After thirty years, Larry Kramer has finished his novel The American People, which he prefers to consider a new form of nonfiction. In the novel, a narrator based largely on Kramer writes a historical expose, also titled The American People, in which numerous American icons are described as having been gay. As Kramer says, he wrote the book in part out of a feeling that gay people are excluded from history books.
A People’s History
52 Years Since Lolita
52 years since Lolita: The Reader’s Almanac recounts the many publishers who turned down Nabokov’s masterpiece in 1953. From one rejection letter: “I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.” (via @ElectricLit)
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Did You Hear?
Gossip is often seen as inherently frivolous and trashy, which is why it’s odd that a poet would use it as the subject of his or her work. On The Poetry Foundation’s blog, Austin Allen writes about George Green’s collection Lord Byron’s Foot, in which, as Allen puts it, “the dish spares no one.” (h/t Arts and Letters Daily)
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A Public Private Experience
“[S]he and her sister should not be affected by the riot. Riots like this were what she read about in newspapers. Riots like this were what happened to other people.” The Guardian runs ‘A Private Experience,’ a short story from Year-in-Reading alum Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
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Cheering Up the Country
Recommended Reading: Booker Prize winner Anne Enright on Donal Ryan’s The Thing About December.
The Wire
The October 15 Boston Book Festival boasts a lot of wonders, but one event you shouldn’t miss is “The Wire” writer and producer George Pelecanos alongside series cast members. They’ll discuss “issues of race, class, and institutional failure as portrayed by the most critically-acclaimed series in television history.” Last month, a similar event was held at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe to launch the issue of Criticism dedicated to “Why The Wire (Still) Matters“.
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