The Real People: A Conversation with Rebecca Makkai
Rebecca Makkai discusses her forthcoming third novel, The Great Believers, how she arrived at the book’s structure, and the story and its characters.
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Posts Tagged: Le Bataclan
R.I.P.: Naiveté
Nearly a decade ago, on what was then my first and only day in Paris, I saw a dead person for the first time.
...moreThis Week in Indie Bookstores
A Paris bookseller writes about the terror attacks. Parisians, meanwhile, are responding to the terror attacks by buying up all the copies of Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. Iranian bookstores opened early on Thursday last week in a campaign to encourage reading in the country. A bookstore in Germany serves as a cultural hub for […]
...moreThe Empathy of Latin America
I can’t say I was surprised by the level of empathy my barber expressed for the victims of the Paris attacks, though I was intrigued by the empathy of a man whose daily life is so intertwined with the drug wars in Mexico, a war that has (by conservative estimates) claimed over 165,000 lives and […]
...moreThe Enduring Ordinariness of Parisian Life
We’re defiant, but shaky. We can’t get over what we’ve seen, what we’ve heard, who we’ve lost, and we don’t really want to. But we’ll eventually get used to the fact that it happened. It will become part of our daily lives. Over at Lit Hub, Lauren Elkin reflects on the writer George Perec and […]
...moreFighting Terrorism Through Language
The terrorist organization that coordinated attacks in Paris last week has alternately been called ISIS, ISIL, and IS by government and media. However, when French President Francois Hollande addressed the world, he referred to the organization as Daesh for a very good reason: language. In addition to being a transliteration of the group’s Arabic acronym meaning […]
...moreThis Week in Indie Bookstores
Shakespeare & Co. sheltered twenty people during the terror attacks in Paris last week. New York City’s Shakespeare & Co., unrelated to the Parisian store, has some expansion plans. The shop and name was bought by Dane Neller, the CEO of On Demand Books, a company that makes the Espresso Book Machine. He envisions a […]
...moreParis Forever
That’s not to say being informed isn’t important—of course it is—but I suddenly felt a more important calling. I remembered the words of Marlon Brando in the wake of 9/11: “This is exactly the time for poetry!” Over at Lit Hub, Tyler Malone writes about the recent tragic events in Paris and finding some relief […]
...moreOn Refugees, and Refusing to Be Scared
The news that governors are suddenly deciding that they don’t want to welcome Syrian refugees has really driven home to me just how cowardly much of this country is. We talk tough, mind you, but when we’re asked to really open ourselves up to something, we refuse. I’m not talking about the country’s willingness to […]
...moreRemembering Those Lost at Le Bataclan
In the wake of the tragedy that occurred in Paris this weekend, the identities of victims from the shooting at the Le Bataclan venue, where the Eagles of Death Metal were playing, have begun to surface. Read more about the issue via Pitchfork, as well as tributes to the deceased, including Les Inrocks reporter Guillaume B. […]
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