Nelly Kaprielian parties with Michel Houellebecq after he wins the Goncourt: “‘After France, the world!’ jokes Beigbeder, and everybody’s quick to raise a glass.”
Partying with Houellebecq
Expiration Date
“Echoes are etched into the pages thanks to margin-scrawled notes, a yellowed coffee splatter or sticky peanut-butter-and-jelly fingerprints.” In her project “Expired,” photographer Kerry Mansfield documents the life of library books. We suggest pairing The Guardian's gallery of her photos with our own Jacob Lambert's “Open Letter to the Person Who Wiped Boogers on My Library Book.”
Take Three
You may have read our review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel The Buried Giant. You may also have read our own Mark O’Connell’s review at Slate. For another opinion, you could read James Wood, who writes about Ishiguro’s “prose of provoking equilibrium” in the latest New Yorker.
Welcome Back, Y’all!
Three cheers to the return of storied magazines! This month, The Baffler and Collier's made triumphant returns after lulls of 2 and 55 years, respectively. Meanwhile, over at Johns Hopkins Magazine, Paris Review editor Lorin Stein explains why "literary magazines still matter." And, if you know anyone with some extra cash, they could become the next owner of Variety.
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The Female Poets of Afghanistan
Eliza Griswold’s deeply affecting profile of the female poets in Afghanistan ran last April in the New York Times Magazine, and it’s certainly worth a read if you missed it back then. For those who read it and wanted more, though, definitely check out the Pulitzer Center’s multimedia package on all of Griswold and photographer Seamus Murphy’s work, Afghanistan: On Love and Suicide.
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Rock the Vote
Well, that's one way to get the youth involved in politics. According to this piece over at The Daily Beast, "Before Tinder, before shopping malls, drive-ins, or speak-easies, young people searched for a place to meet and flirt. In 19th century America, wild political rallies offered the perfect opportunity."
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Tuesday New Release Day: McSweeney’s, Ross, Brown
We're surprised McSweeney's didn't think of this sooner: A handsome large-format volume called Art of McSweeney's; Chris Ware and many more. There's also a debut that's been getting some notice, Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross. And finally, sometime Millions interviewee and interviewer Nic Brown has a new novel out: Doubles.
Hybrid Essays, DIAGRAM Essays
The deadline for DIAGRAM's essay contest is October 31, but mostly I just wanted an excuse to link to previous winner Cheyenne Nimes' "SECTION 404 OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT AND THE SANTA CRUZ RIVER SAND SHARK, SUBTITLED 'THIS TROUBLESOME REGULATORY CONSTRAINT'."
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Mean Reading
In the current issue of Tin House Robin Romm has a very compelling essay on the value of mean-spirited judgement in our novels, especially as empathy becomes reified into fiction's greatest gift and virtue, or even treated as a therapeutic offering.