At Ploughshares, take a journey through Florence with Emily Smith (and Dante).
Da Firenze
Shiny Unhappy People
Julia Fierro discusses her new book Cutting Teeth and the anxiety of privileged Americans in the digital age with Tin House. “They should be happy, but they aren’t, and they are aware that they are not and that they should be, and this awareness makes them loathe themselves.”
Fail Music
Novels written by accomplished writers about failed artists are nothing new. What is new is seeing a once-successful novel about a failed artist — one that’s been out-of-print for twenty years — get a burst of renewed attention.
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The Art of Rejection
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“Bob wasn’t the settling sort.”
I promise you that the best thing you’ll read today is this remembrance of the Kilimanjaro climbin’, chemotherapy-cocktail imbibin’, tank bustin’ and cricket playin’ life of Major Robert Crisp, D.S.O, M.C.
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RIP Harry Crews
Dwight Garner, Maud Newton, and Jason Diamond are among the many to mourn the passing of Harry Crews this past week. “Few writers,” Garner writes of Crews, “could touch his authority and muscle.”
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