For its spring issue, the Paris Review will be publishing Roberto Bolaño’s The Third Reich—its first serialized novel in forty years—with original illustrations by Leanne Shapton. It’s a chance to discover Bolaño’s famous lost novel almost a year before it appears in book form.
Paris Review to Publish Bolaño
Dreamweaver
For the most part, Tolstoy is known as a realist, despite his work’s occasional dips into fancy. Yet the plotlines of his great novels featured long and important dream sequences. In The New York Review of Books, Janet Malcolm argued that Tolstoy was a master of dreams, using Anna Karenina as proof.
James Tate in Hypertext
This week in book-related infographics: a hypertext tribute to the late poet James Tate, organized by Electric Literature and featuring “personal memories of Tate, commentary about his work, and recordings of some of his most meaningful poems.”
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Bailouts and Bulgakov: On Russian Publishing
Since 2010, Russian publishing professionals estimate that “as many as 20% of [all] Russian book stores have closed.” Each year, they fear, the number of “dedicated readers in Russia declines by 2%.” To remedy these trends, the Russian government has recently approved a $100 million stimulus package for the nation’s book industry – running the gamut from investment in new bookstores, to tax incentives for small presses, and also to more international book fairs – to be dispersed through 2018. Recently, Emily Parker noted in The New York Times that Russia’s literary problems might be blamed on its lack of “good protest literature.”
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Blooms of Darkness wins the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction
Aharon Appelfeld, a prolific Israeli novelist, has won the Independent Prize for international fiction for his latest book, Blooms of Darkness. Check out our guide to this year’s award’s shortlist.
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Occupy Wall Street, the Coloring Book
Wondering the best way to explain Occupy Wall Street to your 9-year-old? How about a coloring book? Out today, Occupy is a 36-page coloring book depicting the events and opinions surrounding the Occupy movement.
Tiananmen at 25
Recommended reading: Wilson Quarterly’s thoughtful meditation on Tiananmen Square, 25 years later.
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Ugh. Another Bolano novel already? Can we finally agree that Bolano is the most over-hyped writer of the decade?
In the grand scheme of things (i.e. literature), he’s a middling talent at best.
Surely Bolano is less ‘over-hyped’ than other authors covered by The Millions? It’s easy to deem an author ‘middling talent’ from the peanut gallery of internet comments. I agree that there is some serious trendiness in the regard given to Bolano by websites like this or Quarterly Conversation, html giant, etc –and something cynical about the industry that’s grown around his work — but if the author that’s over hyped is the author of 2666 I think that’s pretty encouraging for literature [insert Franzen jibe here]. Who would you prefer to be ‘hyped’?
If you read Spanish that novel has been available for awhile now. (I don’t, unfortunately.) Just started a subscription to The Paris Review and am looking forward to this serial.
Middling? 2666. The Savage Detectives. Distant Star. Antwerp. By Night in Chile. I can’t think of half a dozen living American novelists with a comparable list of masterpieces.