Caleb Crain has strong reservations about the New York Public Library’s proposed $350 million remodel, or, in his view, the library’s shift away from “its research mission.” To put his concerns bluntly, he asks, “What problem is the Central Library Plan (CLP) meant to solve?” He then vividly enumerates the problems with the proposal. For those of you wondering what can be accomplished with an essay, there’s this: Mr. Crain’s got him landed on one of the project’s advisory panels as a result.
Remodel At What Cost?
“Which Poet Are You?”
Does love “crack [your] sternum open” or is love like the “mystery of water and a star?” Is your soul “an empty carousel at sunset?” Are you an only child? I ask because these – along with several other questions – will help Farrar, Straus, and Giroux determine once and for all: “Which Poet Are You?”
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Paris Est Une Fête
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast has rocketed to number one best-seller status in France as an emblem of cultural defiance. With a title in its French iteration that roughly translates to “Paris is a celebration,” the sudden popularity of the book run even Amazon out of stock.
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The $31K Photocopy
With the actual manuscript still missing, what was thought to be a worthless photocopy may be our best link to John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. The UL Lafayette Foundation agreed, paying $31,000 in an auction.
Glory Edim’s Empire of Knowledge
Well-Read Black Girl founder Glory Edim spoke to HuffPost's "We Built This" series on her passion for literacy and the urgency of protecting black women.
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Talking Translation
In an interview at The Brooklyn Rail, Susan Bernofsky talks about translating The Tanners, the last novel by the great Robert Walser to appear in English.
Tuesday New Release Day: Toibin, Oswalt, Rachman
Colm Tóibín’s new collection The Empty Family is out today, as is comedian Patton Oswalt’s Zombie Spaceship Wasteland. New in paperback: 2010 fave The Imperfectionists. Many more new books to look forward to, of course, in our massive preview published this week.
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Maureen Corrigan on Lacuna
NPR’s Maureen Corrigan applauds Barbara Kingsolver‘s Lacuna for “single-handedly keeping consumer zest alive for the literary novel,” as “the only literary novel caught in the cross hairs” of the price wars waged by Wal-mart, Amazon, and Target against booksellers (the others being genre novels). As for the book itself: “I wish I could say she also deserves kudos for writing a spectacular work of fiction…”