Super Sad True Love Story is a brilliant new satirical novel, set in the near future, built on what writer Gary Shteyngart realized was the crucial difference between the great futurist novels Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and l984, by George Orwell (of course). As Shteyngart points out in this typically great interview withContinue reading “The truth about Super Sad True Love Story”
Category Archives: Books
Obvi: a new word for the 21st century
That's according to Gary Shteyngart, author of the brilliant/disturbing Super Sad True Love Story…and according, today, to Doonesbury, ever on the cutting edge of American culture: Obvi: a word whose form embodies its meaning. It's so obvious, you don't need the whole word.
Misreading (and Misunderstanding) Cheever
The reviews of the first major biography of this country's greatest short story writer, Cheever: A Life, by Blake Bailey, have been a bit glum. The late John Updike, who greatly admired his work, and knew Cheever about as well as Cheever would allow him to, called the book "a heavy, dispiriting read." The ChristianContinue reading “Misreading (and Misunderstanding) Cheever”
The Scariest Opening to an Essay Ever
From Keeping It In the Family, by Claire Watkins, in Granta's recent Fathers issue. My father first came to Death Valley because Charles Manson told him to. He always did what Charlie said; that was what it meant to be in The Family. It's a great little memoir/essay, no more than about 700 words long.Continue reading “The Scariest Opening to an Essay Ever”
Science vs. a Love-Sick Astronaut
Short version: science doesn't stand a chance. In the course of reviewing a couple of recent global warming books, Chris Mooney explains why we're falling to face the facts of "A Really Long Heat Wave." He writes with reason, not sweetness, but just enough piquancy to make his review enticing, despite the grimness of theContinue reading “Science vs. a Love-Sick Astronaut”
Poetry at the Presidential Inauguration: A Bad Idea?
Seemingly the only way to be noticed as a poet in America today is to have an enormous personality, and then to go on and inflate it to a size suitable for mass media spectaculars. (I'm thinking of the likes of Allen Ginsberg or Patti Smith, both of whom — by the way — areContinue reading “Poetry at the Presidential Inauguration: A Bad Idea?”
The Privilege of the Grave: essay of the year
Today David Brooks nominated some worthy magazine pieces to remember from 2008, but surely all living writers of 2008 were trumped by the magnificent essay published in last week's New Yorker by Mark Twain, The Privilege of the Grave, the opening to which you can read below. No short writing could be more to theContinue reading “The Privilege of the Grave: essay of the year”
Why This Global Warming Book is Different: A Review of Dire Predictions
More books on global warming have been published in the last couple of years than anyone in their right mind (or even, anyone in the field) would want to read. Many of them are very good: Australian biologist Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers tells the story from an evolutionist's point of view with great passionContinue reading “Why This Global Warming Book is Different: A Review of Dire Predictions”
On the Storyteller, by Doris Lessing
From her great Nobel Prize speech: Ask any modern storyteller and they will say there is always a moment when they are touched with fire, with what we like to call inspiration, and this goes back and back to the beginning of our race, to fire and ice and the great winds that shaped usContinue reading “On the Storyteller, by Doris Lessing”
Scientific Surrealism: Paleo-Nerd Edition
File this under books I just have to read. A distinguished museum paleotologist, Kirk Johnson, and a friend and an artist named Ray Troll, recount (and draw) nine years worth of adventure on the road in the West, searching for lost and found fossils. The book is called Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway. Sounds fascinating, andContinue reading “Scientific Surrealism: Paleo-Nerd Edition”
Kit Stolz 