“A dark and insane fantasy about the players large and small who populated our post-9/11 landscape, it’s not just the book we’ve maybe wanted but possibly the book we’ve needed — a strange lens to help us understand who we were, what we’ve done and who we may yet become.” Nathan Deuel reviews Mark Doten‘s The Infernal (which Adam Fleming Petty reviewed for the Millions here) for the LA Times.
A Necessary Delirium
Viet Thanh Nguyen and the Refugee’s Narrative
Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses the complexity behind refugee narratives and resisting the temptation of shallow representation.
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Neil Gaiman Lane
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is now an actual lane. Neil Gaiman’s hometown, Portsmouth, England, named a bus lane after his novel last Sunday. Sadly, the magical Hempstock family doesn’t live at the end of it.
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Banning the Russian Language
If you want to read a book with obscenity in it in Russia after July 1, you’ll find it in a sealed package with a warning label. The law is the latest in Vladimir Putin’s censorship crusade and also bans swearing in films and live performance. Interestingly, the banned words are still up for the debate by the Ministry of Culture. At The New Yorker, David Remnick discusses just how unique and diverse the Russian language’s profanity is.
So Tired Today
Recommended Reading: Year in Reading alumna Roxane Gay on the importance and exhaustion of continually bearing witness.
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Blursing In Disguise
“A dictionary is just a book, a product, no different from Fifty Shades of Grey and only slightly better written.” A few rules for making up words.
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If you need a book to explain to you what we’ve been doing for the last decade and who we are as a nation then you are an idiot.