Over at More Intelligent Life, you’ll find my reflections on the Joseph Mitchell centenary. Mitchell is, for my money, the greatest reporter-stylist of his era; the essay points to a few reasons why. In related news, The New York Times today reports on a blog version of the diaries of that other great reporter-stylist, George Orwell.
Appearing Elsewhere
The Collected Blurbs of Zadie Smith
A small but satisfyingly eclectic batch of blurbs from the pen of Zadie Smith. Prior to today, I don't think I'd ever seen the phrase "the mutt's nuts" printed on the back of a book.On Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - "This is an excellent comic book, that deserves a place with Joe Sacco and even Art Spiegelman. In her bold black and white panels, Satrapi eloquently reasserts the moral bankruptcy of all political dogma and religious conformity; how it bullies, how it murders, and how it may always be ridiculed by individual rebellions of the spirit and the intellect"On Love, Sex & Tragedy: How the Ancient World Shapes Our Lives by Simon Goldhill - "It's great, and great fun... a sparkling, erudite and amusing remedy for our collective historical amnesia"On Dogwalker by Arthur Bradford - "Arthur Bradford's stories are quite simply the mutt's nuts: One of the funniest, smartest, tallest writers working in America today."On The Pharmacist's Mate by Amy Fusselman "Ms. Fusselman's book, brief as it is, affected me deeply. Not only that, the talent displayed therein was somewhat unnerving."On Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer - "The kind of brilliance for narrative that should make her peers envious and her readers very, very grateful."See Also: The Collected Blurbs of Jonathan Safran Foer, The Collected Blurbs of David Mitchell
Oprah announces latest pick; the living rejoice
When I started a book blog two and half years ago, I had no idea I would be paying such close attention to the activities of Oprah Winfrey, but here I am, again. The truth is, when I worked at a book store a few years ago (and not a very Oprah-friendly one, mind you) her influence on book sales and mainstream book culture in America was evident on a daily basis. With a few reservations, I applauded Oprah's decision to highlight "classic" novels, because it put these essential books into the hands of readers who might not otherwise be drawn to them. Now it appears as though this phase of Oprah's club has ended, and her gaze (which can bestow millions upon an unsuspecting author) has fallen once again upon the living. She says that she was "moved" by a letter signed by various living authors asking her to consider contemporary books once again, but perhaps, with the Summer of Faulkner, the "classics" experiment had simply run its course.Even if it hadn't been preceded by the Faulkner books, the current selection, James Frey's addiction memoir A Million Little Pieces would be a disappointment. While entertaining (I'm told), it's the switch to non-fiction, and more importantly, confessional memoir, that bothers me. Oprah's entire show is a confessional memoir. Her guests are invited on the show to pour out their souls so that viewers can cry along with them, and Oprah joins in. While previous picks, classic or otherwise, take us out of Oprah's world and into a narrative created by the author, books like A Million Little Pieces are indistinguishable from the content of her show, all of which makes this choice seem incredibly self-serving. Perhaps she'll get everyone to read a self-help book next.Several other bloggers have already weighed in: Scott, Annie, Authorstore
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Books of the Boom
I caught a few minutes of Fresh Air on NPR while I was out running a quick errand today. Terri Gross was interviewing David Denby, the New Yorker film critic who has a new book out. The book is called American Sucker and it is a memoir of the boom years. In 2000 Denby and his wife split, and he decided that he wanted to keep the Upper West Side apartment that had been their home for many years. In order to do this, Denby hatched a plan to buy out his wife's share of the apartment. Lacking the funds to make the apartment his and cast adrift by the collapse of his marriage, Denby threw himself wholeheartedly into the mania of the stock market boom with the hopes that he, like so many others seemed to be doing, could hit it big. It would be the solution to all of his problems. A sort of addiction to his quest set in and American Sucker was the result. Today, Terri Gross, in her way, was trying to get him to relate his experience to some classic gambling films, Denby being a film critic and all. Denby, however, begged off and mentioned two interesting books that he feels are most analogous to the way he felt during his ordeal. Dostoevsky's The Gambler and a somewhat forgotten Victorian classic by Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now, to Denby's mind, best portray a sense of monetary desperation in the midst of a boom. I'm hoping that over the next few years there will be more books that look at the boom of the late nineties through a literary lens. It was a strange and fascinating time. Denby's colleague at the New Yorker, James Surowiecki has penned a less personal book about business and money called The Wisdom of Crowds which is slated to come out at the end of May. A quick look reveals that Surowiecki has put together a readable tome meant to illustrate a principle that many economists hold dear: the idea that decisions can be made, problems can be solved, and the future can be predicted by the market. Imagine the Nasdaq but replace companies with possible outcomes. At the end of the day the outcome that is trading at the highest level is probably the correct answer to whatever problem was trying to be solved. Using markets you can, as Surowiecki terms it, unlock the "wisdom of crowds." Last summer there was much public outcry when it was announced that one of our government agencies was considering setting a market that was meant to predict future terrorist attacks. The idea of people profiting off of this sort of speculation was abhorrent to many people and the plans were shelved, but, in The Wisdom of Crowds, Surowiecki will likely argue that the plan would have worked.
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Appearing Elsewhere
Los Angeles-based readers are invited to attend Rhapsodomancy on Sunday night, a reading series at the Good Luck Bar in Los Feliz. I will be reading, along with poets Jericho Brown and Ching-In Chen, and comic book and prose writer Sina Grace.Here are the other details:Sunday, April 19, 2009Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pmThe Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 9002721 and over only $3 suggested donation at doorThere will be a cash barYou can RSVP at [email protected] (not required, but appreciated). I hope to see you there!
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Live from Chicago Part 1
Hello! I'm back, this time reporting from Chicago, IL. Without further ado, I'll move on to what I have been reading lately. The first book I picked up since my last post was Asne Seierstad's A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal. I was longing for some non-fiction and Seierstad's memoirs of her visit to Baghdad three years ago seemed like a good choice (I have been meaning to read it for the past two years). Seierstad is a Norwegian freelance journalist that covered the wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan prior to her trip to Baghdad. She arrived in Baghdad roughly 80 days before the war started and began reporting. Seierstad organizes her book in three parts: Before, During, and After. In these simply, yet carefully, organized sections Seierstad conveys her observations of the Iraqi society under Saddam Hussein, during the initial stages of the war, and after the capture of Baghdad. Seierstad has a very personable voice that almost embeds the reader alongside her. She provides good eyes and ears in a society that, under Saddam, became introverted and isolated. One learns about the difficulties of finding out about the regime, the spy network, the reluctance of locals to talk with foreigners, and how Iraqis perceived the brewing US attack on their country.Throughout the whole affair Seierstad also shows the bureaucratic network in Iraq, explains how she had to bribe officials to remain in, and once to re-enter, the country, and draws a unique portrait of Uday, Saddam's most feared son. Seierstad also communicates to the reader the difficulties endured by average Iraqis, both under Saddam and in face of advancing US troops. Civilian casualties inflicted by "smart bombs," the lack of resources in hospitals, and the fear of the emerging power vacuum each represent a part of the untold story, particularly during the initial stages of the war. Seierstad also mentions (or maybe even predicts) the emerging power struggle between Shiites and Sunnis as early as April 2003, a month after the war started. A Hundred and One Days is a very insightful and well written piece of work. Some of the stories are heart wrenching and leave one wondering how the great powers, and their leaders, could not foresee all the misery that would follow the war. If you are curious about the mood in Iraq, and mostly in Baghdad, at the onset of the war, I suggest that you get your hands on Seierstad's brilliant memoirs. (See Andrew's review of A Hundred and One Days)Next I turned to Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares, which had been sitting on my shelves for the past four years. My brilliant friend Mitch had bestowed the book upon me during our final year of college, telling me that it was the best written novel he ever read. Now, that's a pretty strong statement but I have to agree with Mr. Maddox that Welsh's narrative in Marabou Stork Nightmares is smart, innovative, and fluent.The protagonist Roy Strang is in a coma when the reader first meets him. The narrative moves between Strang's perceptions of things happening around him (such as visits from parents, friends, nurses, doctors, and unrecognized people), to Strang's fantasy world (set in South Africa, where he and Sandy Jamieson are trying to hunt the leader of the Marabou Storks, who are dominating and ruining the wildlife) and Strang's autobiography. The three worlds intertwine as Welsh brings the reader to the current day, sheds light on the demise of Roy Strang, connects his fantasy world with the real, and presents a grand finale at the hospital where the protagonist is stranded. This quite awesome story is further enhanced by Welsh's portrayal of Scots living in "schemes" (i.e. projects) outside Edinburgh and the personal anxieties he created for each character. Child abuse, gay tendencies, rape fantasies, a retarded sibling, a dysfunctional family, and hooligans all add new dimensions to the great story that Welsh devised. If you are a fan of Trainspotting and/or The Acid House, want a good laugh, and can stomach some disturbing moments, you should definitely pick up Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares.See Also: Part 2
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Harry Potter Mania Flickers On
J.K. Rowling's slow, inexorable slide out of retirement continues. As we noted a couple of months ago, "For someone who's not writing any more books about Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling sure is doing a lot of dabbling."Earlier this year, we wrote about one of Rowling's post-retirement dabblings, the production of seven handmade copies of Beedle the Bard, a book of "wizarding fairy tales" referred to in the Harry Potter series. Amazon spent $4 million on a copy, and then used it to market a writing contest. Part of the prize, incidentally, was the opportunity "to spend a weekend with the rare and delightful book of fairy tales (security guards included, of course)."Now that prize doesn't look quite so exclusive, as Bloomsbury and Scholastic have made an edition the book available for the masses for just $7.59 and arriving in early December, just in time for the holidays. Amazon is going one further, offering up to 100,000 pricier facsimile "collector's editions," with "a reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction, metalwork and clasp, and replica gemstones," as well as various other accouterments.All net proceeds go to a charity co-founded by Rowling.
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