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.
The Commitment-phobe’s Genre
Ulin on King
David Ulin offers a brief consideration of Stephen King. King's work, Ulin writes, "exposes, with real acuity, a lot about who we are."
“An opus d’odure”
Heaven forbid someone ever draws parallels between your writing and that of “Robert Rabelais the Younger.” For his work, published in the nineteenth century, has been described as “the most appallingly bad epic poem to have ever been written in English, comprised of 384 interminable pages of doggerel verse devoid of any literary merit, an opus d'odure that screams stinkburger.” (And that’s one of the more positive evaluations.)
Complete Archive of Paris Review Interviews Available Online
Lorin Stein has made the complete archive of The Paris Review interviews available for free online. The New York Times explains why this is such fantastic news: "The first issue of The Paris Review contained an interview with E.M. Forster. The new issue contains two, with Norman Rush...and the French controversialist Michel Houellebecq. In between there have been more than 300 others, from Ernest Hemingway (as indignant as a gored bull) to Jorge Louis Borges (funny and quizzical) and Hunter S. Thompson (surely on a variety of pharmaceuticals). Nearly all are worth a look-in."
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NBCC Award Winners Announced
The National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced last night, and the winners might be familiar to Millions readers: last year, our own Matt Seidel reviewed fiction prize winner The Sellout, and the Football Book Club read Maggie Nelson's winner in the criticism field, The Argonauts. Head on over to The Guardian for more details.
Tuesday New Release Day: Okparanta; Ostlund; Walsh; Alsanousi; Michael; Williams; Herrera
Out this week: Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta; After the Parade by Lori Ostlund; Hotel by Joanna Walsh; The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsanousi; Succession by Livi Michael; Selected Later Poems by C.K. Williams; and Notes on the Assemblage by Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great Second-Half 2015 Book Preview.
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Cormac McCarthy’s Typewriter
On Friday, Christie's will be auctioning off Cormac McCarthy's Olivetti manual typewriter, which he's had since 1963. Looks like you need to make sure you've got at least $15,000 in your checking account if you plan on bidding. (NY Times article here)
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