Lev Grossman offers some first thoughts on Every Love Story is a Ghost Story, the David Foster Wallace biography written by D.T. Max due out in September. More interestingly, Grossman wonders whether we’re nearing the death of hysterical realism, that manic, maximalist genre James Wood defined in his review of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth.
The Unrealist Novel
The Rooster is Nigh
At The Morning News, Rooster hosts Kevin Guilfoile and John Warner lay out "The Pre-Game Primer" for the Tournament of Books. The action kicks off tomorrow.
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Pre-Speed
Once upon a time, the poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote a very proto-Speedboat kind of novel. It's only just getting published now.
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The Final Status Update
What happens to your Facebook account when you die? (Via.)
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The Open Destiny of Life
"How can you write a complete story without a conventional plot? We often hear that in short stories, the main character must change. But in some stories, including some by Grace Paley, the characters don’t change. Instead, her stories change the reader. You’re different by the time you reach the end." We've told you about The Atlantic's "By Heart" series plenty of times before. This week, it's Alice Mattison, who touches on everything from character development to the strange stories of Grace Paley.
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Dark Investments
There are many flavors of noir, but the one that may be the most relevant to our lives today, Julia Ingalls argues, is corporate noir, which often takes the form of science fiction. At the LARB, she writes about several examples of the genre, including Alan Glynn’s Graveland and Natsuo Kirino’s Out.
Bookish Postcards from Penguin
We've already published a pair of great lists of gifts for writers, but I know more than one book lover (ahem) who would be thrilled to get this collection of vintage Penguin book cover postcards.
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Gold in the New Millennium
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned author Wells Tower tracks the Klondike's modern gold rush in his typically comprehensive way.
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What a load.