fiction

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Jack Vance, Unsung Giant of US Fiction

(Newser) - An American literary giant has been crafting violent, poetic, psychologically complex novels for decades. Trouble is, his characters inhabit rocket ships and battle lizard creatures. "Jack Vance is the most painful case of all the writers I love who I feel don’t get the credit they deserve,"...

JD Salinger Moves to Block 'Sequel' to Catcher In Rye

Novel by 'JD California' may be a hoax

(Newser) - Lawyers for the famously reclusive author JD Salinger are considering legal action to block an unauthorized sequel to his classic The Catcher in the Rye, reports the Telegraph. The new novel, by a Swedish-American named John David California, is titled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. It...

Zombies Work in Latest Jane Austen Spinoff
Zombies Work
in Latest Jane
Austen Spinoff
opinion
Apr 17, 2009 12:59 PM CDT

Zombies Work in Latest Jane Austen Spinoff

Somehow, style lends itself to the undead ... aliens ... vampires ...

(Newser) - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has been so well received that one must question “why these silly, campy things work so well,” Monica Hesse writes in the Washington Post. She suggests that it’s not simply because Jane Austen and vampires sell—as the author of the forthcoming...

In Life and Last Novel, Wallace Sought 'Adult Sanity'

(Newser) - David Foster Wallace declared war on depression and addiction in writing his last, unfinished novel, D. T. Max writes in the New Yorker. The writer's suicide by hanging last year was the culmination of a struggle to live normally, to achieve what he called “adult sanity," without antidepressants...

Lesbian Fiction's Hot New Stars: Secret Service Agents

Security more desirable than love: Thomas

(Newser) - Secret Service agents have become popular protagonists in lesbian romance mysteries because they embody traits readers covet, June Thomas writes for Slate. "They are the ultimate strong, silent type—they fade into the background without hiding, they keep their mouths shut, and they have your back," she...

Top Foreign Fiction of 2008
 Top Foreign Fiction of 2008 
OPINION
Dec 2, 2008 4:40 PM CST

Top Foreign Fiction of 2008

Pair of Spanish-language works highlight NPR list

(Newser) - Of 340 new works of foreign fiction and poetry translated for US audiences this year, NPR has culled five of the best into a list:
  • Senselessness, by Horacio Castellanos Moya: A Latin American freelance writer is hired by the Catholic Church to edit sinister documents in this compact dark comedy.
...

One Month, 50K Words: Writers Race to Finish Novels

National Novel Writing Month gives creative types an unrelenting deadline

(Newser) - Aspiring novelists are packing coffee shops in the Twin Cities and elsewhere as the frenzy of National Novel Writing Month heats up, Minnesota Public Radio reports. Founded roughly a decade ago, “Nanowrimo” challenges writers to conquer procrastination and get 50,000 words down during November. The emphasis, say the...

Mills Hawks 'Novel' of Model Married to Rock Star

McCartney's ex hawking 'fictional' tale about a model's ill-fated marriage to top rock star

(Newser) - A gag order can't stop enterprising Heather Mills: She’s working on a "novel” about a model whose marriage to the world's most famous rock star sours, the Daily Mail reports. Paul McCartney’s ex-wife is asking for a nearly $2 million advance. "It doesn't take a genius...

Put Catcher to Rest Already
 Put Catcher to Rest Already 
opinion
Aug 28, 2008 7:16 PM CDT

Put Catcher to Rest Already

Salinger standby should make way for newer books

(Newser) - JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye may have once been edgy, coming-of-age literature, but does it deserve a place in today's curricula? It's time to retire Holden Caulfield, argues Anne Trubek in Good magazine. "Salinger’s novel lacks the currency or shock value it once had," she...

Ex-Wife's Novel Details Taylor's Marital Breakup
Ex-Wife's Novel Details Taylor's Marital Breakup
ANALYSIS
Jul 21, 2008 6:53 PM CDT

Ex-Wife's Novel Details Taylor's Marital Breakup

Publisher of ex-wife's A Stopover in Venice downplays a big selling point

(Newser) - Book-jacket fodder that could alone put a novel on the bestseller list is curiously absent from Kathryn Walker’s debut, A Stopover in Venice, Celia McGee notes in the New York Times—though it’s a fictional account of her unhappy marriage to James Taylor. The musician comes in for...

Midnight's Children Wins Best of Bookers

Rushdie's epic novel beats out 6 others by public vote

(Newser) - Salman Rushdie's classic Midnight's Children, which nabbed the Booker Prize 27 years ago, has now won the Best of the Bookers by public vote, the Guardian reports. About a boy born at the hour of India's independence, the novel won over six previous prize winners. The prize "looks at...

Summer's 'Most Enchanting Debut Novel'
Summer's 'Most Enchanting Debut Novel'
BOOK REVIEW
Jun 13, 2008 4:25 PM CDT

Summer's 'Most Enchanting Debut Novel'

Edgar Sawtelle is Hamlet -inspired 'bolt from the blue'

(Newser) - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, the debut novel from former software developer David Wroblewski, is “a great, big, mesmerizing read, audaciously envisioned as classic Americana," Janet Maslin raves in the New York Times. "Pick up this book and expect to feel very, very reluctant to put it...

Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey
Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey
BOOK REVIEW
May 13, 2008 7:23 AM CDT

Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey

Critic lashes fake memorist's 'execrable' new novel

(Newser) - The flap over James Frey's memoir-that-really-wasn't was bound to cast some clouds over his new novel Bright Shiny Morning. But lack of believability continues to be a key issue for the author with his "execrable" new book of two-dimensional characters in a city that bears little resemblance to LA,...

Gang Memoir Exposed as Fiction
Gang Memoir Exposed
as Fiction
Mar 4, 2008 7:50 AM CST

Gang Memoir Exposed as Fiction

Author of Love and Consequences fesses up to fabricating

(Newser) - Margaret Jones' acclaimed memoir of a half-Native American girl growing up in a foster home in South Central LA and running with gangs, Love and Consequences, turns out to be fiction, the New York Times reports. Jones, whose real name is Seltzer, grew up with her birth parents in an...

Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura
Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura
OPINION
Feb 29, 2008 7:59 PM CST

Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura

Son's imagined convo with dead dad might've saved final manuscript

(Newser) - Dmitri Nabokov's decision not to destroy his famed father's unfinished manuscript followed an imagined conversation with Vladimir's ghost, writes Ron Rosenbaum for Slate. Rosenbaum, who sleuthed his way through the "to burn or not to burn" debate, was previously told by Dmitri—who hinted at the book's genius before...

Holocaust Memoir Mostly Fiction: Author

Best-seller on Jewish girl saved by wolves a fantasy, Belgian admits

(Newser) - A best-selling Holocaust memoir, which follows a 7-year-old Jewish girl who lived with wolves after losing her parents to the Nazis, is mostly fictional, its author confesses—in particular, the parts about the wolves and her being Jewish, Reuters reports. Misha Defonseca says she "always felt Jewish," but,...

NYT 's Top Reads for 2007
NYT's Top Reads for 2007
Nov 22, 2007 5:17 PM CST

NYT's Top Reads for 2007

Agent Zigzag and Foreskin's Lament among best 100 in Book Review

(Newser) - Recent write-ups say Americans should read more—but where to start? Try the New York Times' 100 notable books of 2007, ranging from fiction to poetry, essays to bios. Among the acclaimed page-turners:
  • Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal, Ben Macintyre
  • The Art of Political
...

Fake Memoir Author Pens Debut Novel
Fake Memoir Author Pens Debut Novel
Sep 13, 2007 2:51 AM CDT

Fake Memoir Author Pens Debut Novel

'A Million Little Pieces' writer James Frey calls it fiction this time

(Newser) - Disgraced author James Frey, whose memoir "A Million Little Pieces" was revealed as fiction last year, will publish a debut novel, "Bright Shiny Morning," with HarperCollins, the Wall Street Journal reports. Frey's fabricated memoir about losing his life to drug addiction sold some 3 million copies and...

Harry Potter and the Murdered Heiress?

Rumor has JK Rowling writing crime novel

(Newser) - J.K. Rowling has been spotted writing something in an Edinburgh cafe like the one where she penned the first Harry Potter book, and fellow author Ian Rankin says she's moving in on his territory—crime fiction. Rankin admits he hasn't personally talked to Rowling about her next project; it...

Army: New Republic Scribe Lied
Army: New Republic
Scribe Lied
Aug 8, 2007 10:26 AM CDT

Army: New Republic Scribe Lied

But magazine stands by private's diary from Iraq

(Newser) - The military and the New Republic are at a standoff over the accuracy of a series of damaging diaries by an Army private in Iraq. Army investigators say they're fabricated, that no one in the unit corroborated his stories about petty cruelty among soldiers. But TNR Editor Franklin Foer told...

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