John Domini reviews Joseph McElroy’s Cannonball in the pages of Bookforum. In our Great Second-Half 2013 Book Preview, our own Garth Risk Hallberg wrote that, “this, his first novel in many a moon, concerns the Iraq War, among other things, and it’s hard to think of an author more suited to reimagining the subject.”
On McElroy’s Cannonball
Bonus Links
Simon & Schuster is planning to put out full-length audio editions of Ernest Hemingway’s novels. At the blog Okay Terrific, Steve figured out that Islands in the Stream will be read by Tommy Lee Jones and For Whom the Bell Tolls by Campbell Scott (and Steve is launching a campaign to get his own narrating gig.)Remember my post about book news RSS feeds? I’ve added the USA Today book news feed to the list. I use the book news feeds to generate the headlines that appear to the right. Any feeds that I’m missing? Let me know in the comments.Recently discovered The Publishing Contrarian via Books Inq. It’s full of all sorts of insidery book industry commentary.
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Empathy for the Devil?
Ruth Franklin of TNR probes the weaknesses of American novels about terrorism.
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Amis on DeLillo
Two literary titans in need of no introduction: Martin Amis reviews Don DeLillo‘s The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories.
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It’s Not the Spectacles and Pageantry…
Dan Brown gets D.C. wrong, says Slate. (But isn’t this just another way of saying that it belongs with almost every other narrative, literary or televisual, ever concocted about the Diamond District?)
I Am My Lighthouse’s Keeper
If you haven’t fantasized about being a solitary lighthouse keeper, then you’ve either a) read some of the scariest bits from Susan Casey’s The Devil’s Teeth; or b) you haven’t yet watched Aeon Magazine‘s gorgeous Behind The Light short film.
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“Don’t tie up this story with too neat a bow”
Recommended Reading: David L. Ulin on The Wisdom of Perversity by Rafael Yglesias.
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Lev Grossman on Aspiring Writers
Lev Grossman offers some words of encouragement for aspiring writers: “because it turns out that talent, whatever that is, and that glowy aura, are only part of the picture.”
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