I can’t recommend John Jeremiah Sullivan‘s 7,000-word article on The Pale King highly enough – not because he gets everything right, but because it’s what long-form writing about books should look like: passionate, lucid, wide-ranging, and awfully fun to read. I salute GQ for running it, and hope to see more literary coverage there in the future.
…And If You Still Want More on The Pale King
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“I was the shadow of the waxwing slain”
Does the central, eponymous poem from Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire stand on its own as a literary masterwork?
Whither Would You Go?
Recommended Reading: William Shakespeare’s handwritten plea for the humane treatment of refugees.
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Allies Respond
Writers John Keene, Dawn Martin Lundy, and others respond to the mass shooting in Orlando. “Homophobia, transphobia, and ideologically-nurtured hatreds of all kinds, coupled with semi-automatic weapons, provide the fuel for terror, in this case literally,” says Keene.
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The Truth about Fiction
Leslie Pietrzyk wonders why readers are so eager to assume that a fictional story happened in real life. She asks, “Why is that always the question fiction writers are asked? Why do readers insist on knowing if the story that held them enthralled was ‘real’?”
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Lolita Grows Up
Vladimir Nabokov‘s Lolita has gone through many cover transformations over the years. Did you know this one was supposed to be sideways?
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Resting On One’s Imaginative Laurels
Etgar Keret is a rising (if not risen already) literary star, but these days, following the publication of his new collection Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, “he seems to be growing complacent, bored even, with his talent,” writes Joshua Furst.
More Madame
In the LRB, an amiable Julian Barnes joins in the ritual cavilling that must greet any retranslation of a masterpiece. But who’s complaining? It’s an excuse to read 6,000 words on Madame Bovary !
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Also, Lev Grossman has a relatively lengthy rave in this week’s Time: http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2062341,00.html
Great read. Almost as good as your NY Mag piece, Garth.