I promise you that the best thing you’ll read today is this remembrance of the Kilimanjaro climbin’, chemotherapy-cocktail imbibin’, tank bustin’ and cricket playin’ life of Major Robert Crisp, D.S.O, M.C.
“Bob wasn’t the settling sort.”
“55 Thoughts” On The Air
Recommended listening: Our own Nick Ripatrazone talks with NHPR about his Millions essay, "55 Thoughts for English Teachers."
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“This is my song, for real / Do doubt.”
Andrew Marantz reviews R. Kelly’s “breezy” and “revealing” memoir, Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me, for The New Yorker’s book blog, Page-Turner. This might be what they meant when they said they were “rebooting” the Book Bench. (Related: hear Gary Oldman read some passages from the book.)
All Apostrophes
Are you the kind of person who’d pay good money to hear a cover of Nirvana in a Chekhov play? If so, the Young Vic has your number.
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The One-Sitting Novel
Looking to start (and finish!) a novel in a day? Electric Literature has 17 short novel recommendations, including work from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Shirley Jackson and Marilynne Robinson.
Lydia Davis Whistles
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Needs More Pigs
The archives of the British Library have been digitized, and among many other gems is this rejection of George Orwell's Animal Farm by none other than T.S. Eliot, himself: “And after all, your pigs are far more intelligent than the other animals, and therefore the best qualified to run the farm – in fact, there couldn’t have been an Animal Farm at all without them: so that what was needed (someone might argue), was not more communism but more public-spirited pigs.”
Baby Shoes Still Unworn
"These stories feature hookups and breakups, substance abuse, and violence so casual it’s as natural as jagged breathing." Electric Literature has an interview between flash fiction author Len Kuntz and critic and writer David Galef, whose Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook was just published by Columbia University Press. The two discuss the state of short fiction, their favorite one-line stories of the year, and how, even in the briefest of narratives, readers should still "feel a connection to the story and characters." For more ultra-lean tales, see our own Emily St. John Mandel's review of Hint Fiction, an anthology of 25-words-and-under short stories.
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On O’Casey
As Seán O’Casey’s play “The Silver Tassie” is revived at London’s National Theatre, three Irish actors tell The Guardian how they feel about famed playwright. “I'd say he's on a par with your Shakespeare,” Niamh Cusack says.
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