Seven years ago, a stolen copy of Jorge Luis Borges’s Fervor de Buenos Aires was finally returned to Argentina’s National Library. But was it the same copy that had been taken fifteen years prior?
“In Argentina, it’s better to keep your mouth shut.”
“The Specter of the Confessional”
"The specter of the confessional haunts all first-person writing, and women’s writing in particular," but perhaps "the instinct to insert [the self] comes from a place of saying, 'I’m not an expert, I’m just a person; let me show you where I’m situated here in this thing I’m telling you about.'" Our own Lydia Kiesling writes about Meghan Daum, Lena Dunham, Leslie Jamison and the confessional impulse in nonfiction for Salon.
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Now That’s Will Power
How dedicated is Robert Caro to his task of identifying and faithfully portraying the character of Lyndon Johnson? So dedicated that he turned down free tickets to see Bryan Cranston’s play about the 36th President of the United States of America.
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Impolitic
Is all literature political? Is this political? Are you political?
The Incredible Shrinking Class Structure
The Daily Beast interviews Tom Wolfe, who argues that America, more than two decades after The Bonfire of the Vanities, is a place where people “cannot act as if they are part of a superior class.” (For context, you might want to look at our own Nick Moran’s review of his latest, Back to Blood.)
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Free Access to the Oxford African American Studies Center
In observance of Black History Month, the Oxford African American Studies Center is granting free online access to its archives. Simply enter the login name “blackhistorymonth” and use the password, “onlineaccess.”
Tuesday New Release Day: Dovlatov; Rieger; Levine; Kaysen; Jia; Mirvis; Merwin; Wright
New this week: Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov; The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger; Hyde by Daniel Levine; Cambridge by Girl, Interrupted author Susanna Kaysen; Decoded by Mai Jia; Visible City by Tova Mirvis; The Moon Before Morning by W.S. Merwin; and Caribou by Charles Wright.
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Stop the presses. Or, rather, restart the presses!
Owing to a successful Facebook campaign and some outcries from the Press’s authors, University of Missouri administrators have decided to reinstate the University of Missouri Press—which was recently shuttered—and “rehire” its editor in chief, Clair Wilcox. The goal now, according to the university system’s president, is to “reinvent [the press] in a more cost-effective technological model.”
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Signs of the Apocalypse: Jersey Shore, the Novel
For those who don't believe in the decline of civilization, new evidence: Snooki has written a novel. Generously, The Wall Street Journal has read it so you don't have to.