Hopefully you’ve read Eryn Loeb’s Millions review of Goodbye to All That, a collection of essays by noted writers on the weird sorrow of leaving New York City. Contributors include Dani Shapiro, whom we interviewed back in October, Emma Straub, who wrote an essay for The Millions back in July, and Millions staff writer Emily St. John Mandel. At the LARB, Mason Currey says he dreaded reading the book out of fear that it would raise old anxieties, but then says that his hesitations “quickly evaporated” when he started reading.
A Few More Goodbyes
A few links before heading out of town for the weekend
JT Leroy, who has been revealed as a made-up persona created to sell books, is still being "spotted" in LA and maintaining a blog. Pinky has the details.In his Friday Column, Scott writes about literary fiction that is "much discussed" but doesn't sell many copies.Author (and blogger) Jenny Davidson has a new book coming out.And from the wonders of the world file: Something has caused the lake that sits atop Vanuatu's Aoba volcano to turn from blue to red. Scientists are perplexed.
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Uncommon Language
Writing about a foreign country is always a dodgy proposition, but it seems to be especially thorny when English people and Americans take on their transatlantic brethren. Looking over two contributions to the genre by English writers -- Terry Eagleton’s Across the Pond and A.A. Gill’s To America With Love -- Carlin Romano concludes that neither manages to “teach us something new about ourselves.”
Bookshelf of the Masses
From Jared Fanning, a charming graphic of the world's 10 most read books.
Subjected
As an Editor-at-Large at Interview Magazine, Christopher Bollen has talked with everyone from Joan Didion to Renata Adler to Michael Stipe. Last Friday, he became an interview subject himself, sitting down with Tom Barbash at Salon to talk about his new novel, Orient. Sample quote: “I know I’m supposed to have the young characters constantly on Snapchat and Instagram and every adult is falling asleep at night to a Netflix marathon.”
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On Packing a Library
"Many times, I’ve found that a book I once held in my hands becomes another when assigned its position in my library." In The Paris Review, an excerpt on the art of packing (and unpacking) a library from Alberto Manguel's upcoming book, Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions. Pair with: an essay on reorganizing one's personal library.
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Virtual Hannah Tinti
The latest in virtual author appearances, an especially useful option for literary venues in the snowy midwest during winter: Hannah Tinti on Skype (audio and video) in Minneapolis via the Magers & Quinn "Books & Bars" Book Club series.
Personal Space
Sometimes, in a narrative, it’s necessary to focus on one scene, in one place, for as long as one possibly can. In his new graphic novel, Here, Richard McGuire takes this to an extreme, setting the entirety of the story in one corner of a character’s living room. In the Times, Dwight Garner reviews the new book.