia writers and artists has been made available. Many of the authors and illustrators on the list will participate in free public readings throughout Georgia libraries and schools over the next two years.
The Young Georgians List, includes the following honorees:
From Georgia Center for the BookPicture Books (Pre K+)
Early Readers (grades K – 3)
Graphic Novel (grades 4+)
Middle Readers (grades 4-8)
Young Adults (grades 7+)
Awards, Books | Tim | August 27, 2010 8:00 am | Comments (3)
The kids’ book that’s not for children, All My Friends Are Dead, share a few more pages:
If you missed the first batch of pages, check ‘em out here.
Awesome, Books | Tim | August 26, 2010 8:26 am | Comments (0)
Friend of the blog and lover of a nice pale ale, Ben Tanzer, has a new e-book out called 99 Problems: Essays about running and writing. He’s using the Radiohead sales approach – pay what you want. Check it out.
This just in: Dr. Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Novel Peace Prize for his work extending microcredit to women in developing countries, will present a lecture at Agnes Scott College next week in association with the Decatur Book Festival. The details:
The book so nice, they reviewed it twice: Michiko Kakutani likes the new Franzen – more or less – as does Sam Tanenhaus. And only two weeks before it comes out.
The Guardian has a clip from the Swedish screen adaptation of The Girl Who Played with Fire. It looks like the staff of Millennium will actually get some screen time this time around.
And speaking of…Rooney Mara has been cast as Lisbeth Salander in the upcoming Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
It’s a little late, but if you haven’t read Christopher Hitchens’s piece in Vanity Fair about being diagnosed with esophageal cancer – read it now.
After last week’s link to the worst use of technology – EVER, it was fun to read McSweeney’s Our Daughter Isn’t a Selfish Brat; Your Son Just Hasn’t Read Atlas Shrugged.
First it was “fart jokes may be the answer to getting boys to read”, then it was “comic books are the answer to getting boys to read” – ergo, a comic book called “Fart Party” seems like a slam dunk. Help save Fart Party! For the kids…
This may be the most excited anyone has ever been about Ray Bradbury (via Bokhora). Please let the title of the song be your guide to whether you should watch this one at work:
Books | Tim | August 20, 2010 8:41 am | Comments (1)
I just stumbled across this trailer for the new movie Howl starring James Franco as Allen Ginsberg. Wow. And Don Draper is his attorney! Is there anything that guy can’t do?
Books, On Screen | Tim | August 19, 2010 11:27 am | Comments (2)
On the heels of Dr J’s excellent post delving into the DeLillo archives to research “Pafko at the Wall” and the two big baseball news stories yesterday (the death of Bobby Thomson and the new medical paper that suggests that Lou Gehrig may not have died of the disease that bears his name), it seems appropriate that I finally get around to posting about one of the best baseball books I’ve read: The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant.
If you’re not from Atlanta or Milwaukee, maybe you haven’t thought of Hank Aaron in awhile. Here in Atlanta though, Henry Aaron is difficult to miss. Hank Aaron Drive is a walking distance from my house. A visit to Turner Field yields virtually unlimited references to number 44. Hank Aaron owns several car dealerships in town (I once bought a car from Hank! Well, not Hank exactly…). Hank Aaron also remains active in our city and in baseball, often serving as a spokesman for both. It’s clear that the man long-ago reached hero status in this town.
Bryant’s previous book, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston
The book begins before the beginning, in 1884, with the birth of the first Henry, Aaron’s grandfather in the rural post-slavery south in a geographically isolated corner of lower Alabama called Gee’s Bend. Henry’s father Herbert left Gee’s Bend for the relative prosperity of Mobile, Alabama. Bryant describes what racial segregation was like for the young Henry Aaron. It was a time when a boy going to the grocery store would watch as white people would cut in front of his father at the checkout store line and societal norms dictated that Herbert would have to endure the public insult in silence. Bryant points to these daily humiliations of segregation as formative in the psyche of Henry Aaron and the man that he would become.
Henry is soon discovered by a scout while in high school playing for a local team made up mostly of adults. Major League Baseball was newly integrated at this time, but he was signed by the Indianapolis Clowns, a Negro League team. Aaron would be the last Major Leaguer to begin his career in the soon to be defunct Negro League. His stay in the Negro Leagues was short-lived. He moved on to the minor leagues, playing first in the South Atlantic League, and eventually making it to the big club, the expansion team Milwaukee Braves. While his rise through the ranks was in some ways meteoric, Bryant points out the indignities that Aaron endured at each step.
In the South Atlantic League, which Aaron integrated, he was greeted in many cities with the worst kind of racial epithets. Of course, he was also unable to lodge with his team mates in the integrated south. Even after escaping the South Atlantic League for the big club in Milwaukee, racism was persistent. During spring training Henry Aaron and the other black Braves players were not allowed to lodge at the beach side resort where the white players stayed with their families, staying instead at a lodging house in the black part of town. The black players were assigned lockers together that were separate from the white players and were expected to shower separately. Despite being a star player for the Milwaukee Braves, Aaron was expected to live within the boundaries of the tightly controlled black part of town in his early years.
Despite these injustices, Aaron was expected by the media to have a “just glad to be here” attitude. Media reports of the day would describe the young Aaron as quiet, aloof, and bitter. Charges that would stick to him throughout his career. Aaron had never finished high school and had a southern accent, so he was often portrayed as a simpleton. The legendary AJC sportswriter Furman Bisher penned a high-profile magazine piece on Aaron that quoted the slugger in phonetic “dialect” that would go a long way in cementing this view of Aaron. The press also routinely compared him to the much flashier and media-savvy Willie Mays, usually to Aaron’s detriment. In the face of this public criticism, Aaron became determined to let his playing do the talking and to be among the best that ever played the game.
As an Atlanta Braves fan, I found it interesting that Aaron wanted no part of the team’s move from Milwaukee to Atlanta. He feared that he would be forced to backtrack on the relative racial equality that he had scratched out for his family in Milwaukee. It was also an interesting side note that Atlanta’s progressive civic boosters desperately wanted Hank Aaron and the Braves to serve as a center piece of their “City to busy to hate” marketing campaign.
The historic chase of Babe Ruth’s record and the racially-charged death threats that Aaron received is well documented, but it underscores the difficulty Aaron would always have in simply being allowed to enjoy the game. When Aaron ultimately retired, he found that the expected jobs in the front office or managing within the ranks of the organization were not forthcoming. His reputation as being embittered would once again stand in his way. Interestingly, it would be Bud Selig, a long-time friend from the Milwaukee days, who would be instrumental in finally reconciling Aaron with Major League Baseball. It’s only relatively recently, Bryant notes, that Henry Aaron has found peace with himself and with the game.
If my enthusiasm for this book has not been self-evident so far, let me be clear: this is an incredible book. It is guaranteed to appeal to any fan of the Braves in particular or baseball history in general. Henry Aaron’s life-long struggle with institutional racism and a game that never really let him just be himself is an epic story of heroism. The Last Hero does that story incredible justice and deserves a wide audience. It should be mandatory reading in Atlanta public schools. But you should check it out, too.
Books, Non-Fiction, Review | Tim | August 18, 2010 11:10 am | Comments (7)
The “Great Typo Hunt”: two men cross the nation armed only with a Sharpie (well, and some other stuff) and the will to correct egregious public spelling and grammar mistakes
This one might have been beyond the corrective scope of a Sharpie.
“Next stop, Dostoevsky.” This new Moscow subway station makes me want to hop the next plane to Russia.
25 literary pick-up lines that are guaranteed to get you nowhere.
With a new novel coming at the end of the month, Jonathan Franzen is going to be everywhere (except maybe on Oprah). So far he’ son the cover of Time and in Vogue.
Check out the poster for the zombie movie version of Eat Pray Love.
I was really put off by a recent Huffington Post piece that listed “the most overrated contemporary writers”. So annoyed that I’m not going to link to it directly (take that!). Check out this reaction piece instead. Many are not household names, which sort of begs the “overrated” question. I’ve also seen reactions that question the inclusion of disproportionate representation of groups on the list (e.g., too many women, gays, poets). And what is Michiko doing on the list?
Like reading novels that are ostensibly for Young Adults? You’re not alone.
Author Diane Meier argues against the “chicklit” label.
Worst use of technology – EVER. This guy used a GPS and drove over 12,000 miles in 30 states to spell out this message, visible only on Google Earth.
Books | Tim | August 13, 2010 9:49 am | Comments (2)
A Confederacy of Dunces is one of my favorite books of all time. Full stop. When I heard that Tom Key, Executive Artistic Director of Atlanta’s Theatrical Outfit, had written a stage adaptation of the book, I was beside myself with anticipation. A few years ago I wrote about Mr. Key: ”If you’re not from Atlanta, there is a simple way to tell if a play here is going to be any good – check to see if Tom Key has anything to do with it. If so, your odds are pretty good.” That assessment still stands. Tom Key is a pillar of the Atlanta arts community, and I couldn’t be happier that he agreed to field a few questions from the likes of us.
Baby Got Books interview with Tom Key, author of the Theatrical Outfit’s stage adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunces
Baby Got Books: Can you tell how us how the idea to adapt A Confederacy Of Dunces came about?
Tom Key: When I first read it in the early 80s I knew it would make a great stage adaptation because the character of Ignatius is as profound a creation as Shakespeare’s Falstaff, and the dialogue tells the story for a stage audience as effectively and with as much hilarity as the most classic Theater farces.
BGB: How did your team go about adapting the novel into something that would work on the stage?
TK: I was able to attain the rights to adapt the novel and to produce it this fall here in Atlanta at Theatrical Outfit. The next step was to hire the right director, design team for set, lights, costumes, sound and props, and then, to cast the right company of actors. I chose Richard Garner, Artistic Director of Georgia Shakespeare Festival, because Toole’s novel is as complex as Shakespeare, and I knew Richard could take that kind of an epic script and create Theatrical combustion. We had a series of production meetings discussing the design elements, particularly the set, designed by Sarah Ward who is from New Orleans, and how it all had to evoke 1964 New Orleans while at the same time allowing the actors to go from scene to scene in an instant. Casting was done in about two days auditioning close to 70 actors. We knew we had assembled a comic “Who’s Who” of Atlanta, and we also knew that Aaron Munoz, a classically trained actor and Improv comedian, is perfect, and I mean, perfect for the role of Ignatius J. Reilly. Once casting was completed everyone’s energy went up a notch because there’s a lot of confidence and excitement created when you know who exactly is going to be incarnating these incredibly funny and insane characters, and know they are going to be doing it so well. After I heard the actors read the script the first time, and with the help of our Dramaturge, Michael Evenden of Emory, I completed another draft of the script. Then after I saw it all the way through with all the staging completed I did another draft and now we’re literally in technical rehearsals putting all the elements together for our opening next week.
BGB: New Orleans accents are unique and have been notoriously botched on screen. How will your adaption tackle this problem?
TK: It was very important to us to get the authenticity of those dialects. So, we hired a dialect coach, Kathleen McManus, from New Orleans, and to our great advantage, she has also been cast in the role of Mrs. Reilly. All of our actors are incredibly gifted at dialect and it certainly adds to the fun. Toole wrote a lot of the dialect in the novel and I adhered to that as I extracted his dialogue for the script. With some characters there are clues by their names whether or not they might have, for example, an Italian (Battaglia) or Spanish (Gonzales) influence in their speech and our actors have certainly taken that and run with it.
BGB: Various attempts to adapt A Confederacy of Dunces to the screen have failed. However, there have been a few well received adaptations for the stage. Is there something about the novel that lends itself better to the stage than the screen?
TK: I don’t believe one medium is superior to the other, but I do think there are certain advantages and limitations that both have, and in the case of A Confederacy of Dunces, I think the Theatre has two advantages. One is some readers have found Ignatius so offensive that they can’t finish or really get the book. So, I think meeting him in person onstage gives someone the maximum advantage to not just encounter this bombastic personality but to begin to understand him, empathize with him and eventually root for him. In our day to day life, we have a much better chance of understanding someone different than ourselves if we can be with that person face to face, and I think this is an advantage for grasping such an iconic kind of literary character as Ignatius. Second is that the Theatre tells the story in language whereas the dominant story telling element in Film is image. A film version I’m sure would be hilarious and can, unlike the Theatre, show the audience a real setting. But a screenplay simply could not contain as much of this rich dialogue and narration as a Theatre version. Obviously adapting a 400 page novel I have to leave out a lot! But, a screenwriter on this story would really have to delete much more of Toole’s writing for a movie. I imagine it could be tempting to settle for the visual comedy inherent in this story for the film, but I think it would be a real mistake if the audience just laughed at Ignatius as a sight gag. To me, what is crucial in dramatizing this story, is to make sure the audience comes to care, and to care deeply what happens to him. Whether he is ultimately received with violence or with compassion is, on one level, the larger drama of the human condition.
BGB: Several of the other characters are about as politically incorrect as they could possibly be. Do you have any worries about portraying, say, Burma Jones, in a city with a history of racial discord?
TK: No, on the contrary, because Toole has created such complete characterizations, I think one of the virtues of sharing this story in a group experience will be that it will help to build bridges of understanding through laughter. What’s offensive is when a character is presented to an audience as a stereotype, a reduction or a one note representation of a category. That’s an insult. It honors our diversity for an author as observant as Toole to render our humanity with the complexity it deserves. In my experience, I have seen political correctness segregate us out of fear into fractions rather than to unite us in community. Common courtesy is what is needed in all successful relations. It’s interesting to me that the people in this story who are fundamentally courteous of Ignatius, or at least tolerant, end up well, whereas those who try and negate him, attack him or in someway get rid of him do not fare well.
BGB: What can you tell us about the cast you have lined up?
TK: I will just say that I am a firm believer in the Theatre wisdom, “There’s no such things as small parts, only small actors”. I’m very proud of the fact over the years that Theatrical Outfit has developed a reputation for hiring excellent actors in all roles. We are a professional theater company associated with the union Actors’ Equity Association. If every single cast person is strong than the production will add up to being greater than the sum total of its parts, and I can assure you that is certainly happening with this production. After I saw the first run through I was exhausted that night from all the laughing I had done. Their dialect work, their skill with physical comedy, their skill for characterization, their capacity to work as an ensemble and, in some cases, their ability to portray a dazzling variety of characters within this one play, are talents on a world class level. I couldn’t be prouder of the talent pool here in Atlanta.
Be sure to check out the short clip about the play at the Theatrical Outfit’s web page.
August 11 – September 5, 2010
Wednesday – Saturday at 7:30 pm
Sundays at 2:30 pm
Saturday Matinee on August 21 at 2:30 pm
Awesome, Books, Happenings, Interviews | Tim | August 11, 2010 10:35 am | Comments (2)
Check this out: New York magazine has a full feature on the rise of indie bookstores (in New York). Click around. There are several interesting stories in there.
Have you forgotten about the Fake AP Stylebook? Me, too. I had to go back and start catching up with it all over again. It’s still hilarious. This recent tweet in particular cracked me up. And this one.
This just in: Fate of newly discovered Franz Kafka manuscripts are caught up in a Kafka-esque “nightmare”. Tune in next week when we discuss unpublished works of Joseph Heller caught in a Catch-22.
This just in: Apparently fart joke books are NOT the key to getting boys to read, as was erroneously reported everywhere last week (just in time for the release of a book with fart jokes.) A rigorous scientific study has found that comics are the key to getting boys to read. (Just in time for ComicCon says the story.) Stay tuned next week when it will be revealed that cartoon characters on cereal boxes are the key to getting boys to read. (Just in time for the triumphant return of Fruit Brute.) As a long time boy reader, I’m beginning to take umbrage with this whole line of inquiry.
Lifehacker names the top 5 book recommendation services.
Dave & Valentino’s school open for business in Southern Sudan.
Check out this handy graphic that explains what author/idea guy Clay Shirkey means when he talks about the internet tapping into the “cognitive surplus”.
The movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood comes out in December. In Japan. I’m not sure how that helps us. But Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead is doing the score.
Books | Tim | August 6, 2010 9:21 am | Comments (2)
My 6 year old daughter has a morbid fascination with death and dead stuff. Thankfully All My Friends Are Dead, a new picture book by Avery Monson and Jory John, is for adults or I’m afraid that we’d have to start working through the “why” and “how come” of all 96-pages of gallows humor.
Awesome, Books | Tim | August 4, 2010 7:17 pm | Comments (5)
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the “agency model” e-book pricing system is under anti-trust scrutiny by the State of Connecticut:
“These agreements among publishers, Amazon and Apple appear to have already resulted in uniform prices for many of the most popular e-books—potentially depriving consumers of competitive prices…
Check out the interesting “History of e-book pricing” sidebar.
Meanwhile, reports of “Kindle prejudice” have begun to turn up. Clearly these reports are being filed by people who have never experienced actual prejudice.
Books | Tim | August 3, 2010 11:04 pm | Comments (0)
Last weekend, I was able to spend 24 hours in beautiful Asheville, NC. Asheville is a beautiful mountain town with lots to offer, but I was most excited about making my first trip to Malaprops Bookstore. It’s a terrific independent bookstore with a great vibe — a southern-mountain-hippie thing–good coffee, and a great selection. It’s a great place to spend some time browsing and hanging out. While wandering the aisles, we were commenting on what an odd, self-effacing name Malaprops is for a bookstore. I was familiar with the word “malaprop”, but I didn’t know the origin of the word until now.
In other bookish news, the beautiful Grove Park Inn sells a Great Gatsby Abbey ale. To the best of my knowledge, Gatsby didn’t make it down to the Blue Ridge. But he was a mysterious fellow. Great Gatsby Abbey is brewed by Asheville’s Highland Brewing Company, but it appears to be served only at the Inn.
I drove past another interesting bookstore several times - The Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar. Once there was even a woman out front playing the cello. Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to stick my head in. Next time.
Books | Tim | 8:02 am | Comments (5)
Some friends that know well my love for Chabon’s Kavalier and Clay sent me this sweet post card of the Golem of Prague.
I may have officially become a cynic. An AP story was all over the lit blogosphere this week. The gist: “OMG yall! Boys don’t read. Like, EVER. The only way to arrest their retardation is to buy them books with fart jokes. Do it now, yall! For the kids.” (I’m paraphrasing. ) The article quotes the author of the book Sweet Farts. Good thing that there just happens to be a brand new sequel coming out next week: Sweet Farts: Rippin’ it Old School. Someone’s publicity flack needs a raise.
Amazon ups the ante with an $139 Kindle. Jeff Bezos says, “At $139, we expect many people will buy multiple Kindles for the home and family.” Really? I guess you could just fan them out on the coffee table or something. Give ‘em out as party favors. That sort of thing.
Be friends with all of your favorite publishers: The Best Publisher Pages on Facebook
Paste’s Charles McNair on Bret Easton Ellis’s Imperial Bedrooms: “I submit that any reader who finishes this novel and is able to use that word for it—“entertaining”—might honestly want to take a hard look in the mirror and question the condition of his soul.” Ouch.
Famous “Man Rooms”, including Hemingway’s study, Thoreau’s cabin, and Twain’s writing hut. Got to get e one of those.
An interesting comparison between Huxley’s Brave New World and Orwell’s 1984 – in comics form
And this is hilarious if you haven’t seen it yet:
Books | Tim | July 30, 2010 8:40 am | Comments (1)
The longlist for the 2010 Booker Prize was announced today. Behold:
Of the 13 titles nominated, just over half are not available in the US (*). I’ve only read one title so far, an ARC of Skippy Dies . I know that The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and Parrot and Olivier in America will appear soon in my “to be read” stack. Anyone else read any of these yet?
Awards, Books | Tim | July 27, 2010 1:22 pm | Comments (1)
I’m reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn DailyLit’s Big Summer Read — one e-mail at a time. In the 63rd installment, the Duke performs Hamlet’s soliloquy:
…I went to talking about other kings, and let Solomon slide. I told about Louis Sixteenth that got his head cut off in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that would a been a king, but they took and shut him up in jail, and some say he died there.
“Po’ little chap.”
“But some says he got out and got away, and come to America.”
“Dat’s good! But he’ll be pooty lonesome–dey ain’ no kings here, is dey, Huck?”
“No.”
“Den he cain’t git no situation. What he gwyne to do?”
“Well, I don’t know. Some of them gets on the police, and some of them learns people how to talk French.”
“Why, Huck, doan’ de French people talk de same way we does?”
“NO, Jim; you couldn’t understand a word they said–not a single word.”
“Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?”
“I don’t know; but it’s so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. S’pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy–what would you think?”
“I wouldn’ think nuff’n; I’d take en bust him over de head–dat is, if he warn’t white. I wouldn’t ‘low no nigger to call me dat.”
“Shucks, it ain’t calling you anything. It’s only saying, do you know how to talk French?”
“Well, den, why couldn’t he SAY it?”
“Why, he IS a-saying it. That’s a Frenchman’s WAY of saying it.”
“Well, it’s a blame ridicklous way, en I doan’ want to hear no mo’ ’bout it. Dey ain’ no sense in it.”
“Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?”
“No, a cat don’t.”
“Well, does a cow?”
“No, a cow don’t, nuther.”
“Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?”
“No, dey don’t.”
“It’s natural and right for ‘em to talk different from each other, ain’t it?”
“Course.”
“And ain’t it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from US?”
“Why, mos’ sholy it is.”
“Well, then, why ain’t it natural and right for a FRENCHMAN to talk different from us? You answer me that.”
“Is a cat a man, Huck?”
“No.”
“Well, den, dey ain’t no sense in a cat talkin’ like a man. Is a cow a man?–er is a cow a cat?”
“No, she ain’t either of them.”
“Well, den, she ain’t got no business to talk like either one er the yuther of ‘em. Is a Frenchman a man?”
“Yes.”
“WELL, den! Dad blame it, why doan’ he TALK like a man? You answer me DAT!”
Books | Tim | July 20, 2010 8:43 am | Comments (0)
Submit your writing samples to I Write Like to find out what famous authors’ styles yours most resembles. I’ve cut and pasted a half dozen blog posts and apparently I vacillate between Chuck Palahniuk, David Foster Wallace, and P.G. Wodehouse depending upon my mood apparently.
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
Colons: Their use is on the rise.
It was only a matter of time: Montessori Grad School.
The ultimate baseball book is 75 pounds and $3000. Better put it on your Amazon wish list.
Wonder Woman responds to the Fox News suggestion that trading in her star-spangled panties for pants is somehow unpatriotic.
Sony is the first to break the sub-$100 e-reader barrier, if only briefly.
Have a suggestion for the publishing industry? The Twitter hashtag #dearpublisher is the place to be heard.
The Old Spice Guy says a few words in support of libraries.
A new web site Writer’s Houses aims to be your one stop shop for everything you need to know about visiting the home’s of famous writers.
This trailer for Gary Shteyngart’s new book divides readers into two groups – those that say that they are going to run out and buy the book immediately and liars.
Books | Tim | July 16, 2010 8:20 am | Comments (1)
I first heard of cartoonist Guy Delisle from what I remember as rave reviews of his previous book Pyongyang. I had every intention of picking that one up while visiting the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore, but it got put back on the shelf when I approached the register with more books than I could reasonably carry back home on an airplane. I forgot about it until I came across DeLisle’s latest, Burma Chronicles, which is what I ended up reading instead. These kind of well-planned book acquisitions happen to me all the time. Luckily, Burma Chronicles is every bit as good as I remember reading that Pyongyang was. If memory serves.
Delisle is an interesting guy. He’s a professional cartoonist, which is interesting in of itself (to me). His wife works for Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders). Also an interesting gig. When his wife is assigned to a new post in Asia, Delislse joins her as a stay at home dad for with their infant son. In Burma Chronicles, Delisle has assembled a travelogue of an everyman’s daily life in the surreal and unique world of Burma.
Burma is officially known as Myanmar, but the U.S. and other countries refuse to acknowledge the name change since they don’t officially recognize the legitimacy of the government that changed the name. Devout Buddhists and monks, military police, a diverse foreign community, and the “world’s most famous political prisoner” are within a short walk with a stroller of Delisle’s temporary home in Rangoon, which was the capital of Burma until the government inexplicably decided to suddenly move all government operations out of the city to a new capital.
Delisle’s drawing style is deceptive. It appears simple, yet somehow entirely conveys a sense of place and culture that always serves the story being told. It shows remarkable restraint. Similarly, the stories conveyed are often simple one or two page vignettes of various scenes encountered over his stay in Burma. However, they manage to convey a rich picture of a difficult to understand country when taken together as a whole. I learned quite a bit about a country I knew very little about. Burma Chronicles is an entertaining read and worth your time. Like Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Burma Chonicles is a perfect “gateway comic” for people who don’t read comics.
Books, Comix, Review | Tim | July 15, 2010 8:50 am | Comments (2)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is DailyLit’s Summer Big Read. Since I have a son named Finn, it seemed an opportune time to re-read the classic. In 135 easy installments. Via e-mail. This is not my preferred reading style. Anyway…I’m still re-reading (only 30 e-mails in), but there was a passage that really grabbed me (from Section 13) that I felt the need to share.
Huck’s pap, a model father as you may remember, takes a dim view of the government for trespassing all over on his liberties. A few notes before treading the quote below: the property/money that Pap is referring to as “his” is actually Huck’s (proceeds from the gold Tom and Huck found in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) and my, that Pap sure was liberal with the N word. The asterisks are mine and not Pap’s.
I got the things all up to the cabin, and then it was about dark. While I was cooking supper the old man took a swig or two and got sort of warmed up, and went to ripping again. He had been drunk over in town, and laid in the gutter all night, and he was a sight to look at. A body would a thought he was Adam–he was just all mud. Whenever his liquor begun to work he most always went for the govment, this time he says:
“Call this a govment! why, just look at it and see what it’s like. Here’s the law a-standing ready to take a man’s son away from him–a man’s own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety and all the expense of raising. Yes, just as that man has got that son raised at last, and ready to go to work and begin to do suthin’ for HIM and give him a rest, the law up and goes for him. And they call THAT govment! That ain’t all, nuther. The law backs that old Judge Thatcher up and helps him to keep me out o’ my property. Here’s what the law does: The law takes a man worth six thousand dollars and up’ards, and jams him into an old trap of a cabin like this, and lets him go round in clothes that ain’t fitten for a hog. They call that govment! A man can’t get his rights in a govment like this. Sometimes I’ve a mighty notion to just leave the country for good and all. Yes, and I TOLD ‘em so; I told old Thatcher so to his face.
Lots of ‘em heard me, and can tell what I said. Says I, for two cents I’d leave the blamed country and never come a-near it agin. Them’s the very words. I says look at my hat–if you call it a hat–but the lid raises up and the rest of it goes down till it’s below my chin, and then it ain’t rightly a hat at all, but more like my head was shoved up through a jint o’ stove-pipe. Look at it, says I –such a hat for me to wear–one of the wealthiest men in this town if I could git my rights.
“Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free n***** there from Ohio–a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain’t a man in that town that’s got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane–the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? They said he was a p’fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain’t the wust. They said he could VOTE when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was ‘lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn’t too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they’d let that n***** vote, I drawed out. I says I’ll never vote agin.
Them’s the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all me –I’ll never vote agin as long as I live. And to see the cool way of that n*****–why, he wouldn’t a give me the road if I hadn’t shoved him out o’ the way. I says to the people, why ain’t this n***** put up at auction and sold?–that’s what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn’t be sold till he’d been in the State six months, and he hadn’t been there that long yet. There, now–that’s a specimen. They call that a govment that can’t sell a free n***** till he’s been in the State six months. Here’s a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet’s got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free n*****, and–”
And then Pap falls over the tub of salt pork. Which was probably the government’s fault, too.
Books | Tim | July 13, 2010 8:30 am | Comments (1)
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