Publishing Too Open?
Frustrated writers like to rail against the injustices of the publishing industry. I’ve been known to vent a little here and there myself, although I stop far short of calling publishers a mafia. But there are many out there who, through much gnashing of teeth and beating of breast, lament that their novel is being…
continue readingMiss Snark: Literary Whippings
An anonymous literary agent calling herself Miss Snark runs a blog where she dispenses blunt, pointed comments and criticisms that are engaging and entertaining. You can submit work to her and she’ll run it through the Crapometer and post her thoughts. She also responds to comments. One viewer asks “I see a lot of agent…
continue readingLolita at 50
Via MaudNewton, I learned of a brief and entertaining article examining Lolita at 50. The article explains the genesis of Nabokov’s idea, how his wife just managed to convince the author from burning the manuscript, and how many readers have mistaken certain elements over the years. Particularly interesting is the treatment of Lolita‘s foreward. In…
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,…
continue readingMeno to Appear in DC
Joe Meno, author of How the Hula Girl Sings is appearing Olsson’s in Dupont Circle, 1307 19th Street NW in Washington DC, tonight at 7pm. Meno’s new novel begins “exactly where most pulp fiction usually ends, with the vivid episode of the terrible crime itself. Three years later, Luce Lemay, out on parole for the…
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