Book Club
Butterball HR
McSweeney’s takes us behind the scenes of the Butterball hotline during the holiday craziness. You could also check out Alexander Cockburn’s short piece on Thanksgiving.
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V.S. Naipaul on Writers, Kittens
“The writer is all alone,” Sir Vidia said. “He has only himself—just like a little kitten.” The Atlantic interviews V.S. Naipaul. (via Book Bench)
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And You Thought Literary Magazines Had It Rough
Trouble might lie ahead for Skymall. Rohin Dhar makes the case in The Atlantic that everybody’s favorite in-flight magazine might’ve just merged with a dubious “nutraceuticals” company in need of SEC scrutiny.
Bully Pulpit
Speaking of France: whether or not you find him disagreeable, Michel Houellebecq is pretty much guaranteed to elicit an emotional response from readers. His new opinion piece in The New York Times is no different. Here’s a review of Houellebecq’s The Map and the Territory that refers to him as a “petty misanthrope.”
Congratulations friends!
Our friends over at the LARB have received two nods for the Pushcart Prize! Congratulate them by reading through the nominated essays: David Sheilds’s “Life is Short; Art is shorter” and Antoine Wilson’s “Notes on Hack.“
Pete Campbell is Mr. Darcy
This summer, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis will put on a stage production of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. As they always say: it’s all fun and games until you cast Vincent Kartheiser as Mr. Darcy.
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