April 2010
23 posts
3 tags
I'm Not Going To Spoil It By Quoting...
…because Allegra Goodman’s “La Vita Nuova” (in the May 3 New Yorker) is just that good (I would cut exactly one word). The juxtapositions of big and little, of direct addresses of the situation and seemingly throwaway details, set up a marvelously skewed narrative space in which ordinary things seem set to detonate, pull us under or lift us away.
I particularly like...
2 tags
4 tags
2 tags
"Personally, I'd be happy never to let a creepy... →
- Judith Shulevitz, reviewing Maile Meloy’s Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It (which she likes)
4 tags
A Charming, Appealing Monster
With sentences like this:
She perpetually set Muriel’s teeth on edge but this was not the reason for Muriel spending large sums on dental surgery
Martin Stannard’s new biography of Muriel Spark may not be high on my reading list, but I’m really glad it’s prompted so many reviews and reflections on Spark, like this from the Times’ Charles McGrath:
Reading between the...
4 tags
The Iceberg Revisited
Re-reading Amy Hempel’s Collected Stories, I’m reminded of that Hemingway line—the iceberg theory—that’s been taken as a manifesto for minimalist fiction:
If a writer of prose knows enough of what [s]he is writing about [s]he may omit things that [s]he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated...
1 tag
"with the red steel latticework for the... →
4 tags
Katherine Mansfield Would Have Killed At HTMLGiant
On Howard’s End:
E.M. Forster never gets any further than warming the teapot. He’s a rare fine hand at that. Feel this teapot. Is it not beautifully warm? Yes, but there ain’t going to be no tea.
And I can never be perfectly certain whether Helen was got with child by Leonard Bast or by his fatal forgotten umbrella. All things considered, I think it must have been the...
4 tags
"To make a robot that's unsafe is pretty easy, you... →
Rocketboom interviews my cousin’s awesome boyfriend, who is building Skynet works in robotics at Carnegie Mellon.
1 tag
3 tags
A States That Never Were State Of Mind →
3 tags
4 tags
6 tags
Fever To Tell
In which James Wood attacks convention and defends the conventional, and Alice Munro offers a way out
Beginning creative writing students are always told to show don’t tell (because we all remember show and tell!). If they veer into things like “he was tall” or “the wine was good,” or, shudder to think, “she was sad,” they’re told, show me this in a scene, or, use a gesture to convey this—“he...
2 tags
"I... think it’s important to remember that... →
Olivia Singer’s Platform piece on female orgasm is smart and refreshing, as is of all things, its comments section:
Just like to point out that for the most part us blokes want you to get there, don’t be afraid to give us some pointers
3 tags
4 tags
Because I'm Worth It?
Tonight thanks to careless shopping while overtired and some possibly duplicitous dueling labels by Ye Olde Whole Foodes, instead of my usual Stilton that seems like a splurge but acceptable, I found myself for the first time in a long time with Colston Bassett, and oh good Lord, it’s going to be difficult not to repeat my mistake weekly. Shockingly, startlingly delicious, and so rich that...
2 tags
Two Imaginary Writers Discuss Endings
Writer 1: Finishing a good draft of a story is better than sex.
Writer 2: You need to have better sex.
Writer 1: You need to have better stories.
3 tags
Put The Asset On Standby →
My essay on the Bourne trilogy’s villains:
They’re the films’ dark Jedi; as close as their shadowy mentors have gotten to making Terminators. So when the CIA handlers say, “call up the assets,” “put the asset on standby,” we know: fasten your seatbelts. Cue the propulsive music or deadly silence.
2 tags
Granta's New Voices: Catherine Chung →
We enjoyed her story… for its rhythm, poise and restraint.
3 tags
Easter Haiku
Last year’s spring clothes, Awkwardly between sizes. More chocolate, or less?
2 tags
1 tag
Signs Of A Spring Weekend
Scent of flowers with none visible Kayaks and canoes tied to car roofs School bus, windows down and kids screaming “Land of 1,000 Dances”