Is Sergio de la Pava‘s A Naked Singularity the first great self-published novel of the new century? Aren’t you at least a little bit curious?
Triumph of the Vanity Press?
CSI Amsterdam
“We are not trying to point fingers or prosecute. I am just trying to solve the last case of my career. There is no statute of limitation on the truth.” A retired FBI agent has launched a cold case review into identifying those who may have betrayed Anne Frank's hiding place to the Gestapo in 1944, reports The Guardian.
Fences
Growing up in California, our own Michael Bourne didn’t have a full sense of his own privilege until 1981, when a chance encounter with a group of teenagers dressed up as skeletons woke him up to the realities of segregation in America. In a long essay for Orange Coast Review, he goes over the meaning of that incident, complete with meditations on Marin County, his abandoned early novel and his family’s history in Danville, Virginia. Pair with: Michael’s piece for The Millions on Tess Taylor’s The Forage House.
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Who Pays?
Once again, the old "who pays writers?" debate, this time courtesy of The Atlantic. Further reading: "Writers should be paid $1 million per article."
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Most Anticipated Addenda
Conversational Reading has put together its own "most anticipated" books list that has some overlap with our own. It's also worth noting that the trend of posthumous publication noted in our Most Anticipated introduction, was plumbed with considerably more depth at The Quarterly Conversation last year.
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Where Words Go
Recommended Reading: Jenny Diski on our lost words. “So I had a thought about writing a book for the elderly, the old. Those who have lost their words more comprehensively than the friends around our lunch table, but haven’t lost themselves entirely. A book about where all the words go, where after a time they find the others and collaborate to make sentences.”
Abandoned
What are readers to do when authors disown their work?
My comment seems to have been deleted, I guess because I included a link to a page with my thoughts on the book? Anyway, I liked it very much, although my praise is not quite so unqualified as Scott’s was. My more detailed opinion is not hard to find.
In short, Yes, I’m interested! The moment I read that post on Monday I ordered the book from the publisher. All it really takes is for someone to compare a book to Evan Dara’s books and it ends up making its way to the front of my “to read” queue.
However, I don’t think that Scott said it’s the first great self-published novel of this century. He specifically mentions that Evan Dara’s “The Easy-Chain” is self-published.
Anyway, I can’t wait to read this book. I am so thankful to book blogs who constantly help me spend a more than healthy chunk of my paychecks on books!
I’m 200 pages into A Naked Singularity right now, and it is absolutely great–to me, it’s not quite on the level of Dara’s The Lost Scrapbook, but what is? Regardless, De La Pava’s book is excellent, and definitely worth reading for anyone who likes Wallace, Gaddis, Pynchon, Dellilo, etc. etc.