Recommended Reading: All of the New York Times Book Review’s “Money” issue is worth a look, but in particular I recommend checking out Chris Ware’s original graphic short story. (Bonus: the Building Stories author recently contributed to our Year In Reading series.)
The New York Review of Money
Talking Translation
In an interview at The Brooklyn Rail, Susan Bernofsky talks about translating The Tanners, the last novel by the great Robert Walser to appear in English.
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Family Matters
Piggybacking off a brief aside in Ian Frazier’s new review of James Agee’s Cotton Tenants, Claire Kelley explores an odd and intriguing question: was Agee related to Walt Whitman? (Related: Mallory Ortberg on the probability that Whitman did the dirty with Oscar Wilde.)
Across Space and Time
“These sorts of connections are at the centre of nearly all time machine fiction. These novels usually draw attention to telling commonalities across historical eras, or between the past and the present. That gives an engaging puzzle quality to the books—we read seeking out the dropped clues that will shed light on the purpose of the parallel.” On fiction in which the plot takes place over multiple timelines.
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Learn from the Greats
Renowned translator and occasional Millions commenter Robert Chandler is working with a London translation program this summer, and you’re invited to join!
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Tao Lin in the News
Tao Lin signed a book deal with Vintage Books for his forthcoming novel Taipei, Taiwan. Carles of HipsterRunoff fame wished the author well with an eCard, and the New York Observer discussed the author’s developing movie project.
Heti and Didion, Chatting It Up
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