At the LARB, Millions contributor Nathan Deuel reviews Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball, which we covered as part of our Great 2014 Book Preview. Nathan calls the novel “daring and odd” and notes that, as the plot advances, “even we readers become slightly shaky witnesses.” You can learn more about Jesse Ball’s work in our own Janet Potter’s review of his novel The Curfew.
Testimonies
Valley of the Publishers
How exactly does a cult classic make the leap to critically-acclaimed bestseller? It isn't easy. The Telegraph takes a look at the confusing, circuitous publishing history of Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls.
Tuesday New Release Day: Rowling, Homes, Stein, Wilson, Moehringer, Tejpal, Silver, Young, Warner, Donoghue
Another bumper crop of books this week is led by J.K Rowling's post-Potter effort, The Casual Vacancy is on shelves, as are May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes, Canvas by Benjamin Stein, Panorama City by Antoine Wilson, Sutton by J.R. Moehringer, Tarun J. Tejpal's debut The Story of my Assassins. On the non-fiction side, Nate Silver's long-awaited The Signal and the Noise is here, as is Neil Young's memoir Waging Heavy Peace. New in paperback: John Warner's Funny Man (the edition includes an essay by Warner that ran on The Millions) and Emma Donoghue's blockbuster The Room.
When Girls Were Boys and Bimbos Were Men
"Did you know that alcohol originally meant eyeshadow, clouds were rocks or that a moment once lasted precisely 90 seconds?" From The Guardian, 10 words that no longer mean what they used to. And if you enjoy that trip down etymology lane, you'll probably also dig this week's piece about the curse words of Charles Dickens.
●
●
The Lines Between Us
“Think of landscape. Think of how elements come to be attached to one another, how it’s impossible to separate the road from the field, the field from the tree, the tree from the water, the water from the sky. We cannot attribute natural features to the lines we design just as we cannot attribute natural causes to those dying as they try to cross them.” For Tin House, Portuguese writer Susana Moreira Marques meditates on the concept of borders and Wolf Böwig’s photography project, “Borders and Beyond.”
Novelistic Ambitions
David Kurnick explores what makes Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels so addictive. As he puts it, “In Ferrante we see what grand novelistic ambition looks like devoid of writerly vanity.” Pair with Cora Currier’s essay on reading Italy through Ferrante’s books.
●
●