Writerly Pets, cont.

Norman Rockwell was an unhappy and enervated man who became iconic by painting scenes of happy, energetic people. He developed a style that became synonymous with idyllic visions of America. At Page-Turner, Lee Siegel reads Deborah Solmon’s American Mirror, a new biography of Rockwell that acknowledges the painter’s contradictions without “mocking or scolding” him for the gulf between his life and his art.

A report from Book Expo America: “Celebrity memoirs will survive Armageddon.”

A few months ago, I wrote about Norwegian Granta, which included stories by Jennifer Egan, Roberto Bolano and Alice Munro in its first issue. Now the magazine is launching Granta Portugal, which debuts with five sonnets by the poet Fernando Pessoa.