In January, I wrote about the release of William Styron’s letters, which reveal, among other things, that Styron requested a book on Nat Turner after visiting “the most enormous house [he’d] ever seen” in Cornwall. At the Times Literary Supplement, you can read more.
“Louche but not bohemian”
De Sangue
Blood-Drenched Beard, a new novel by Daniel Galera, is poised to spark a newfound interest in Brazilian literature abroad, argues Chris Frey. In The Globe and Mail, he writes that Galera has forged an original voice, one recalling Borges and Murakami but still distinctly his own. For more on the book, you could read our review.
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The Good Fight
Sometimes -- like now, say -- an artist has to ask what it means to continue working. At The Rumpus, Lara Downes explores her resolve to keep playing and teaching music, and writes about what she's done while teaching in Louisville this week.
Tuesday New Release Day: Solnit, Walls, Kwan, Sullivan, Silver, Lee, al-Shaykh
New this week: The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit, The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls, Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan, The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth Silver, Bobcat by Rebecca Lee, and a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights by Hanan al-Shaykh, with a foreword by Mary Gaitskill.
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The Parent Trap
"This is how he justified what he did even as he knew what kind of parent he’d become, the kind that used to make him gag as recently as two months ago. The ones who blithely assumed their online friends were gluttons for punishment. Here’s my baby lying on his back! And here’s my baby also lying on his back! And how about this one: blurry baby on his back! Good God, the vanity of it all, the epic self-centeredness. He knew all this, and still he uploaded eleven pictures of Brian." An excerpt of Victor LaValle's new novel The Changeling. (You could also read our interview with the author from last year.)
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Righteous Anger
You’ve probably heard the sad news that Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman passed away on May 2nd. In memory of Hanneman's work with the band, Greg Pollock wrote a paean to God Hates Us All, “the most important album in [his] life.”
To the Literary Racetracks!
It’s that time of year again, readers. It's time to stock up on gossip, skim through pieces on your favorite writers and populate your bookmarks with pages from Ladbrokes and Intrade. It's time, in other words, to prognosticate the Nobel Prize winner, which Ladbrokes predicts will be the novelist Haruki Murakami. If you read Ben Dooley's review of 1Q84, you might have placed your bets already.
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Faulkner’s Inspiration; Scholar’s Denial
Did the real-life family of Edgar Wiggin Francisco III inspire some of William Faulkner’s writing? Did a group of scholars try to suppress inquiry into the matter?