The Millions family keeps getting bigger! A big welcome to our newest Millions reader: Dixon Bean Brown born June 22nd to our long-time staff writers Edan Lepucki and Patrick Brown.
Welcome Dixon Bean Brown!
Leah Hampton on the Bifurcated Vantage Point
Leah Hampton discusses her debut collection, F*ckface: And Other Stories, which takes a closer look at lives in the modern-day American South.
●
●
●
A New Book Review
Sharpen your pencils freelance book reviewers: The Wall Street Journal plans to buck the trend of disappearing book review sections by launching a weekly pull-out. Robert Messenger will edit. The New York Observer takes note of the storylines in play: Rupert Murdoch once again bucking conventional wisdom, The WSJ trying to go head to head with The New York Times in yet another high-profile venue.
●
●
People who should feel rooted, but rarely do.
In an interview with the Guardian about Canada, Richard Ford talks about America: “I never had much conceptual idea of Canada being better. But whenever I go there, I feel this fierce sense of American exigence just relent. America beats on you so hard the whole time.” Also see: Michael Bourne’s review of the novel.
●
●
“You can’t be up the reader’s ass, as many a writer I think is—cute as hell, ingratiating as hell.”
The best longread you’re likely to find this afternoon: Martin Amis talks to David Wallace-Wells about his latest novel, Lionel Asbo: State of England, America’s decline, politics, porn, post-modernism and more. Amis even dodges another attempt to bring up that book he wrote about videogames that nobody will let him live down.
●
●
Risen
In Ireland, Easter is a holiday with great historical significance, thanks to the eponymous uprising that took place in Dublin in 1916. W.B. Yeats lived a short distance away from the spot where the uprising began. Compelled to write about the event, Yeats produced one of his most famous poems, the genius of which is analyzed here by Brett Beasleyin. You could also read Matt Kavanagh on Irish financial fiction after 2008.
“Beyond Geography” Event at The Center for Fiction
Tonight, 12/4, in New York, The Center for Fiction, hosts “Beyond Geography,” a discussion of the role of place in the art of fiction with Jennifer Haigh, Hari Kunzru, Jennifer Acker, and Sonya Chung, co-sponsored by The Common.
●
●