This idea — that one person, and only one person, in any given generation can possess the intellectual prowess, creative might, emotional intelligence and writing chops to produce a novel that speaks truth about the disparate American whole — is pure hogwash. For the NYT Book Review, Cheryl Strayed (aka our very own Sugar) and […]
...moreIn an excerpt from his recently released book Rocket and Lightship: Essays on Literature and Ideas, Adam Kirsch positions David Foster Wallace as a quintessentially American writer: self-conscious and ironic, but at the same time frenzied, earnest, and above all contradictory: A clue to the answer can be found in a question Wallace asked in […]
...moreSaturday 11/15: Emily Brandt, Emily Hockaday, Emily Hyland, Emily Moore, Emilia Phillips, Emmalea Russo, and Emily Skllings have an All Emily Reading. Berl’s Poetry Shop, 7 p.m., free. Alex Cuff and Jennifer Bartlett join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Sunday 11/16: Robert Hershon, Jen Benka, Michael Cirelli, and Caroline Hagood read works […]
...moreIn an article about the contemporary form of the essay, Adam Kirsch states, “The new essay is exclusively about the self with the world serving only as a foil and an accessory.” This article compares essayists such as Rothbart and Crosley and Sedaris, to the prose equivalent of reality TV. In the essay, they claim to […]
...moreAdam Kirsch is breaking down the need for and the existence of the Great American Novel at Harvard Magazine: But of course, if the American Dream weren’t still alive, somewhere in our culture and our minds, it wouldn’t be necessary for the novelists to keep writing Great American Novels. And Buell’s erudite study convinces us that […]
...more