Recommended Reading: Peter Fulham on William Styron’s Darkness Visible.
No Light Before
“I knew what I wanted to do all my life. I wanted to write senior theses.”
Adaptation
Check out the book trailer for Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply.
●
●
Bio Unbound
At Salon, Cornel Bonca reviews Roth Unbound, a new “hybrid” biography of Roth that New Yorker staff writer Claudia Roth Pierpont wrote after months of interviews. Although the book glosses over Roth’s personal flaws, it gives a great overview of his work, Bonca writes.
●
●
The Problem with String Theory
Don't tell Paul Murray, but apparently "string theory," much beloved by artists and fringe physicists alike, has zero proof to back it up.
Orwell in Burma
Three weeks ago, Vishwas Gaitonde wrote a piece for us about a house in India once owned by the family of George Orwell. Now, in the Times, Jane Perlez pays a visit to Burma, where Orwell served in the Imperial Police Force and gathered impressions for his first novel, Burmese Days.
Writer as Painter
“The past fascinates me obsessively, I suppose, because it’s such a strange phenomenon. The past was the present at some point, and it was just as boring as the present. What makes it so important? What gives it that luminous, exalted quality where it becomes the past?” John Banville addresses these and many other heady questions in his new novel, The Blue Guitar.
●
●
Jewcy Nicole Krauss
Online magazine Jewcy has relaunched, showcasing pieces on a wide variety of topics, including this recent interview with Nicole Krauss covering her new novel Great House.
●
●
The Puddlies
Powell's Books announces their Puddly Awards. Vote for your favorite book of the last decade.