The Millions is delighted to welcome new staff writer Marie Myung-Ok Lee, whose first piece for the site publishes today. Marie is the author of Somebody’s Daughter and a novel about medicine forthcoming from Simon and Schuster. You may have seen Marie‘s excellent writing in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues. She teaches fiction at Columbia.
Welcome, Marie!
“This ghoulish treasure trove”
At one time considered to be the work of demons or incubi, sleep paralysis – the “transition state between wakefulness and rest characterized by complete muscle atonia” – has since become accepted as a well-documented and not very uncommon phenomenon. Still, “the experience can be terrifying,” writes Karen Emslie in her recent piece about making the best of the condition.
Two Davids and The Bone Clocks
Recommended listening: David Naimon interviews David Mitchell about "time, maps, cats," and The Bone Clocks (which we reviewed here) for Between the Covers.
Drunk Pynchon
Here’s a literary challenge I can really support: one blogger has decided to mix himself every drink mentioned in Thomas Pynchon’s books. You can follow along at his site, Drunk Pynchon.
●
●
Waste of the Young
Fifty years after T.S. Eliot’s death, the poet’s estate has finally agreed to authorize a biography, which explains the publication of Young Eliot, a new book on his early years. Among other things, the book reveals details about Eliot’s first marriage, in which his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood gave him the nickname “dearest Wonkypenky.”
The Summer Rooster Crows Soon
We are longtime fans (and participants) of The Morning News's Tournament of Books, and so were thrilled to learn they're starting up a summer book club with a ToB twist. Join them in reading Katie Kitamura's A Separation and The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge, starting in just a week and a half.
●
●
“I run around my house with bacon on my head and Sam Tanenhaus is sending me notes.”
Ron Charles, the WaPo's fiction critic and the witty and winning originator of the "video book review" genre, gets profiled in Publishers Weekly.
●
●
She Said, He Said
"Ms. Cline, who was 27 when the novel came out, was celebrated as a major new talent. But for the last two years, her success has been overshadowed, in private, by legal threats levied against her by a former boyfriend." Emma Cline, bestselling author of The Girls, and her ex-boyfriend, Chaz Reetz-Laiolo, have filed public lawsuits against each other including allegations of plagiarism, physical abuse, and intimidation, according to the New York Times. From our archives: staff writer Michael Bourne's review of Cline's debut novel.