Posts by author
Jake Slovis
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Celebrating the “American Bible”
In accordance with the 163rd anniversary of Moby-Dick, Elisabeth Donnelly explores why Melville’s “American Bible” is still relevant today: Perhaps what Moby-Dick has to offer for generations of readers is “a shaft of light in the darkness,” as Philbrick puts it. “Not that it provides any…
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Modiano the Next Roald Dahl?
For the Guardian, Alison Flood reports that a British publisher has purchased a translation of Patrick Modiano’s only children’s book. The news comes after the author’s Nobel Prize piqued the interest of English readers worldwide.
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Book Club with Grandma
For The Millions, Bryan Vandyke reflects on his relationship with his grandmother and how works by Nabokov and Faulkner allowed for a connection between generations: Reading is solitary and personal, but you aren’t necessarily alone in it. In some ways, we are…
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If Scarlett O’Hara had a Cell Phone
For NPR, Neda Ulaby sits down with Mallory Ortberg to talk about Texts from Jane Eyre, Ortberg’s new book that speculates what literature’s best-known characters might text if they owned cell phones. “I just immediately thought, ‘Oh God, Scarlett O’Hara with a cell phone…
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Hunting and Healing
For the Guardian, Robert McCrum visits acclaimed novelist Richard Ford on the Irish coast, where the author travels every year to hunt woodcock. The two discuss the trajectory of Ford’s career and his intimate relationship with the late Raymond Carver. I loved…
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Crowdfunded Invasion?
Mark Rylance purchases the film rights to Paul Kingsnorth’s crowdfunded novel The Wake. The news is yet another achievement for a book that was once deemed “unpublishable.” Rylance said: “Paul Kingsnorth has recreated the Norman invasion of England so vividly, I immediately…
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A Democratic Way of Living
Viv Groskop interviews author Azar Nafisi about her book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which chronicles her experience teaching controversial works in Tehran. Nafisi also discusses her motivation to write her most recent book, The Republic of Imagination, which argues that literature promotes a “democratic way of…
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Smiley Sheds Light on Some Luck
For the Guardian, Robert McCrum sits down with Jane Smiley to discuss the award-winning author’s new book, Some Luck, and the creative process. “I grew up in a family of storytellers,” she explains, describing Some Luck. “I cannot remember a thing that anyone talked about—not…
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Frankenstein’s Legacy
For the Guardian, Neil Gaiman discusses the import of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, suggesting that the book arrived and redefined gothic fiction at a culturally apt moment: Ideas happen when the time is right for them. The ground had been prepared. Gothic fiction had been all…
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The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost is working on a novel based on the early 90s television series. The news comes shortly after Showtime announced plans to revive the series in 2016. According to a press release from publisher Flatiron Books, The Secret Lives of…
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The Orwellian Blunders of Amazon
For Melville House, Alex Shephard examines Amazon’s fraught relationship with George Orwell’s publisher Hachette, criticizing the online shopping hub for misappropriating Orwell’s views on paperback publishing: In context, Orwell not only contradicts Amazon’s argument about paperbacks, he contradicts their entire business…