How it all got started: in 1868, The Nation published an article by John William De Forest titled “The Great American Novel.” (via American Literary blog).
The Great American Novel
Lydia Davis, in Short
The Village Voice offers a pretty good briefing on the charms of Lydia Davis, whose Collected Stories are out this week.
●
●
Life and Fate
Kenneth Branagh and David Tennant star in an eight-hour dramatization of Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. Completed in 1960, and centered around the bloody battle of Stalingrad, the novel was deemed so dangerous by the KGB that the book itself was arrested. BBC’s excited, and all the episodes are available to download.
On the Road with Hurston and Hughes
Yuval Taylor tells the story of a fortuitous road trip, on which Zora Neale Hurston drove Langston Hughes from Mobile to Tuskegee.
●
●
●
From the Ground Up
Recommended Reading: Ann Friedman on Caitlin Moran’s How to Build a Girl.
Lauren Bacall on Writing
“Writing a book is the most complete experience I’ve ever had,” said Lauren Bacall, who passed away on Tuesday. She wrote three memoirs over 30 years – By Myself, Now and By Myself and Then Some.
Just Give Me a Minute
Is Karl Ove Kanusgaard’s seven-volume, 3,600-page, vaugely-autobiographical epic possible to pitch over the course of an elevator ride? The good people over at n+1 are willing to give it a shot! Have you ever wondered about the view outside of Knausgaard’s window? I bet you have now.