(Reluctantly) Recommended Reading: On the surprising racism of children’s books.
The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance
Speculation
"The only kind of drama is human drama. What matters is how deep you dig." At the Ploughshares blog, a case for science fiction over "dysfunctional family dramas."
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Houellebecq Wins France’s Top Literary Award
Controversial writer Michel Houellebecq finally wins France's top literary award, the Goncourt Prize, for The Map and the Territory (published in French last September).
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A Suitable Adaptation
“We are here to take creative risks and to do the sort of work that commercial broadcasters might be more reluctant to do. But we also have a real responsibility and a requirement to reflect a range of British communities.” Bestill our hearts, the BBC is adapting Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy as its first period drama with a non-white cast, reports The Telegraph. Our own Lydia Kiesling described Seth's epic as "a spectacularly romantic novel, weddings all over," but noted sadly that "it portends falling in love with the man you can marry, in lieu of the one that you can’t."
Post-Maidan
Recommended Reading: Marci Shore on reading Tony Judt’s Postwar in modern Ukraine.