In addition to its overt references to Robert Chambers’s The King in Yellow, HBO’s breakout hit, True Detective, seems also to draw from the work of a self-published poet named Dennis McHale. Or is it the other way around? (Bonus: Lincoln Michel drew up a reading list of southern gothic books similar in tone to the HBO series.)
True Detective: “where time is a flat circle”
Most Misleading Machine Name
Espresso Book Machines are coming to Barnes and Nobles stores in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, allowing customers to “make a physical print book of a hard-to-find book, a public domain title or self publish a book.” Espresso Book Machines also win our prize for “Most Misleading Machine Name.”
●
●
Tuesday New Release Day: Messud; Wang; Tallent; Rothmann; Handler
Out this week: The Burning Girl by Claire Messud; The Hidden Light of Northern Fires by Daren Wang; My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent; To Die in Spring by Ralf Rothmann; and All the Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
It’s all about the characters
In the world of selling books, it’s not all about the sentences. At Ploughshares, agent Eric Nelson argues: A fresh plot matters and unusual characters do, too. “The most interesting books have characters who do the opposite of what we’d do… Imagine Hamlet, if Hamlet took decisive action. Horror movies wouldn’t exist at all without the idiot who always suggests they split up.”
●
●
One comment:
Add Your Comment: Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
George Saunders Interview
George Saunders, author of In Persuasion Nation, has a great dialogue with former student Patrick Dacey on “steering towards the rapids” when writing. (via @BOMBMagazine)
●
●
True Detective is riddled with poetic portent. The Yellow King so lends himself to stanza. http://www.scribd.com/doc/208705970/True-Detective