Alan Cheuse‘s review of Jonathan Franzen‘s much-anticipated new novel, Freedom, appeared on All Things Considered yesterday…and begs the question of what kind of compassion we look for in novels.
NPR Reviews the New Franzen
The Billionaire Speaks
“It’s true that when the world did not end when I predicted it would, at the end of last year, in my Netflix special Ragnarok, I realized a number of things, one of which was that I had not made a lot of professional or creative plans on the contingency that the world would continue. I just figured that it would end.” Greg Hunter talks with John Hodgman at The Rumpus.
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From Flesh to Wafer to Cash
Here’s everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the communion wafer’s place in free-market capitalism.
Judge It By This
Year in Reading alum Chang-Rae Lee has a new book out this week, and its cover is making headlines. Readers who buy the limited edition of On Such A Full Sea will get the first 3D printed book cover in publishing history. According to the printers, each cover took fifteen hours to make.
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New Lit Mag Alert: The Austin Review
A new, non-profit literary journal has launched in Austin, Texas. Each issue of The Austin Review will include four pieces of flash non-fiction, four short stories, and one work of critical analysis. Special attention will be paid to writers from the city that gave us Sixth Street.
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Colson at the Casino
“We go to casinos to tell the everyday world that we will not submit.” NPR has an excerpt from Colson Whitehead’s new book, The Noble Hustle.
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Writing For Your Life
“I think essay and memoir hang together in a balance. There’s any number of ways to strike it, but from Montaigne on down that balance seems key to their design.” The Paris Review interviews the essayist Michelle Orange, author of the recent This Is Running For Your Life.
I look forward to reading “Freedom,” but with some unease, because Cheuse (and other things I’ve read) make it sound as if Franzen is repeating himself — the new book appears to be very much in the same vein as The Corrections; i.e., another satire of middle-class life. He did it so well the first time, that the second go-round will almost certainly be a disappointment. It’s a safe choice of subject matter, and I hadn’t thought of Franzen as a safe writer up till now.
It’s a horrible review that though – doesn’t really say a great deal. Excited to read this, but agree a little with Tom – sounds like Franzen is in his safety zone here…