Donald J. Sobol, author of the Encyclopedia Brown series, passed away last week at age 87.
Donald J. Sobol Passed Away
An Animated Dalloway
This week marked the 90th anniversary of Mrs. Dalloway‘s publication. Over at The Paris Review, Sadie Stein posted an animated adaptation of the novel, which she describes as “either the worst or the best… depending upon how highly you value things like coherence, tone, and style.”
●
●
From Flop to Top
Patrick deWitt, author of The Sisters Brothers (which our own Mark O’Connell reviewed last October), expected Harry Mathews’ novel The Journalist to be a “terrible flop,” but soon found it was “every bit as great as Mathews’ more celebrated novels.”
●
●
What’s A Guy Got to Write to Get a Bridge Named After Him?
Frank McNally investigates the “dark forces at work somewhere” that prevent Flann O’Brien from being honored with a Dublin bridge. Perhaps we should all start a grassroots campaign to send Mark O’Connell’s O’Brien tribute to Irish civil engineers.
Spillman’s Memoir
Recommended Reading: Rob Spillman, editor of Tin House, speaks with the LA Times about his new memoir, All Tomorrow’s Parties. Spillman was featured in our piece on literary editors’ favorite issues of their magazines.
●
●
●
“Informational Text” vs. Fiction
“The Common Core State Standards in English, which have been adopted in 46 states and the District, call for public schools to ramp up nonfiction so that by 12th grade students will be reading mostly ‘informational text’ instead of fictional literature,” writes Lyndsey Layton. Is this the end of The Catcher in the Rye?
●
●