Great Reviews of Saunders and Gaitskill
The October/November issue of Bookforum presents two interesting reviews. The first is Sam Lipsyte’s review of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders. You might remember Saunders briefly describing this new book in our interview back in August. The second is Minna Proctor’s examination of Veronica by Mary Gaitskill. Both are insightful…
continue readingVampire Novel Breaks New Ground
Ron Charles points out in the Washington Post that vampire stories are old, over-done, and generally worn out. He describes the decline of the nosferatu by writing “At this late date can anyone draw more blood from the story? Buffy gave up the ghost in 2003. The WB drove a stake through the heart of…
continue readingReview: The Game
I reviewed Neil Strauss’ bestseller The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists for PopMatters. This book is a real blast. I’ve gotten nine people, both men and women, to buy it and they all love it. You can read this text as a how-to book, a memoir, a cautionary tale, or an entertaining…
continue readingOld School Water Torture… Just… Make… It… Stop
I really wanted to like this book. The author has great credentials, the subject matter is of particular interest to writers, and the reference materials are impeccable. But reading this thing was like the old spy movies where our hero is subjected to the drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip……
continue readingMcInerney Reviews Kunkel
Jay McInerney provides an interesting review of Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel in Sunday’s New York Times. In a quick wrap-up, McInerney describes the recent history of coming-of-age novels by writing, “In its modern form the American bildungsroman (the novel of formation) descends from The Catcher in the Rye‘ (1951). Reinvigorated by feminism in the 70’s,…
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