Does a writer need a devoted spouse to be prolific? At The Atlantic, Koa Beck examines the concept of having a do-it-all partner like Vera Nabokov and if this traditional gender role only harms female writers. Koa interviews various writers, from Emma Straub to Ayelet Waldman, on how their literary partnerships work. “I’d fantasized that being his Vera was a way for me to deal with being stuck as a stay-at-home mom—I’d subsume my own ambitions into something ‘greater!’ But that lasted about 48 hours,” Waldman said.
“Writers all need Vera.”
Kristen Arnett’s Refrigerated Abyss
Kristen Arnett takes the Paris Review on a tour of the abyss—the abyss of her beer-and-pizza-roll-stocked refrigerator, that is.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Solnit, Walls, Kwan, Sullivan, Silver, Lee, al-Shaykh
New this week: The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit, The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls, Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan, The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth Silver, Bobcat by Rebecca Lee, and a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights by Hanan al-Shaykh, with a foreword by Mary Gaitskill.
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“Bob wasn’t the settling sort.”
I promise you that the best thing you’ll read today is this remembrance of the Kilimanjaro climbin’, chemotherapy-cocktail imbibin’, tank bustin’ and cricket playin’ life of Major Robert Crisp, D.S.O, M.C.
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The Arcades Project
If you thought Michel Houellebecq was controversial, let me direct your attention to Kenneth Goldsmith. In this piece, the poet that everyone loves to hate asserts his desire “to take Walter Benjamin off the pedestal and on to the coffee table.” His newest, Capital, is out now.
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Most Are Made There Already
Having trouble selling your latest book? Consider marketing it to India. According to the latest data from Nielsen BookScan, the Indian book market grew in volume by 45% (and in value by 40%) over the first half of 2011.
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Just Kids Playlist
As Rachel Syme points out, the person who made the Spotify playlist of every song mentioned in Patti Smith’s Just Kids deserves a free drink or two.
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