Back in May, our own Sonya Chung reviewed All That Is, the first novel in 35 years by A Sport and a Pastime author James Salter. For another viewpoint (courtesy of the LRB), check out James Meek’s assessment of the book alongside Salter’s Collected Stories.
A Great Career
One Award To Rule Them All
Over at Book Riot, Jeff O'Neal's asking readers to vote for their favorite literary award… based on the quality of each one's backlist.
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The Modern Bretteurs
A Russian man was shot last week over an argument about 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Perhaps this means I need to update my article about the history of the Russian duel.
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“The Sam Weller Bump”
"Bigger than the Zuckerberg Bump, bigger even than the Colbert Bump or the Oprah Bump—arguably the most historic bump in English publishing is the Sam Weller Bump." A look at the surprising and overwhelming success of Dicken's first novel, The Pickwick Papers, from The Paris Review.
Sustainable Olympics
Year in Reading alumna Nell Zink writes on the future of global sport. As she puts it, "Under my plan for reform, the Olympics will no longer be assigned a fixed geographic location."
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First Lines of the New Gary Shteyngart
Here are the first lines of the new Gary Shteyngart novel, Super Sad True Love Story, forthcoming in July: "Today I've made a major decision: I am never going to die. Others will die around me. They will be nullified. Nothing of their personality will remain. The light switch will be turned off."
Rabbit, Realtor
For the low, low price of a quarter of a million dollars, John Updike's boyhood home could be yours! (via)
On the Auction Block
It exists! The long-lost letter from Neal Cassady that inspired Jack Kerouac to write On the Road will be auctioned next month at Christies, ending an 18-month-long battle over its ownership and another 60-year-long battle over its existence. As Kerouac said, "It was the greatest piece of writing I ever saw, better’n anybody in America, or at least enough to make Melville, Twain, Dreiser, Wolfe, I dunno who, spin in their graves."
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Matt Steinglass Contra Katie Roiphe
According to the title of Matt Steinglass' new essay (a qualified rebuttal of Katie Roiphe's recent piece "The Naked and the Conflicted"), "Today's Male Novelists Do Write Exuberant Sex Scenes, But Mostly Lesbian Ones"
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