50 States of Literature
Dial G
“Genius” is a loaded term. Its application usually says more about the person making the judgment than it does about the genius in question. In The Guardian, Sophie Hannah argues that the term isn’t used enough to describe one writer in particular: Agatha Christie. You could also read Daniel Friedman on the terrible secret of all crime fiction.
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Shelley’s Snail Mail
Most of our internet browsing results in wasted time and too many cat videos, but Nora Crook stumbled upon Mary Shelley's unpublished letters while researching an obscure 19th-century novelist. In the letters, which range from 1831-49, Shelley fawns over her son and even discusses a 3 a.m. trip to her hairdresser when she got a ticket to the coronation of William IV in 1831. The letters will be published soon in The Keats-Shelley Journal.
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The Widening Spell
“Ah, I think, a lizard-poet. This particular category was one I had concocted years before to describe those poets who were too Olympian to mingle with the rest of us, who stood to the side, detached, having feelings.” Remembering Larry Levis, whose book of last poems, The Darkening Trapeze, was released this past week.
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“Trying to save Brooklyn”
At Salon, an interview with Year in Reading alum Gary Shteyngart, whose new memoir, Little Failure, came out last week. Shteyngart talks about the rise of a new “global fiction” and laments the fact that Russia “can’t seem to catch a break.”
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Et Tu, Boris?
To be or not to be, that is the question about British politician Boris Johnson's long-awaited biography of Shakespeare, Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius. Initially slated for release this October, publisher Hodder & Stoughton has just announced that -- amid reports of last-minute, desperate pleas for help from prominent Shakespeare scholars -- the book has been put on ice indefinitely.
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“Dear Son.”
Recommended Viewing: “The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter,” which is a Scott Wenner film based on a poem by Mark Strand.
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Moving in for the Kill
Killing off your characters is never an easy feat. At The New York Times, thriller writer Alex Berenson discusses his reservations on killing the hero of his spy series. "John Wells has markedly enriched my life — an impressive feat for a man who doesn’t exist." The eighth installment, The Counterfeit Agent, just came out.
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