jonathan franzen
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Lost Language Explored
The literature of Alzheimer’s is a cavern unexplored, but Stefan Merrill Block does his best for the New Yorker: Nearly every novel I’ve read that attempts to depict the internal experience of Alzheimer’s also attempts to fit the disease’s retrogenic…
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Literature at the Ritz-Carlton
At The Millions, Tracy O’Neill deconstructs the Ritz-Carlton’s new “Six Word Wows” ad campaign. The hotel chain calls for guests to describe their stay in six words or less, using the hashtag #RCMemories, and claims to be ““Paying Homage to a…
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Privilege vs. Privilege
In an excerpt from her book The Shelf, Phyllis Rose illustrates the systematic dismissal of women writers through the imagined figure of Prospero’s Daughter: wealthy and educated yet burdened by the demands of a family life whose quotidian challenges, having…
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Word of the Day: Ucalegon
(n.) a neighbor whose house is on fire; from the Ancient Greek character Ucalegon, an Elder of Troy whose house was set on fire by the Achaeans when they invaded the city. Accomack is a small county that looked half-gutted…
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Notable NYC: 3/29–4/4
Saturday 3/29: Courtney Zoffness, Marin Gazzaniga, Lisa Dierbeck, Marian Fontana read as part of the Brooklyn Writers Space series. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free. Joe Meno, Carl Phillips, and Simone White read at the Washington Square issue launch party. Meno’s Office…
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The Midwest is the Future of American Literature
Flavorwire’s Jason Diamond insists that writers can eschew New York City in favor of greener pastures, offering a comprehensive defense of Franzen country: A closer look at the literary map of the 50 states reveals that even if the publishing industry writ large…
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What’s Sexist and What’s Not
Novelist Jennifer Weiner has long been an outspoken critic of literary sexism, vocally demanding respect for herself and other female authors and pushing back against stodgy heavyweights like Jonathan Franzen. But how much dismissal of Weiner can be attributed to…
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Literary Puns, Round III
If you enjoyed Timothy Leo Taranto’s first and second rounds of literary puns, check out these new illustrations of such essential authors as Juneau Díaz and Karen Mussel
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Notable SF: 12/9–12/15
Monday 12/9: Author Jonathan Franzen comes to the Bookshop Santa Cruz to discuss and sign copies of his new book,The Kraus Project: Essays by Karl Kraus. Free, 7 p.m. Tuesday 12/10: InsideStorytime THE FIX features Joe Clifford (Junkie Love), Zarina…
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Lisa’s Book Round-Up
I wouldn’t be much of a book columnist if I didn’t celebrate Alice Munro and her much deserved Nobel Prize for Literature. It surprises me, the number of people who have never read Munro. If you’re one of them, you…
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Technology: An Extension of Life
At The New Yorker festival this weekend, Jonathan Franzen and Clay Shirky set out to answer the question: Is technology good for culture? Reflecting on the afternoon discourse, John McDermott of The Awl writes: “Technology does not necessarily advance or…
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Writing in the Margins
Here’s a different kind of year-end book list: for the New York Times, Sam Anderson looks back at the notes he left in his reading material during 2012. Have you scribbled any memorable marginalia in your own books this year? Transcribe…