This essay from Garth Greenwell at The New Yorker about gay mystery novelist Michael Nava is as fascinating as it is informative. Then, let Daniel Friedman at The Millions spoil the genre for you with his take on the very few ways to tie up a mystery.
The Little Death
Literature on Tape
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Library of Congress has made 50 recordings from the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape available online. Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriela Mistral, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, and others read from their work.
Tuesday New Release Day: Murakami; Williams; Steinke; Cao; Bausch; Flanagan; Row
Haruki Murakami’s latest (which we reviewed) is out this week, as is a new edition of Augustus, the 1973 National Book Award winner by Stoner author John Williams. Also out: Friendswood by Rene Steinke; The Lotus and the Storm by Lan Cao; Before, During, After by Richard Bausch; The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan; and Your Face In Mine by Jess Row (which I wrote about for our Great Second-half 2014 Book Preview).
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“Gaza, Timna, my Valley girl / who spilled me in broad daylight.”
James Lasdun, whose forthcoming memoir was covered by yours truly in our Great Second-Half 2012 Book Preview, has a new poem in Poetry Magazine. Read it if you like cool things.
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Against Neutrality
Over at World Literature Today, Diane Clarke writes against neutrality, capital letters, and easy translation. “I want a poetics of translation that is not just anti-assimilationist.” Pair with this Millions essay about translators at work.
Maybe This Is Why They Take So Long to Finish
Robert A. Caro, who releases new installments of his Lyndon B. Johnson biography at a glacial pace, is apparently also working on another project, too. It’s “not a memoir, exactly,” he says, but it does concern “how he came to write the Johnson biography and its predecessor, The Power Broker.”
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