An Ian McEwan profile (masquerading as a review) from the latest issue of the New York Review of Books. (Also in this issue: an excerpt from Coetzee’s upcoming Diary of A Bad Year).
‘Tis Saturday, time for McEwan
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Jun 302007
Nancy Drew
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Jun 302007
Slate “celebrates” Nancy Drew.
Enid Rowling. Not.
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Jun 302007
How Blyton and Rowling carefully cultivate(d) their personas for public consumption — the former a bit more than the latter. The Telegraph investigates, in an article that reads rather abrupt. And only the millionth article on the power of Potter.
Divisadero Reviews
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Jun 292007
By now, it is almost official: Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero is good, but not as good as The English Patient, or even Anil’s Ghost. Yvonne Zipp is lukewarm on the book (“more poetry than plot”) while Janet Maslin is a bit more positive. (“ initially difficult, but the more you give “Divisadero,” the more it gives in return.” ). Manish says the same thing too, in fewer words.
The Simple Art of Murder
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Jun 292007
From The Atlantic, here is Raymond Chandler holding court on detective fiction. And while on The Atlantic, some writing tips from the biggies.
Jun 282007
Jane Austen has been in the news a lot of late, and Salon explains “why a 200 year old author of only half a dozen novels” gets so much play and Newsweek tells us “why Austen and why now?” [Also, links to some of her works at the Online Literature Network]
Jun 272007
How do we know plastic bags take 500 years to break down in a landfill? Juliet Lapidos explains (Slate Magazine).
Philip K. Dick — New York Times
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Jun 272007
The Library of America has recently released an anthology of Philip K. Dick’s work from the 60’s, and the Dave Itzkoff writes a gushing review of the book for the Times.
Intelligent Design in Europe
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Jun 262007
Ars Technica covers the backlash against Intelligent Design in Europe. And (via Slashdot), a British Government announcement that Intelligent Design has no place in science.
Neal Stephenson — The Great Simoleon Caper
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Jun 262007
From the Time archives, we extract an old short story from perennial etcetera favorite Neal Stephenson: The Great Simoleon Caper includes elements that would later become a Stephenson staple — “encryption, digital currency and distributed republics”. [Related post]
