“You could call Zero K a grand summation of DeLillo’s career themes and prose stylings. You could also call it recycling.” Tony Tulathimutte reviews Don DeLillo’s “techno-prophetic novel,” Zero K. To revisit DeLillo’s prior work, check out David Rice’s review of The Angel Esmeralda.
Recycling
Greene Family Biography
Jeremy Lewis introduces his new biography of Graham Greene and his remarkable family, Shades of Greene, for the Telegraph.
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Vintage Interview with Jaimy Gordon
While you’re waiting to get your hands on Lord of Misrule, the National Book Award winner by Jaimy Gordon, Gargoyle Magazine posts an interview with Gordon from 1983. (via The Paris Review).
Revisiting ‘The Decameron’ in Quarantine
Elyse Martin examines how Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron—a collection of "medieval Italian sex stories"—shows that storytelling is integral to our survival.
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Antidote Man
According to Smithsonian Magazine, Buzzfeed is the mortal enemy of the highbrow Lapham’s Quarterly. Regardless of which source of media you side with in the rivalry, it’s worth reading through their profile of Lewis Lapham.
Tuesday New Release Day: Martin, Pollock, Spiotta, Ball, Weiner, Peach, Goodman
New this week is George R.R. Martin’s latest Song of Ice and Fire installment, A Dance with Dragons. Also hitting shelves: Donald Ray Pollock’s The Devil All the Time and Dana Spiotta’s Stone Arabia (Don’t miss our preview with tons more upcoming books.) Jesse Ball, whose The Curfew has just come out, also has a new collection, The Village on Horseback. Jennifer Weiner’s new book, Then Came You, is out, as is the first issue of McSweeney’s new food magazine, Lucky Peach. Out in paperback: Allegra Goodman’s The Cookbook Collector.
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Still not bleak house.
Laura Miller wants us all to stop calling The Wire a Victorian novel, because it is in fact a television drama.
Leading Ladies
“[I]f your kid isn’t reading yet, he won’t know you’re gender-swapping Elliot the elephant.” Lifehacker considers how to get boys to read so-called “girls’ books,” i.e., enjoy books with both male and female protagonists. Pair with T.K. Dalton‘s consideration of gender, childrearing, and reading.
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