Anne Enright, who won the Man Booker for her 2007 novel, The Gathering, has a new book out, The Green Road. Like its predecessor, the novel tracks a large Irish family, the Madigans, in a plotline that spans three decades. In the Times, David Leavitt reviews the book.
All in the Family
River Phoenix’s Final Film
In 1993, River Phoenix was working on Dark Blood, an independent film that was supposed to be the underdog surprise of the year. But when Phoenix died three weeks before shooting was supposed to wrap, the project stopped in its tracks. Now, almost 20 years later, the original director and editor are piecing the bits together, and they plan on screening it at the Netherlands Film Festival in September.
●
●
The Poet Carried No Revolvers
Recommended Viewing: Go and check out the delightfully illustrated comic “Amiri Baraka Is in Contempt” by Nathan Gelgud at The Paris Review.
The Tournament of Books
The field has been set for The Morning News‘ annual Tournament of Books. Who will emerge victorious this year? Will it be a DeWitt or a deWitt?
●
●
Curiosities
An excerpt of the lost and recently found Alexandre Dumas novel The Last CavalierAn assessment of poetic cliches in VQR. The surprise: some actually improve your chance of getting published.Jennifer Gilmore interviews the criminally underrated Max Apple.That novelists’ strike not working out so well.Despite some withering condescension, Robert Gottlieb has interesting things to say about John Steinbeck.Penguin UK offers up some alternative storytelling techniques with its We Tell Stories site. The first is a tale by Charles Cumming told by messages inserted into Google Maps. (Thx, Mrs. Millions)Books cops like. (Thx, Laurie)The trend of the massive hyper-expensive book continues.Daniel Radosh points out that the New York Times has, yet again, published a trend piece on bloggers getting book deals.And finally… The Catalog of Unfit Toys: Finding Delight in the Defective
●
●
●
●