Year in Reading alumnus Thomas Mallon’s foreword to the new edition of John O’Hara’s 1940 novel Pal Joey is available in The Paris Review Daily. Mallon predicts that “ O’Hara’s moment for a really breakout revival—outdated enough to be exotic—may at last be upon us.”
Cheap Night Club, South Side of Chicago
The Perils of Litchat
“Like all great literature, [David Foster Wallace’s] books do many things at once. Litchat, however, is singleminded.” Laura Miller discusses “the perils of litchat” at The New Yorker and how it has affected the legacy of David Foster Wallace. For less litchat, read our review of The David Foster Wallace Reader.
Did You Say Paid?
“It is intended to attract candidates who otherwise would not have access to publishing, and to therefore increase the diversity and inclusivity of the industry.” Indie publisher Graywolf Press is offering a paid, 10-month internship “designed to support a person who is interested in learning more about the publishing industry through an introductory, hands-on experience.”
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Baldwin in the Classroom
James Baldwin couldn’t be more relevant, but he is fading from America’s high school classrooms. His controversial writing, censorship, poor student reading habits, and absence from the Common Core are all to blame for the lack of Baldwin in the curriculum. Pair with: Our essay on why Baldwin’s work still resonates.
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Music for Thought
The moral conundrum that can be the white hip hop critic.
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When Five Years Pass
“New houses get built, and new songs are sung … and I am the same, in the same trembling state.” Things are not going very well at the newly built Federico García Lorca center in Granada, Spain. Patience is wearing thin as members of the García Lorca Foundation continue tangling with government officials over control of the center, which is intended to house nearly 20,000 items — manuscripts, drawings, musical compositions and artworks valued at more than 20 million euros.
Blurbing for Laughs
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“There is so much life in cemeteries.”
Recommended Reading: “There Goes Valzer,” a new short story by László Krasznahorkai. (Translated by George Szirtes.)
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