but the lineup of authors confirmed for the upcoming Word on the Street festival in Kitchener this year is spectacular.
It hasn't been announced yet, but it rivals any other WOTS event in Canada this year.
Full marks to the other committee members for their diligence and élan.
Book savvy shoppers are always clamouring at WOTS and that's wonderful, but this year there's a monster incentive to get to Victoria Park on Sunday September 28.
Watch this space or the link above for the lineup announcement.
Posted by David
Thursday, July 31, 2008
For openers
A couple introductory reviews of the new Pelecanos and the soon to be big novel of the year.
Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson is an epic narrative and his publisher is putting considerable resources behind it.
Davidson will be dropping by the shop Sept. 25.
Posted by David
Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson is an epic narrative and his publisher is putting considerable resources behind it.
Davidson will be dropping by the shop Sept. 25.
Posted by David
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Booker long list
is up and it's all (or damn near all) long shots. Love it.
It wasn't my kind of thing, but Child 44 may usher in a welcome trend for an occasional thriller to get some literary love.
Okay it'll never happen, but it should.
It says here it's Michelle de Kretser's year, although I never get these things right.
Winner is announced Oct 14, but John Sutherland wonders what all the fuss is about.
"What the long list did, commercially, was to create a ready-made window display for the bookshops and lay down a reading list between now and October for the country's reading groups, who will now be on their mettle to match their wits against Portillo's quintet. In short, the longlist is good for business. It boils the kettle."
Apparently Mr. Sutherland and I differ greatly on what a boiled kettle looks like.
More lists please, at least until I can get by on 700 calories a day.
Posted by David
It wasn't my kind of thing, but Child 44 may usher in a welcome trend for an occasional thriller to get some literary love.
Okay it'll never happen, but it should.
It says here it's Michelle de Kretser's year, although I never get these things right.
Winner is announced Oct 14, but John Sutherland wonders what all the fuss is about.
"What the long list did, commercially, was to create a ready-made window display for the bookshops and lay down a reading list between now and October for the country's reading groups, who will now be on their mettle to match their wits against Portillo's quintet. In short, the longlist is good for business. It boils the kettle."
Apparently Mr. Sutherland and I differ greatly on what a boiled kettle looks like.
More lists please, at least until I can get by on 700 calories a day.
Posted by David
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Threat Matrix
The Guardian offers both sides of the coin regarding E-readers.
I'm already tired of the ongoing debate around the merits of these things. Let them come if they must. It'll be a disaster for anyone wanting to write for a living, particularly fiction, but the larger impediment to my continued intake of some of my favourite things is "readers block" as defined by the Guardian as well.
It happens to authors too. Now I'll never get tired of praising Lionel Shriver, but she gives over to Richard Yates in her bit. He damn sure did write some of the best short stories in the English language and whatever gets done to the movie, he also came as close as anyone to writing the Great American Novel.
Additionally, Germaine Greer is still in a bad mood.
Posted by David
I'm already tired of the ongoing debate around the merits of these things. Let them come if they must. It'll be a disaster for anyone wanting to write for a living, particularly fiction, but the larger impediment to my continued intake of some of my favourite things is "readers block" as defined by the Guardian as well.
It happens to authors too. Now I'll never get tired of praising Lionel Shriver, but she gives over to Richard Yates in her bit. He damn sure did write some of the best short stories in the English language and whatever gets done to the movie, he also came as close as anyone to writing the Great American Novel.
Additionally, Germaine Greer is still in a bad mood.
Posted by David
Saturday, July 26, 2008
I almost read the whole thing
The NY Times wonders if reading online replaces the real thing.
On one hand, struggling readers can get a start, but reading on the Internet doesn't replace immersing oneself in a book.
I think the main point is made by a guy who likely knows the lay of the land as well as anyone, Dana Gioia of the National Endowment for the Arts, who said,
“What we are losing in this country and presumably around the world is the sustained, focused, linear attention developed by reading,” said Mr. Gioia of the N.E.A. “I would believe people who tell me that the Internet develops reading if I did not see such a universal decline in reading ability and reading comprehension on virtually all tests.”
Put me in full agreement on that, but I'm not about to tell a concerned parent that nothing can be found online to at least give a kid not taken with books a prayer either.
Speaking strictly as a bookseller however, it's not complicated folks. Parents who read and are seen by their kids reading, generally don't have to work at getting their kids to read.
You know who you are.
Stuff like this makes me worried, but I try to be a bit even handed. One of my favourite people doesn't bother, and he makes for much more entertaining reading than anything I'm coming up with.
Posted by David
On one hand, struggling readers can get a start, but reading on the Internet doesn't replace immersing oneself in a book.
I think the main point is made by a guy who likely knows the lay of the land as well as anyone, Dana Gioia of the National Endowment for the Arts, who said,
“What we are losing in this country and presumably around the world is the sustained, focused, linear attention developed by reading,” said Mr. Gioia of the N.E.A. “I would believe people who tell me that the Internet develops reading if I did not see such a universal decline in reading ability and reading comprehension on virtually all tests.”
Put me in full agreement on that, but I'm not about to tell a concerned parent that nothing can be found online to at least give a kid not taken with books a prayer either.
Speaking strictly as a bookseller however, it's not complicated folks. Parents who read and are seen by their kids reading, generally don't have to work at getting their kids to read.
You know who you are.
Stuff like this makes me worried, but I try to be a bit even handed. One of my favourite people doesn't bother, and he makes for much more entertaining reading than anything I'm coming up with.
Posted by David
Thursday, July 24, 2008
first up
in our author series for summer/fall is crime fiction stalwart Gail Bowen.
Brutal Heart is the eleventh Joanne Kilbourn mystery. I just got an advance and its solid so far.
In a year of solid homegrown mayhem, this is an exciting development.
That's August 28th in store.
Review to come soonest.
Posted by David
Brutal Heart is the eleventh Joanne Kilbourn mystery. I just got an advance and its solid so far.
In a year of solid homegrown mayhem, this is an exciting development.
That's August 28th in store.
Review to come soonest.
Posted by David
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Poetry not so fabulous, says Joanna Lumley
In a curious tirade, former Booker Prize judge and full time icon Joanna Lumley tore a strip off of the state of poetry in Britain yesterday.
"When Joanna Lumley agreed to pen an introduction to a collection of poems, she probably thought she was simply doing a favour for an unknown poet in need of a publicity boost. Instead, the Absolutely Fabulous star has caused controversy by publishing views on modern poetry that have offended some of Britain's best-known writers.
Rather than limiting her comments to the book in question, Lumley attacked contemporary poetry, dismissing 'so much' of it as maddeningly obscure and, at worst, self-indulgent. At the other extreme, she argued that less demanding poetry risked becoming humdrum and commonplace."
Now Patsy, er.. Joanna, I love you but you're just wrong. The pleasures of poetry are a bit more subtle and so forth but I think she suffered from being force fed too much of the early moderns in grammar school and never got over it. Things are a bit different now.
I've never understood the idea that poetry is any harder to figure out than any other written form. There are a hell of a lot of novelists who could use words with more dispatch if some poetry was part of the mix. Secondly the idea the one needs a bunch of education to appreciate poetry is just silly.
You still rock though.
Posted by David
"When Joanna Lumley agreed to pen an introduction to a collection of poems, she probably thought she was simply doing a favour for an unknown poet in need of a publicity boost. Instead, the Absolutely Fabulous star has caused controversy by publishing views on modern poetry that have offended some of Britain's best-known writers.
Rather than limiting her comments to the book in question, Lumley attacked contemporary poetry, dismissing 'so much' of it as maddeningly obscure and, at worst, self-indulgent. At the other extreme, she argued that less demanding poetry risked becoming humdrum and commonplace."
Now Patsy, er.. Joanna, I love you but you're just wrong. The pleasures of poetry are a bit more subtle and so forth but I think she suffered from being force fed too much of the early moderns in grammar school and never got over it. Things are a bit different now.
I've never understood the idea that poetry is any harder to figure out than any other written form. There are a hell of a lot of novelists who could use words with more dispatch if some poetry was part of the mix. Secondly the idea the one needs a bunch of education to appreciate poetry is just silly.
You still rock though.
Posted by David
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Great taste, more filling
Every year before the latest George Pelecanos novel comes out, profiles appear that among other things, wonder why crime fiction this good doesn't get the kind of attention given to Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane etc.
"'His book advances kept growing. The latest, in 2004, was $1.5 million for three novels, the second of which is The Turnaround. The first of the three, The Night Gardener (2006), based on the case of Washington's never-caught serial murderer known as the "Freeway Phantom," got a big push from Little, Brown and made the New York Times bestseller list, a first for Pelecanos. "The trajectory of his sales is steadily upward, and the span of potential readers is unusually broad for him, including readers of traditional crime fiction and literary fiction," said Michael Pietsch, executive vice president and publisher at Little, Brown. The Night Gardener sold 41,829 copies in hardcover, according to Little, Brown. (Nielsen BookScan, which claims to count about 70 percent of sales for a typical hardcover, counted 29,109.) Michael Connelly, who is also published by Little, Brown, routinely sells more than 10 times as many in hardcover, and Pietsch believes that Pelecanos can get to that level with a breakout book connected to a successful movie adaptation. "There's still a lot of gunpowder lying around," said Pietsch, meaning that while The Night Gardener was a major step up in sales for Pelecanos, it didn't touch off the explosion of interest in him that, say, Mystic River did for Dennis Lehane. Little, Brown thinks it can turn Pelecanos into a brand that produces a bestseller every time out."
Now there's nothing wrong with 41 thousand plus, but I've read both Lehane and Connelly and they are both deservedly in the front rank of American crime writing. They aren't as good as George Pelecanos and one wonders what has to happen for someone out there to put out a passable movie. It's not like he's not well connected.
Anyway, the Turnaround comes out next week and...well it's Pelecanos.
Nobody can touch him.
Posted by Dave
"'His book advances kept growing. The latest, in 2004, was $1.5 million for three novels, the second of which is The Turnaround. The first of the three, The Night Gardener (2006), based on the case of Washington's never-caught serial murderer known as the "Freeway Phantom," got a big push from Little, Brown and made the New York Times bestseller list, a first for Pelecanos. "The trajectory of his sales is steadily upward, and the span of potential readers is unusually broad for him, including readers of traditional crime fiction and literary fiction," said Michael Pietsch, executive vice president and publisher at Little, Brown. The Night Gardener sold 41,829 copies in hardcover, according to Little, Brown. (Nielsen BookScan, which claims to count about 70 percent of sales for a typical hardcover, counted 29,109.) Michael Connelly, who is also published by Little, Brown, routinely sells more than 10 times as many in hardcover, and Pietsch believes that Pelecanos can get to that level with a breakout book connected to a successful movie adaptation. "There's still a lot of gunpowder lying around," said Pietsch, meaning that while The Night Gardener was a major step up in sales for Pelecanos, it didn't touch off the explosion of interest in him that, say, Mystic River did for Dennis Lehane. Little, Brown thinks it can turn Pelecanos into a brand that produces a bestseller every time out."
Now there's nothing wrong with 41 thousand plus, but I've read both Lehane and Connelly and they are both deservedly in the front rank of American crime writing. They aren't as good as George Pelecanos and one wonders what has to happen for someone out there to put out a passable movie. It's not like he's not well connected.
Anyway, the Turnaround comes out next week and...well it's Pelecanos.
Nobody can touch him.
Posted by Dave
Steig Larsson-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Swedish financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist is at a low point after an expose in
his magazine is ruled libelous and facing a prison term, he gets a call from an elderly industrial legend Henrik Vanger whose industrial empire is teetering under the fractious leadership of his feuding family members.
Vanger arranges to hire the disgraced journalist to write his memoirs, but the real reason for their business is that Vanger also believes that a beloved relative Harriet, his favourite and the one he had planned to pass his holdings onto, was murdered forty years previously and he wants Blomkvist to look at the cold case with an eye to solving it before Vanger passes on.
The memoir ruse is a front for Blomkvist to gain access to the treachery that is the family history.
As an added incentive Vanger promises Blomkvist undisclosed information that will make a second expose against his target airtight.
At the centre of the novel are two enigmatic and wholly unconventional accomplices that Blomkvist employs on his dual quests, Lisbeth Salander, as brilliant as she is unstable
and Erika Berger, Blomkvist's co-editor.
The author Steig Larsson was a left wing journalist and a leading expert on Neo-Nazi and extreme right movements in his native Sweden and the novel is in many ways a political thriller, but with elements of financial skulduggery and a classic locked room device at the core (an horrific road accident that obscures Harriet's disappearance) there's enough for any strain of crime fanatic to lock in with.
The book runs over 500 pages, but Dragon Tattoo gets in gear right away and never drags.
There are a number of creeps in the Vanger family whose histories are intertwined in the way only the worst families are, and the remote locale in northern Sweden adds to the airless room effect that awaits the vulnerable Blomkvist.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has a great sense of place, moves extraordinarily well for such a big book and Larsson has a flair for laying bare our capacity for venal, indeed shocking behaviour. This was a dark, disquieting work that seems to only come from Scandinavian writers.
I can't recall the last time I inhaled a crime novel of such length this quickly and like most readers who will become instant fans of the "Millennium Trilogy", I lament that after the two book to come in the next couple years, that will be all.
Steig Larsson died of a heart attack shortly after submitting the three finished novels to his publisher.
In the last couple years, the trilogy has sold over three million copies throughout Europe.
Watch this one, it's going to be a very big deal come September.
Posted by David
his magazine is ruled libelous and facing a prison term, he gets a call from an elderly industrial legend Henrik Vanger whose industrial empire is teetering under the fractious leadership of his feuding family members.
Vanger arranges to hire the disgraced journalist to write his memoirs, but the real reason for their business is that Vanger also believes that a beloved relative Harriet, his favourite and the one he had planned to pass his holdings onto, was murdered forty years previously and he wants Blomkvist to look at the cold case with an eye to solving it before Vanger passes on.
The memoir ruse is a front for Blomkvist to gain access to the treachery that is the family history.
As an added incentive Vanger promises Blomkvist undisclosed information that will make a second expose against his target airtight.
At the centre of the novel are two enigmatic and wholly unconventional accomplices that Blomkvist employs on his dual quests, Lisbeth Salander, as brilliant as she is unstable
and Erika Berger, Blomkvist's co-editor.
The author Steig Larsson was a left wing journalist and a leading expert on Neo-Nazi and extreme right movements in his native Sweden and the novel is in many ways a political thriller, but with elements of financial skulduggery and a classic locked room device at the core (an horrific road accident that obscures Harriet's disappearance) there's enough for any strain of crime fanatic to lock in with.
The book runs over 500 pages, but Dragon Tattoo gets in gear right away and never drags.
There are a number of creeps in the Vanger family whose histories are intertwined in the way only the worst families are, and the remote locale in northern Sweden adds to the airless room effect that awaits the vulnerable Blomkvist.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has a great sense of place, moves extraordinarily well for such a big book and Larsson has a flair for laying bare our capacity for venal, indeed shocking behaviour. This was a dark, disquieting work that seems to only come from Scandinavian writers.
I can't recall the last time I inhaled a crime novel of such length this quickly and like most readers who will become instant fans of the "Millennium Trilogy", I lament that after the two book to come in the next couple years, that will be all.
Steig Larsson died of a heart attack shortly after submitting the three finished novels to his publisher.
In the last couple years, the trilogy has sold over three million copies throughout Europe.
Watch this one, it's going to be a very big deal come September.
Posted by David
Saturday, July 19, 2008
in sports parlance, a late hit
But still Jonathan (Big Con) Chait takes issue with Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine.
"Like every conspiracy theory, Klein's account of the fate of the world finally lacks internal logic. She points to one instance of American soldiers dismembering Iraqi passenger planes, inflicting "$100 million worth of damage to Iraq's national airline--which was one of the first assets to be put on the auction block in an early and contentious partial privatization." If the point of the war was to hand control of Iraq's state assets to American corporations, wouldn't American troops be protecting those assets instead of destroying them?"
I've not read Shock Doctrine, but I have read Chait's book, and he's a formidable writer.
It's still a bit curious that a review comes up this late. What's up TNR?
Posted by David
"Like every conspiracy theory, Klein's account of the fate of the world finally lacks internal logic. She points to one instance of American soldiers dismembering Iraqi passenger planes, inflicting "$100 million worth of damage to Iraq's national airline--which was one of the first assets to be put on the auction block in an early and contentious partial privatization." If the point of the war was to hand control of Iraq's state assets to American corporations, wouldn't American troops be protecting those assets instead of destroying them?"
I've not read Shock Doctrine, but I have read Chait's book, and he's a formidable writer.
It's still a bit curious that a review comes up this late. What's up TNR?
Posted by David
what a wow
As noted previously there's a big book on the way.
Several Words Worthies have signed off on it, and the prepublication machine is in gear.
I'd like to suggest that the crime fiction equivalent is here. Steig Larsson has (had) a compelling story as a result of an unfortunate heart attack, but he did leave a hell of a trilogy behind.
European editions have been out for a few years, but North American editions are due in a couple months.
The first book is flawless so far.
A big, sprawling crime novel with no fat on it. What could be better?
Posted by David
Several Words Worthies have signed off on it, and the prepublication machine is in gear.
I'd like to suggest that the crime fiction equivalent is here. Steig Larsson has (had) a compelling story as a result of an unfortunate heart attack, but he did leave a hell of a trilogy behind.
European editions have been out for a few years, but North American editions are due in a couple months.
The first book is flawless so far.
A big, sprawling crime novel with no fat on it. What could be better?
Posted by David
Friday, July 18, 2008
too hot to move
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Okay, everybody take a valium
can everyone just get over the The Cover already?
I don't view it as offensive, but it is pointless and beneath the New Yorker. They've done pointedly political covers before to little comment so what's different here.
I would argue it's the primacy of blogs, late night TV and shout radio where "news" is presented as shtick or outrage and unfettered by fact checkers.
This is where rumors, innuendo and half truths get their air and water, hence the "Politics of Fear" is born.
A bit more disquieting (for some) is the realization that Barack Obama in tacking just a bit toward the centre risks his base. Secondly, he is a bit untested relative to McCain. I'm fine with all of this, but it does make reading Ethan Canin's new novel a bit more necessary.
Posted by David
Sunday, July 13, 2008
John McCain, off campaigning somewhere couldn't be reached for comment
Galleycat notes that Barack Obama can cure what ails you if you're a young writer.
"But my favorite part was when he said, "Over the course of four years I made time to read all of the Harry Potter books out loud to my daughters. If I can do that and run for president, then you can find time to read to your kids. That's some of the most special time you have with your children."
I know it comes off as sticky sweet, but when he says it.....
"But my favorite part was when he said, "Over the course of four years I made time to read all of the Harry Potter books out loud to my daughters. If I can do that and run for president, then you can find time to read to your kids. That's some of the most special time you have with your children."
I know it comes off as sticky sweet, but when he says it.....
Thursday, July 10, 2008
And we can out drink all the jocks too
Reading novels can make you the life of the party.
"For a good chunk of the summer, 17-year-old Charlotte Spafford plans to hole up in her room so the words of author Toni Morrison can transport her deep into the American South. Not exactly a sure-fire way to enhance her teenage social life - or is it?
A group of Toronto researchers have compiled a body of evidence showing that bookworms have exceptionally strong people skills.
Their years of research - summed up in the current issue of New Scientist magazine - has shown readers of narrative fiction scored higher on tests of empathy and social acumen than those who read non-fiction texts."
Now, this is something that's pretty obvious up to a point. It depends a bit on where social awkwardness intersects with an ability to get away from another pointless office party to get back to a good book.
Hey what the hell, how about a novel that gets office politics right?
At any rate, working in bookstores for as long as I have, I think it's a no-brainer that book people are far from socially awkward especially as there's a slew of empirical data that shows that book nerds also attend more cultural events as a matter of course than non readers.
As for a link between reading fiction and being empathetic, that's old news, but it's still nice to hear.
Of course, it's possible that the authors of the study just couldn't get in touch with any video game addicts. (insert your own parents basement joke here)
Posted by David
"For a good chunk of the summer, 17-year-old Charlotte Spafford plans to hole up in her room so the words of author Toni Morrison can transport her deep into the American South. Not exactly a sure-fire way to enhance her teenage social life - or is it?
A group of Toronto researchers have compiled a body of evidence showing that bookworms have exceptionally strong people skills.
Their years of research - summed up in the current issue of New Scientist magazine - has shown readers of narrative fiction scored higher on tests of empathy and social acumen than those who read non-fiction texts."
Now, this is something that's pretty obvious up to a point. It depends a bit on where social awkwardness intersects with an ability to get away from another pointless office party to get back to a good book.
Hey what the hell, how about a novel that gets office politics right?
At any rate, working in bookstores for as long as I have, I think it's a no-brainer that book people are far from socially awkward especially as there's a slew of empirical data that shows that book nerds also attend more cultural events as a matter of course than non readers.
As for a link between reading fiction and being empathetic, that's old news, but it's still nice to hear.
Of course, it's possible that the authors of the study just couldn't get in touch with any video game addicts. (insert your own parents basement joke here)
Posted by David
Everybody into the pool
I'm sure that taken together articles like this do some good somewhere, but they sure seem to be thick on the ground lately. If a change is going to come in terms of a pop-addled populace suddenly shaking off their lethargy to indulge in a good book, well either let it happen or not, but I'm going to stop reading about it so much.
Posted by David
Posted by David
Jonathan Coe holds forth..
although not a very chatty guy is he.
What advice would you give to new writers?
None - it would be presumptuous, wouldn't it? Every writer is different and writes for their own different reasons. Most writers, young and old, are very self-contained people who don't need advice from me or anyone else.
Is there a secret to writing?
Yes.
Alright then.
Posted by David
What advice would you give to new writers?
None - it would be presumptuous, wouldn't it? Every writer is different and writes for their own different reasons. Most writers, young and old, are very self-contained people who don't need advice from me or anyone else.
Is there a secret to writing?
Yes.
Alright then.
Posted by David
Monday, July 07, 2008
You're so cool
My man David Gilmour gets a (mostly) positive review in the New York Times.
I have an almost unhealthy fear of seeing his stuff get reviewed, and I've had it for years.
His early work was not for everyone I suppose, but it's desert island stuff for me.
Later on, he kind of rubbed some people the wrong way and in the lily pad that is Canadian writing, it's inevitable that someone he crossed did a hatchet job in print.
Well the hell with them, he's on a hell of a roll now and I'm in full agreement with this sentiment:
"If his style sometimes irked me, he has my admiration as a father for making his son, not himself, the very winning hero of this story. Not only did I find Jesse smart and funny, but more than once I was moved to tears by his battle to find his place. At the end of the book, Gilmour, helpless with love for his son, watches him onstage performing, and recalls a line from “True Romance,” a movie they’d both loved: “You’re so cool, you’re so cool, you’re so cool!”
Not only as a reader but as a father, too, I know how he feels."
Sweet.
Posted by David
I have an almost unhealthy fear of seeing his stuff get reviewed, and I've had it for years.
His early work was not for everyone I suppose, but it's desert island stuff for me.
Later on, he kind of rubbed some people the wrong way and in the lily pad that is Canadian writing, it's inevitable that someone he crossed did a hatchet job in print.
Well the hell with them, he's on a hell of a roll now and I'm in full agreement with this sentiment:
"If his style sometimes irked me, he has my admiration as a father for making his son, not himself, the very winning hero of this story. Not only did I find Jesse smart and funny, but more than once I was moved to tears by his battle to find his place. At the end of the book, Gilmour, helpless with love for his son, watches him onstage performing, and recalls a line from “True Romance,” a movie they’d both loved: “You’re so cool, you’re so cool, you’re so cool!”
Not only as a reader but as a father, too, I know how he feels."
Sweet.
Posted by David
Sunday, July 06, 2008
L.A. for better or worse
A couple lookers from the Washington Post merit attention, particularly Seth Greenland's Shining City. I've never read his stuff, but from Jonathan Yardleys review a comic novel set in L.A is a can't miss.
I'd like to have one on offer as my go-to guy for comic novels set in L.A has been on backorder for a few weeks.
Over at the NY Times, another favourite (Walter Kirn knows from funny as well) lays a beating on James Frey.
"But Frey is lazy about his lazy prose — so lazy, in fact, that some readers will be tempted to rationalize away his neglect and carelessness so as not to feel abused. When Frey presents Parker’s agent as “incredibly smart, incredibly savvy, incredibly smooth, incredibly successful and incredibly rich,” it’s possible — if one is used to being demeaned and has grown practiced in denial — to think that Frey is being bad on purpose; that he’s reproducing others’ mental impoverishment rather than exhibiting his own. It’s hard to sustain such a charitable view, though, after seeing a character depicted as “an extremely attractive woman in her early 30s,” a pair of chaise lounges as “stylish, yet comfortable” and Beverly Hills’s Rodeo Drive as “lined with the most expensive and most exclusive boutiques in the world.” These aren’t images, they’re ratings. This isn’t fiction, it’s catalog copy. And “stylish, yet comfortable” isn’t a description, it’s a Zagat’s review — but based on what? Who knows? The primary data about things and people that would allow us to apprehend Frey’s world is sorely lacking in the book. He provides captions but withholds the photos."
It's axiomatic then, that Bright Shiny Morning is the latest bauble from Indigo's "chief book lover."
Posted by David
I'd like to have one on offer as my go-to guy for comic novels set in L.A has been on backorder for a few weeks.
Over at the NY Times, another favourite (Walter Kirn knows from funny as well) lays a beating on James Frey.
"But Frey is lazy about his lazy prose — so lazy, in fact, that some readers will be tempted to rationalize away his neglect and carelessness so as not to feel abused. When Frey presents Parker’s agent as “incredibly smart, incredibly savvy, incredibly smooth, incredibly successful and incredibly rich,” it’s possible — if one is used to being demeaned and has grown practiced in denial — to think that Frey is being bad on purpose; that he’s reproducing others’ mental impoverishment rather than exhibiting his own. It’s hard to sustain such a charitable view, though, after seeing a character depicted as “an extremely attractive woman in her early 30s,” a pair of chaise lounges as “stylish, yet comfortable” and Beverly Hills’s Rodeo Drive as “lined with the most expensive and most exclusive boutiques in the world.” These aren’t images, they’re ratings. This isn’t fiction, it’s catalog copy. And “stylish, yet comfortable” isn’t a description, it’s a Zagat’s review — but based on what? Who knows? The primary data about things and people that would allow us to apprehend Frey’s world is sorely lacking in the book. He provides captions but withholds the photos."
It's axiomatic then, that Bright Shiny Morning is the latest bauble from Indigo's "chief book lover."
Posted by David
Saturday, July 05, 2008
I read the news today.....
oh boy.
The Toronto Star business section was filled with things like this and just to be of help, our man Ron Charles has a list that may help a bit.
Posted by David
The Toronto Star business section was filled with things like this and just to be of help, our man Ron Charles has a list that may help a bit.
Posted by David
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
how to empty a room?
No, it's a list by committee of Canadian classics novels, updated from a similar experiment thirty years ago.
The exercise is notable for the rise of women writers and it's a bit more contemporary.
My Canada includes Eden Robinson, yo. Monkey Beach was a beauty from a few years back.
Out of here for a bit, back on Friday.
Posted by David
The exercise is notable for the rise of women writers and it's a bit more contemporary.
My Canada includes Eden Robinson, yo. Monkey Beach was a beauty from a few years back.
Out of here for a bit, back on Friday.
Posted by David
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