Not everyone is a fan of Haruki Murakami’s latest short story, “Drive My Car.” Residents of Nakatonbetsu, Japan claim Murakami sullied its reputation when he suggested that residents throw cigarettes from car windows. The offending passage reads: “Probably this is something everyone in Nakatonbetsu commonly does,” a character thinks when he tosses his lit cigarette out. Hopefully, the smoke clears soon.
Trash Talk
Tuesday New Release Day: Millhauser, Matar, Shakar, Fuller, Chez Panisse
Steven Millhauser's new collection We Others is out this week, as are Hisham Matar's Anatomy of a Disappearance and Alex Shakar's Luminarium. Here at The Millions, Shakar recently offered the harrowing story of the publication of his first novel. Alexandra Fuller has a new memoir out. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness. and foodies are celebrating with 40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering.
What’s Your Top 5?
We'll be revealing the top 5 vote getters in our "Best Fiction of the Millenium (So Far)" poll on Thursday and Friday. We'd love to hear your predictions here.
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Summer Reading
The Los Angeles Times presents a list of 60 new books to read this summer.
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Rereading Dostoevsky
David Denby wonders: After nearly 150 years have passed since its initial publication and countless imitators have blunted its artistic radicalism does Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground still pack a punch? For more contemporary readings of Dostoevsky, see Rob Goodman's recent article on forensics, The Brothers Karamazov and the death of the courtroom drama.