“What is missing from Testimony is the customary idealistic hero, the one last encountered in Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass who doesn’t avert his eyes from suffering and sordidness, but who nevertheless is full of hope for a better future. Testimony is a corrective, an anti-epic.” Charles Simić recounts Charles Reznikoff’s long poem Testimony: The United States (1885-1915): Recitative in the NYRB.
The Idealistic Hero
Swedish Covers
50 watts, a blog dedicated to book-related design and illustration, takes a look at Swedish book covers.
Murakami’s Translator
Jay Rubin, who spent a year and a half translating the first two books of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, has some interesting things to say about the prolific author.
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“If there was ever a people that knew how to handle a hangover, surely it is we.”
John Banville looks at the "persistently grim cheerfulness" of the Irish people.
Movies R Fun
Check out the online slideshow of Movies R Fun, a collection of drawings done for the 2010 “Lil’ Inappropriate Golden Books” series by Pixar story artist Josh Cooley. He even sells prints on his website.
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Anything for Money
On Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading Tumblr, check out National Book Award finalist Karen E. Bender’s short story “Anything for Money.”
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