Not long ago, a galley of Craig Davidson’s forthcoming novel Cataract City showed up at my door. I haven’t yet read it, but a quick glance at the back cover motivated me to send a quick email to a friend indicating that it might be up his alley. That certainly had something to do with the book’s plot, which involved grit and corruption in a Canadian town, but it also had more than a little to do with the blurb on […]
Catching up with Gary Shteyngart, what Dostoevsky can tell us about social media, Noah Cicero’s latest, an interview with Joanna Walsh, and more.
This afternoon: read Adrian Van Young’s story from Gigantic Worlds, listen to new music from Zachary Lipez’s new band, check out an interview with Gary Shteyngart, hear Ed Champion and Sarah Churchwell talk Fitzgerald, and more.
News of a new Lou Reed biography, Carrie Brownstein discusses her memoir, searching for Stephen Malkmus’s ice cream, listening to Chang-rae Lee’s playlist, and more.
In this morning’s reading: the Times reviewed Gary Shteyngart’s memoir; Tao Lin looks at literary 2014; Steve Gunn shares what he’s been listening to; Patricia Lockwood talks with The Rumpus; and more.
I may have lost track of the number of book groups I’m in at this point. Four? Five? I run one, and am now in the semi-regular position of putting together the reading list for early 2014. (One prediction: the expanded edition of Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love will make an appearance.) It’s something I value a lot — getting to talk about books with smart people is never not time well spent, and in a lot of cases, I’ve […]
Etgar Keret and Gary Shteyngart love each other.
On the first episode of All Things Considered of the new year in 2001, there was a story on the many children of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins coming together and meeting for the first time. When I say many, I don’t mean Catholic or Hasidic many, I mean 57. The man who crooned “I put a Spell on You” and “Constipation Blues” had 57 children living in various places, and they all came together for this reunion of sorts. I thought about that […]