Recommended Reading: Leo Robson’s review of a new book of essays by Craig Raine.
The Grenadier
The Pointless Adventure
Many writing guides feature long explainers that detial how to craft a great plot. They’ve turned the phrase “rising action” into a buzzword in many classes. At Page-Turner, a short comic illustrating major plots that don’t work, including one in which the protagonist “ignores the problem until it goes away.”
Book Club Blunder
What would happen if you anonymously attended a book club about your own novel? Kevin Baker discovered the embarrassing consequences when a meeting on his novel Dreamland turned negative.
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Facebook Overload
Pamela Paul's recent New York Times piece on the "permanent reunion" Facebook has trapped us in and an 18-year-old's op-ed in the New York Post about why the shallow connections of Facebook led him to quit, have me feeling queasy about checking my timeline. So, I'm re-reading Edan Lepucki's essay about taking a social media detox instead. (Cue the cognitive dissonance of clicking the "like" button next to this entry.)
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Time and Again
“In Proust, the rhythm, the phrasing, the movement of the sentence, even the grammar—it’s all so complex that it would be almost impossible to repeat anyone else’s work. Because of that I’m all the more aware of the differences, and of how admirable Scott Moncrieff’s work often is.” George Plimpton interviews Richard Howard about translating Remembrance of Things Past, for the Summer 1989 issue of The Paris Review. The interview was reissued to mark Richard Howard's birthday, who turns eighty-six today.
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Saving the Wicked Stepmother
Recommended Listening: "I wanted to rescue the wicked stepmother," Helen Oyeyemi said in an interview with NPR about her new book, Boy, Snow, Bird (which made our 2014 book preview.)
Meet the Lancasters
Hazel Grace has a family now. True Blood's Sam Trammell will play Hazel's dad in the film adaptation of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. Last month, our own Nick Moran reported that Laura Dern joined the cast as Hazel's mom. With the Lancaster family complete, filming will start in Pittsburgh at the end of this month. If you still haven't read the book yet, let our own Janet Potter convince you.
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