Columns, Poetry in Motion

Poetry in Motion: The Day Phil Parma Died

No Comments

I sometimes picture the peak of Northeast winters, from the season’s first snowfall until about late February, as a hearth beside which friends and family inevitably nest.  You’d think you’d see less of these people in cruel weather, but I find it to be the opposite: we come together to huddle for warmth and get a bit fatter in dark and stormy conditions. Unlike me, the season’s cold rain caused Flaubert’s heart to “crumble into ruins”. But Flaubert seems to […]

Continue Reading

Indexing

Indexing: Jet-lag literature, Nabokov, The Believer, Edith Wharton, and more

No Comments

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 […]

Continue Reading

Bites

Bites: New American Stories, New Nabokov is “Not a Novel”, Literary Journals as News Sources, Air Waves at Daytrotter, and More

No Comments

Maud Newton talked about it in early November, but this recently posted review on Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigration (Library of America), had a quote I liked. Gary Shteyngart falls in love with cereal for the “unprecedented miracle” of toy prizes: “It tastes the way America feels. . . . . Something for nothing.” Lit. “The first thing you need to know about this new Nabokov thing is that it is not a novel.” — Ward Six. “In an ongoing effort to […]

Continue Reading

Bites

Bites: Henry Miller in LA, Bolaño was a Reader, Frost Sent Christmas Cards, Art Basel is on, Idiots, and More

1 Comment

When I think of Henry Miller, Paris, Brooklyn, and Big Sur come to mind, not Los Angeles.  The Rumpus changes that. You are probably going to like this Justin Taylor guy. Roberto Bolaño read an awful lot. Serbian experimental writer Milorad Pavić has passed away. Jonathan Lethem calls Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood “a supreme literary stunt” at The Millions. At HTML Giant, Jimmy Chen says of Nabokov’s The Original of Laura, “doesn’t do much except make a publishing event […]

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Bites: Ayn Rand Dominates and is “Influential”, Paris Review Conversation, Finding Edward Gorey, and More.

No Comments

This terrifying picture is from the GQ piece on Ayn Rand called “The Bitch is Back“. If you like Ayn Rand, enjoy reading about “2009’s most influential author”.  Otherwise, if you are like me, continue shielding your eyes. Lit. L Magazine wonders who will take the helm at the Paris Review with Philip Gourevitch leaving? One of the names tossed around in the comments of the L Mag. conversation for a possible new Paris Review editor is Geoff Dyer.  Oh, […]

Continue Reading

Bites, Uncategorized

Bites: Get Crazy About Nabokov, Zadie Smith, Tao Lin’s Stuff, John Irving is Worried, New Magnetic Fields, The Beets at a Museum, and More.

4 Comments

Let’s go crazy about Nabokov! On the Media talks to Ron Rosenbaum of Slate about his conflicted feelings over the publication of The Original of Laura. Aleksandar Hemon is sorta against Laura seeing the light of day. Nabokov specimen covers. Lit. Village Voice on Zadie Smith’s collection of essays, Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays. Tao Lin will sell you a bunch of his stuff for a really good price. John Irving is worried about me?  I was worried about John […]

Continue Reading