At FiveChapters this week, you can read an excerpt of Sam Lipsyte’s forthcoming novel, The Ask.
Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask
The Case of the Selfless Detective
In one among several lost Nancy Drew books, the girl detective asks herself “why she feels compelled to spend all her time and energy solving other people’s problems.”
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Oh Henry
Over thirteen years, John Berryman wrote his famous Dream Songs, composing his most innovative and well-known poetry while his own life began to unravel. In a piece for the LRB, August Kleinzahler reappraises the poet to mark a raft of new editions of his work, citing Randall Jarrell, Saul Bellow and other contemporaries in the process. Pair with Stephen Akey on The Dream Songs.
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A resolution
On the relative statuses of literary, mainstream, and genre fiction: a resolution. (From Stephanie Anderson, manager of WORD in Brooklyn.)
Tomas Tranströmer and Robert Bly
Robert Bly and Tomas Tranströmer discuss their lives and craft in a series of letters.
A History of Beauty
“‘Man is hungry for beauty. There is a void.’ Nine words. Take a moment. Say them aloud. What else is there to be said?” –Arthur Krystal’s essay on Umberto Eco’s History of Beauty, at Powell’s Books. (via Arts & Letters Daily)
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