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Crime Always Pays (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
Uber-agent Darley Anderson was profiled in The Bookseller last week, with this snippet appearing near the end of the piece: What authors need For fiction, he wants his agency to look for character first and plot second among the over 1,300 submissions it gets monthly. “Good writing is the last thing, and we can work with authors on that.” The first thing to say about that is Darley Anderson’s...
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Pearlblossom Highway (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
Justine Originally uploaded by Michael_Kelleher Durrell, Lawrence Justine I am not sure where I bought this. Probably at East Village Books in New York. I have never read it, but I can remember why I bought it. After college I often used to wander around in bookstores trying to figure out stuff to read -- I knew what I was supposed to have read in terms of the British canon, but beyond that, I hadn't...
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The Guardian (Free subscription) | 10/17/2009
When Julian Barnes first read the Rabbit quartet on a book tour of the States he was overwhelmed by Updike's joy of description. Twenty years later, he still thinks it is the greatest postwar American fiction When a writer you admire dies, rereading seems a normal courtesy and tribute. Occasionally, it may be prudent to resist going back: when Lawrence Durrell died, I preferred to remain with 40-year-old...
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Secondhand Smoking Jacks (Free subscription) | 09/30/2009
Next month my book club will select books for the year. I need to pitch a few and could use input. Can anyone recommend or warn me off of these possibilities: War and Peace (Seriously; since I learned it is de Bernieres' favorite novel, I've been itching to read it.) The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene) Justine (Lawrence Durrell) The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles) The Bright Forever (Lee Martin) The...
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FIRST THINGS (Free subscription) | 08/12/2009
I had not known that Edward Upward was still alive until I read that he had died—a tad too late to compliment the man on his longevity, perhaps, but not too late to marvel at it. “He must have been ancient!” I exclaimed to my wife, who—with her customary Anglo-Saxon phlegm—ignored me entirely (which was for the best, of course, as she had no idea who I was talking about and...
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