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Thursday July 27, 2006

Review

Breece D'J Pancake's Short, Stunning Career

July 27, 2006 • Breece D'J Pancake took his own life in 1979, not long after The Atlantic Monthly published his first stories. He was 26. Author Susan Straight often shares his work with twentysomething students. She wants them "to heed the fullness of his fictional world... his anger and exact prose."

Tuesday July 25, 2006

Review

Appreciating Buford's Passionate 'Heat'

July 25, 2006 • Book critic Oscar Villalon offers his appreciation of Bill Buford's new memoir Heat. Inspired by Italian star chef Mario Batali, Buford experiences a trial by fire in the kitchen of one of New York's top restaurants.

Appreciating Buford's Passionate 'Heat'

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Thursday July 20, 2006

Review

Jonathan Ames' Personal Hardboiled Hero

July 20, 2006 • Author Jonathan Ames extols the virtues of Dashiell Hammett's hardboiled classic, The Dain Curse. "I started reading Hammett about a dozen years ago, after a long and enjoyable romance with Chandler," Ames says. "I return and reread both writers all the time."

Tuesday July 18, 2006

Review

Terror and Tenderness in 'Suite Francaise'

July 18, 2006 • The real-life story behind Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise is a compelling one: the author's manuscript lay unread for years after her death at the Auschwitz camp. But Nemirovsky's writing, notes author Elizabeth Strout, can stand up to its own tragic provenance.

Terror and Tenderness in 'Suite Francaise'

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Thursday July 13, 2006

Review

Zoe Heller on a Joseph Roth Classic

July 13, 2006 • Zoe Heller realizes that her work may not have much in common with Joseph Roth. But Roth's The Radetzky March, she says, has a quality to it that she would not mind emulating. His writing makes Heller feel "a surge of renewed enthusiasm and energy for the business of novel-writing."

Friday July 7, 2006

Review

Why 'Lolita' Remains Shocking, And A Favorite

July 7, 2006 • Author Bret Anthony Johnston offers his endorsement of the classic. Part of the genius in Vladimir Nabokov's tale of pedophilic love, says Johnston, is that the author makes his readers complicit.

Why 'Lolita' Remains Shocking, And A Favorite

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Thursday July 6, 2006

Review

Mosley's Intergalactic Coming-of-Age Tale: '47'

July 6, 2006 • Walter Mosley, the creator of the bestselling Easy Rawlings mysteries, has accomplished something remarkable with his young-adult novel 47, according to author Steven Barnes: "He used the struggles of one frightened boy to represent [a] common yearning."

Mosley's Intergalactic Coming-of-Age Tale: '47'

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Wednesday July 5, 2006

Review

Bizarre Soulmates: The Magic of 'His Dark Materials'

July 5, 2006 • When cooking author Julie Powell is looking for a hit of adolescent intensity, she heads for Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Those books "suck me under and spit me out, feeling as drained and fulfilled as a hormone-crazed bookworm half my age," she says.

Bizarre Soulmates: The Magic of 'His Dark Materials'

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Tuesday July 4, 2006

Review

Glorying in Sean Wilsey's Vivid Memoir

July 4, 2006 • The combination of writing talent and juicy material on display in Sean Wilsey's memoir Oh the Glory of It All is what has author Curtis Sittenfeld singing its praises to others. The people and places described "come explosively and thrillingly alive," says the author of Prep.

Glorying in Sean Wilsey's Vivid Memoir

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Monday July 3, 2006

Review

An Author Asks That You 'Consider the Lobster'

July 3, 2006 • If David Lipsky had to give an alien one book about American life, it would be David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster, a collection of essays that are "experiential postcards." Lipsky is the author of Absolutely American : Four Years at West Point.

An Author Asks That You 'Consider the Lobster'

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Thursday June 29, 2006

Review

'Dirty Snow': Dismal Perfection

June 29, 2006 • Georges Simenon's Dirty Snow, a noir chronicle of a mean, vicious soul, is anything but the feel-good read of the summer. But novelist Jim Hynes is going to recommend it to you anyway.

Friday June 23, 2006

Review

A Historian's Pivotal Take on Theodore Roosevelt

June 23, 2006 • For decades after his death, Roosevelt was regarded as a hyperactive New York swell. It wasn't until John Morton Blum published The Republican Roosevelt that Roosevelt assumed his stature as a force to be reckoned with in the Oval Office. Political historian Lewis Gould talks about the impact of Blum's study.

Friday June 16, 2006

Review

Sam Lipsyte on Elkin's Comic 'Living End'

June 16, 2006 • Sam Lipsyte, author of the recent comic novels Home Land and The Subject Steve, discusses Stanley Elkin's vision of life, the universe and everything.

Thursday June 8, 2006

Review

Tom Perrotta Hails Suburban Sendup 'Neighbors'

June 8, 2006 • Thomas Berger's Neighbors recounts the chaotic events of the deliriously sleepless weekend that descends on a suburban family when a shady couple move in next door. Tom Perrotta, a sharp suburban satirist himself, appreciates Berger's antic tale.

Friday June 2, 2006

Review

Pelecanos on the Enduring Power of 'True Grit'

June 2, 2006 • True Grit is a tale of vengeance told in the deceptively innocent voice of a 14-year-old frontier girl. George Pelecanos, master of noir fiction set in contemporary Washington, D.C., hails it as "one of the very best American novels."