Can We Please Outlaw Mirror Descriptions of Characters?
I’m utterly amazed how this can actually be used by a professional writer, in a professional magazine. This is something that we all have done, so don’t act like you didn’t, but usually we outgrow this after the first few stories. So I’m just shocked to see it in an otherwise decent story I read…
continue readingEditor and Agent Moves
There has been a number of press items about editors and agents moving here and there. Here’s a roundup: MediaBistro reported that Maureen Graney has been named executive editor of The Globe Pequot Press. The website also reported that Steve Zeitchik is leaving Publishers Weekly after a tenure of nearly seven years in order to…
continue readingBoD: Paris Review Book of People with Problems
Just about every movie, every song, every book, every play, and every other form of art deals with people with problems. Without a problem, what’s the plot? What’s the conflict? It’s a universal aspect of life. We’ve all got problems. So it’s a testament to these writers, and to the The Paris Review, that something…
continue readingInterview: George Saunders, Author
One of my favorite literary experiences was sitting in Off Square Books, as the darkness settled outside, and hearing George Saunders read Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz. I hadn’t read his collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, yet but everyone else raved about it and after the reading, I knew why. This story is undoubtedly one of…
continue readingBoD: CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
Peopled by quirky people in odd situations, George Saunders’ CivilWarLand in Bad Decline presents a demented near-future. The single thread through all these situations, through the future amusement parks and decaying towns, are real people, often broken, usually vulnerable, and always memorable. Just a couple of examples: In The Wavemaker Falters, the narrator faces his…
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