“Though female authors write experimental novels about women—like Renata Adler’s Speedboat or Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be?—the avant-garde has long been associated with male authors and stories. That association made Alexandra Kleeman’s You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine seem doubly unusual.” On Kleeman’s debut novel and blatantly feminine themes in the avant-garde.
Pynchon Possessed by the Spirit of a Teenaged Girl
New Scott McClanahan
Recommended Reading: new Scott McClanahan. I repeat: new Scott McClanahan.
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More on Myers
Yesterday, I wrote that I "[had] yet to read a comprehensive debunking" of B.R. Myers. For those still interested, I've been directed to some candidates: Meghan O'Rourke (2001), Daniel Green (2007), the Washington City Paper (2010, concerning neocon ideology and the shadowy RAND corporation), and part I of Steven Moore's The Novel: An Alternative History.
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“The petty savageries of family”
Recommended Reading: Laura Bogart on the weird art of memoir writing. (h/t The Rumpus)
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Appearing Elsewhere
This Thursday, at Housing Works Bookstore in New York, Garth will represent The Millions in a live quiz show called (accurately) Don't Know Much About Literature. Kenneth C. and Jenny Davis, authors of DKMAL, the book, will host. Co-contestants include Jason Boog of Galleycat, Ed Champion of Reluctant Habits, Jason Toal of HTML GIANT, Catherine Lacey, and Buzz Poole of Mark Batty Publisher. We're told buzzers and beer are in the offing, and that second round contestants "include you!" We'd love to see you there.
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New Documentary on James Salter
Checkerboard Films has produced a new documentary film on James Salter, "James Salter: A Sport and a Pastime." You can see Nick Antosca and myself, waxing admiringly, as the "young literary voices" who've been influenced by Salter.
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Grocery Shopping with Jess Walter
“I didn’t want to like Jess Walter.” Ann K. Ryles interviews Jess Walter about his new short story collection We Live in Water, fatherhood, poverty, and what he daydreams about while waiting in line at the grocery store at The Rumpus.
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“I’ll sell it all.”
Recommended Reading: “World That Owes” by Delaney Nolan.
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