Year in Reading alum Victor LaValle’s just-released novel The Devil in Silver was shouted out in our first Great 2012 Book Preview, and Nathan Huffstutter says it’s “exceptional.”
Victor LaValle’s Exceptional Latest
I’d Prefer the Footnotes
Recommended Reading: This slick, new, annotated version of Herman Melville’s classic Bartleby, the Scrivener from the folks over at Slate. For more on Bartleby’s occupation of Wall Street, here’s a piece that should suffice.
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“The product of countless books”
“I am not influenced by books. Instead, I am shaped by them. I am made of flesh and bone and blood. I am also made of books. ” Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State, which we reviewed here, and Bad Feminist, takes a new, thoughtful spin on a Facebook trend in an essay for BuzzFeed.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Adichie, Knausgaard, Brown
New in fiction this week is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. The second volume of Karl Knausgaard’s My Struggle hits American shores (read about Volume One). Oh yeah, and that Dan Brown guy has a book out.
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RIP Culture
Recommended Reading: Laura Miller on Mario Vargas Llosa and cultural declinism.
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Novelistic Ambitions
David Kurnick explores what makes Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels so addictive. As he puts it, “In Ferrante we see what grand novelistic ambition looks like devoid of writerly vanity.” Pair with Cora Currier’s essay on reading Italy through Ferrante’s books.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Thiong’o; Mason; Gerard; Romm; Grøndahl; Grant
Out this week: Devil on the Cross by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; Void Star by Zachary Mason; Sunshine State by Sarah Gerard; Double Bind, edited by Robin Romm; Often I Am Happy by Jens Christian Grøndahl; and Cave Dwellers by Richard Grant. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.