In 1952, John Steinbeck wrote that Al Capp, the cartoonist and Lil’ Abner creator, might well have been the best writer working in the world at the time. In the Times, Andy Webster reviews a new biography of Capp, which reveals that underneath it all lay “a toxic chip on his shoulder.”
Contrarian
Tuesday New Release Day: Obreht, Edgarian, Brooks, Gordon, McEwan, Skloot
New this week is The Tiger's Wife, the hotly anticipated debut of Téa Obreht, the youngest of the New Yorker's 20 Under 40 from last year. Also new in the fiction aisle is Carol Edgarian's Three Stages of Amazement. David Brooks's latest pop sociology effort The Social Animal is now out -- this one, excerpted in the New Yorker -- sets itself apart from similar tomes by illustrating its findings through a pair of fictional characters. Now out in paperback are National Book Award winner Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon, Ian McEwan's Solar, and Rebecca Skloot's non-fiction blockbuster The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
●
●
The Museum That Was Written Down
The fictional museum described by Orhan Pamuk in his novel The Museum of Innocence has been made into a real museum in Istanbul: “...the line between fiction and reality is both highlighted and blurred.” (via Book Bench)
●
●
Grocery Shopping with Jess Walter
“I didn’t want to like Jess Walter.” Ann K. Ryles interviews Jess Walter about his new short story collection We Live in Water, fatherhood, poverty, and what he daydreams about while waiting in line at the grocery store at The Rumpus.
●
●
Why We Can’t Respond To Everything
Are editors more accessible than ever before? (For what it's worth, we list our editors' contact details.)
One comment:
Add Your Comment: Cancel reply
“The Ukraine is Weak!”
Ever wonder why some countries get a fancy “the” in front of their names?
●
●
The Present Tense
Recommended Reading: This fantastic new story from The London Review of Books by Hilary Mantel, winner of two Booker Prizes. Here's an interview with Mantel from The Millions on character assassination and dealing with the haters.
●
●
“Bleeding beautiful streams”
“It's easy to attribute genius to a dead man, a legendary philanderer, liar and self-mythologizer who died beautiful and curly-haired. But 'What About This' is an authentic outpouring like a warm river in full flood; you get swept off the bank and its languid physicality destroys you.” On Frank Stanford’s Collected Poems.
●
●
Although I liked “Li’l Abner” the comic strip and the Broadway show (my parents took me when I was pretty young), anyone who ever saw Al Capp even briefly on TV in the 50s and 60s could see he was not a nice person or even a decent human being.