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?
Wiesel in Disney
Something to brighten your day — Elie Wiesel visited Disneyland and absolutely loved it.
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The Privilege of Innocence
“Many black parents tell black children to strive; to seize opportunities that will enable upward mobility. However, they also give their children a poison capable of eroding black children’s innocence. They tell them to be twice as good; that there is no room for failure or mistakes.” Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun, writes about how black children are denied the privilege of innocence.
Tuesday New Release Day: Williams; Tan; Bennett; Winter; Pollock; Watson; Cannon; Karlsson
Out this week: Ninety-Nine Stories of God by Joy Williams; Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan; Pond by Claire Louise-Bennett; Break in Case of Emergency by Jessica Winter; The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock; Miss Jane by Brad Watson; The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon; and The Invoice by Jonas Karlsson. For more on these and other new titles, go read our Great Second-Half 2016 Book Preview.
“A Minor Manifesto”
Ian Crouch writes for The New Yorker about a new version of The Sun Also Rises, which gives readers a peak into Hemingway‘s drafts and revisions. Crouch believes that by reading these drafts carefully, one can pick out a “minor manifesto” that “conceives of a book with greater intellectual and artistic ambitions than Hemingway ever produced.” In the words of Hemingway’s character Jake Barnes, “Isn”t it pretty to think so?” Pair with our own review of the latest edition of The Sun Also Rises.
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Michael Lewis’ Man Cave
Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d type: A seersuckered Michael Lewis shows off his “man cave” for ValleyGirl.tv. You can skip ahead to 9:20 for the tour. (via)
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The Hype Cycle
Elif Batuman entertainingly muses on “hype” and resolves to “write five 5-star Amazon reviews this month of books I love by living authors.”
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.