“Eventually, the judicial bureaucracy begins to seem almost as destructive as the rapist.” Domenica Ruta writes on Emily Winslow’s Jane Doe January and Joanna Connors’ I Will Find You, two books that probe our culture’s failure to address sexual violence. Pair with a piece on poetry as a response to sexual violence.
Responding to Sexual Violence
A Few More Goodbyes
Hopefully you've read Eryn Loeb’s Millions review of Goodbye to All That, a collection of essays by noted writers on the weird sorrow of leaving New York City. Contributors include Dani Shapiro, whom we interviewed back in October, Emma Straub, who wrote an essay for The Millions back in July, and Millions staff writer Emily St. John Mandel. At the LARB, Mason Currey says he dreaded reading the book out of fear that it would raise old anxieties, but then says that his hesitations “quickly evaporated” when he started reading.
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The Fall of the House of Medill
Megan McKinney’s Magnificent Medills and Amanda Smith’s Newspaper Titan chronicle the escapades of Joseph Medill and the power and zaniness of his prominent press family.
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Fiction Changing History
In an article for Vanity Fair, Meredith Turtis argues that "perhaps fiction... can change the place women have in history," by giving forgotten figures new lives as characters with fascinating stories to tell. She cites Paula McClain's just-released Circling the Sun, about a trailblazing female aviator, and Megan Mayhew Bergman's Almost Famous Women, which could have been included based on the title alone. Her argument pairs well with our own Hannah Gersen's review of Jami Attenberg's Saint Mazie, a novel that fictionalizes the life and voice of a very real "Bowery celebrity."
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Book Collecting Bonanza
At Bookride, the top 20 sites for book collectors.
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Bourdain’s “Gourmet Slaughterfest” Graphic Novel
Guardian reports that Anthony Bourdain is writing a new “gourmet slaughterfest” graphic novel about “ultraviolent food nerds,” intended to be “a cross between Eat Drink Man Woman and A Fistful of Dollars.”
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Everyone Is an Immigrant
Eliza Griswold's got a great essay up on The Poetry Foundation's website. It's about poetry and reportage in Lampedusa, the largest island in the Italian Pelagie chain.
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