Out this week: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite; Asymmetry by Adam Zagajewski; Hannah Versus the Tree by Leland de la Durantaye; Walking Backwards by John Koethe; and Art Matters by Neil Gaiman. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
Tuesday New Release Day: Braithwaite; Zagajewski; de la Durantaye; Koethe; Gaiman
DFW Details
Craig Fehrman digs up and posts the Details‘ 1996 profile of David Foster Wallace that is mentioned a few times in Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself but has until now not been available online.
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The Full Stop Book Club
Hot new online magazine Full Stop has chosen The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books as its inaugural book club selection. The discussion will be happening all this week.
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Mean Reading
In the current issue of Tin House Robin Romm has a very compelling essay on the value of mean-spirited judgement in our novels, especially as empathy becomes reified into fiction’s greatest gift and virtue, or even treated as a therapeutic offering.
New Lorrie Moore on the Way
Publicity bigwig Paul Bogaards spilled the beans on Twitter Thursday night: Lorrie Moore has a new short fiction collection in the pipeline. It’s slated for March 2014 release.
Defining American Writing
In TNR, Ruth Franklin attempts to debunk the “strangely antiquated definition of American writing” posited in Dalkey’s Best European Fiction anthology. (via)
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Greil Marcus on The Doors, Pauline Kael, and James Wolcott
In an interview for The Atlantic, Greil Marcus talks about his new book The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years. Later on, however, he tosses off his gloves to dismiss the bits about Pauline Kael in James Wolcott’s memoir Lucking Out. “I’m not really interested in what Jim has to say about Pauline,” Marcus says. “He became an acolyte of Pauline’s in a way that was embarrassing to read, when he was mimicking her and celebrating her in The Village Voice.“
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