This week, Richard Ford published his first novel in a while to feature Frank Bascombe, the protagonist of his Pulitzer-winning book The Sportswriter. At Salon, our own Lydia Kiesling posits a through-line from Bascombe to a certain TV gangster, arguing that The Sopranos shares its view of manhood with Ford’s novels. You could also read our own Michael Bourne on Ford’s 2012 book, Canada.
The Patriarch
New Scott McClanahan
Recommended Reading: new Scott McClanahan. I repeat: new Scott McClanahan.
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Calvino’s Other Invisible Cities
William Weaver, Italo Calvino’s longtime translator, writes about the pair’s “complex relationship,” their “consuming passion for words,” and the Cosmicomics author’s travels through “his invisible cities, cities of ideas, or perhaps ideas masquerading as cities.”
Tuesday New Release Day: McSweeney’s, Ross, Brown
We're surprised McSweeney's didn't think of this sooner: A handsome large-format volume called Art of McSweeney's; Chris Ware and many more. There's also a debut that's been getting some notice, Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross. And finally, sometime Millions interviewee and interviewer Nic Brown has a new novel out: Doubles.
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On the Master of Social Suicide
It's fitting in a weird sort of way that this article, which illustrates the unravelling of Truman Capote’s career, has quotes from two characters named Slim Keith and Babe Paley. Back in 1988, Gerald Clarke covered the story from a slightly different angle.
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Aragorn’s Publishing Company
Viggo Mortenson, a.k.a. Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, also happens to have started a publishing company. Perceval Press is devoted to showcasing the talents of little-known authors and artists who might otherwise go undiscovered.
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Diving Into the Wreck
It's time for a game of critic versus critic: at the Nation and the Huffington Post, respectively, Ange Mlinko and Carol Muske-Dukes consider and reconsider the poetry of Adrienne Rich.
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Lorin Stein is Drowning in Honey
Newly minted Paris Review editor (and polymorphous enthusiast) Lorin Stein runs down some recent pleasures for More Intelligent Life. To wit: Lipsyte, Dickens, Du Maurier, Nádas, Merle Haggard, newcomer April Ayers Lawson, the Lydia Davis Proust, outer-borough maniacs, and "proletarian erotica"...not necessarily in that order.
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