Recommended Reading: Larissa Pham on Milena Michiko Flašar’s I Called Him Necktie.
On Hikikomoris, Etc.
Near to the wild heart
A charming doodle of the beautiful connecting covers for mid Clarice Lispector's four soon-to-be-released novels. You can also buy a poster of the original from New Directions. And given how much Carolyn Kellogg enjoyed them, mentally shelving the Brazilian author beside Kafka and Joyce, and of course based on the near infinite readability of The Hour of the Star, I'm wondering if this will be the year of Lispector.
The Second Coming
"The trick to getting through your twenties intact, it seemed to me, was looking ahead to the narrative I could impose on that decade later in life." The last book The Rumpus loved? Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
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History Lesson – Part II
Who would have predicted, when an unassuming history of post-punk called Our Band Could Be Your Life was published in 2001, that we'd be celebrating its tenth anniversary with concert blowouts and Paris Review Daily interviews? Most anyone who read it, that's who.
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Neal Stephenson’s New Digital Novel
The New York Times reports on the launch of Neal Stephenson’s new serialized digital novel, The Mongoliad, complete with video, music, and user-profiles. (via AuthorScoop)
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“A Imperfect Dad”
"As much as I claimed that I read for my own edification, it was a lie. The books I was most drawn to were those that were loved by someone in my life. Reading them, I thought, would teach me all I needed to know about them—nice and safe, from a distance. Reading them with one hand, it was easy to have the other keep them at arm’s length." Romy Sugden writes for The Oyster Review about trying to connect with her estranged father by reading John le Carré's A Perfect Spy.
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