“The continued publication and popular packaging of [Roberto Bolaño’s] incomplete work may actually be diluting his reputation as a writer of varied talents and fearless ambition.” Sam Carter is wary of The Roberto Bolaño Bubble.
The Roberto Bolaño Bubble
Building Covers
Year in Reading alumnus Chris Ware drew the cover of this week’s New Yorker. (If you liked his latest, Building Stories, you might like reading our review.)
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Imagination, Memory, a Dictionary
Would Vladimir Nabokov have considered you a good reader? Take this little quiz and find out for yourself. Then, allow Garth Risk Hallberg to explain to you why Nabokov’s Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle is difficult, but well worth the effort.
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Editors on Deck
Adweek engages in a little inside-baseball speculation, wondering who would be in line to take over at, say, the New Yorker if David Remnick were to step down and who might be next in line for Graydon Carter’s gig at Vanity Fair?
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Broken Mirrors
Etgar Keret, one of Israel’s best-known fiction writers, has a new memoir out, The Seven Good Years. The book covers a seven-year stretch between the birth of his son and the death of his father. At The Rumpus, Ryan Krull talks with Keret about the memoir, nuclear politics and living in Warsaw. You could also read Bezalel Stern on Keret’s most recent collection of short stories.
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The Commitment-phobe’s Genre
The essay is more than just a literary genre but a lifestyle, and it’s dominating American society, Christy Wampole argues. “The genre and its spirit provide an alternative to the dogmatic thinking that dominates much of social and political life in contemporary America,” she writes.
T. S. Eliot Prize Announced
Sarah Howe’s debut poetry collection, Loop of Jade, has been awarded the T. S. Eliot prize. “Howe’s work – the first debut poetry collection to win the British prize since it was inaugurated in 1993 – triumphed over a particularly strong shortlist, which featured some of poetry’s biggest names, including Don Paterson, Claudia Rankine, Sean O’Brien and Les Murray.” If poetry isn’t for you, try our own Nick Ripatrazone’s ten poems for people who hate poetry.
On Turning “Perhaps” into Certainty
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Thursday Links
An illustration of why Cliffs Notes are never a substitute for the real thing.The Britannica Blog looks at “fun facts” about the 1,000 most popularly held books in libraries around the world, including this item: “Which author has the most works on the OCLC Top 1000 list? William Shakespeare (with 37 works). He is followed by Charles Dickens (16 works) and John Grisham (13 works).” Here’s the full list where The Bible comes in at #1, the Census at #2, and Mother Goose at #3 (in 2,036 different versions and editions.) (via)Powell’s is making a series of short documentaries about writers that will supplement and stand in for book tours. From the New York Times: “The British author Ian McEwan is the star of the first film, which is planned to run 23 minutes and will feature snippets from an on-camera interview with Mr. McEwan, as well as commentary from peers, fans and critics.” The film is being put out to coincide with the release of his new novel, On Chesil Beach. (via)
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A needed perspective, although the Bolaño Legacy argument makes more sense than the “He’s taking the space of other translated works in NA” one. He might take up a greater part of the literary conversation, but I’m not publishers would necessarily be translating more Latin-American fiction if Bolaño’s posthumous works weren’t around.
People are finally figuring this out? They’ve been churning out subpar Bolano collections for years, much of it mindlessly repetitive.