literature

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Death Takes a Holiday in Saramago's Latest
Death Takes a Holiday in Saramago's Latest
BOOK REVIEW
Oct 10, 2008 6:24 AM CDT

Death Takes a Holiday in Saramago's Latest

Author of Blindness deals with death in new novel

(Newser) - The premise of Jose Saramago’s Death With Interruptions seems a bit cutesy at first, with a Buffy-esque Grim Reaper deciding to take some time off her job, writes Shannon McBeen in Radar. But as Saramago explores the ramifications of universal immortality, he manages to transform “the admittedly weak...

French Writer Le Clézio Wins Nobel

Novelist, who lives part-time in US, wins $1.4M prize

(Newser) - This year's Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, reports the AP, a novelist often called France's greatest living writer. The Swedish Academy praised him as an "author of new departures, poetic adventure, and sensual ecstasy." The 68-year-old, who lives part of the...

Blindness 'Fascinating' But Difficult to Watch

Not that director Meirelles' film is necessarily bad

(Newser) - Blindness is a hard film to watch, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad one. Some critics hated Fernando Meirelles’ parable about a plague of blindness; Roger Ebert called it “one of the most unpleasant, not to say unendurable, films I've ever seen.” But others...

Oprah's Book Pick: Sawtelle
 Oprah's Book Pick: Sawtelle 
Sep 19, 2008 1:55 PM CDT

Oprah's Book Pick: Sawtelle

Publisher pressing 750,000 more copies

(Newser) - Oprah Winfrey made The Story of Edgar Sawtelle her latest book club pick today, Publishers Weekly reports. The debut novel by David Wroblewski is about a mute boy who communicates best with his dogs. It's been a best-seller since its June release, and publisher Ecco is set to produce another...

Roth's Latest Doesn't Measure Up
 Roth's Latest 
 Doesn't Measure Up 
BOOK Review
Sep 17, 2008 6:11 PM CDT

Roth's Latest Doesn't Measure Up

New Novel's protagonist too earnest for a fun read, says Kakutani

(Newser) - Unlike the emotionally twisted and tortured heroes of Philip Roth's finer works, the dead 19-year-old narrator of Indignation is an uncomplicated soul—and the novel suffers because of its milquetoast protagonist, writes Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times. "All of Marcus' unrelieved niceness makes for a somewhat pallid...

'Fletch' Author Dead at 71
 'Fletch' Author Dead at 71 
Obituary
Sep 11, 2008 11:01 AM CDT

'Fletch' Author Dead at 71

Boston Globe scribe succumbs after long cancer battle

(Newser) - Novelist and ex-Boston Globe reporter Gregory Mcdonald is dead at 71, Variety reports, succumbing after a long battle with cancer. Mcdonald is best known for his best-selling Fletch mystery novels, which comprise 15 of his 26 books. Four of his books have been turned into movies, including Fletch, Fletch Lives,...

Debuts Edge Favorites for Booker Shortlist

Rushdie, O'Neill passed over for top literary award

(Newser) - The jury for the Man Booker Prize announced its shortlist today—and left off the two books most hotly tipped to win the prestigious literary award, reports the Bookseller. Six novels were chosen, including two debuts. But many were surprised by the omission of Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence,...

New Reader May Top Kindle
 New Reader May Top Kindle 
PRODUCT REVIEW
Sep 8, 2008 7:10 PM CDT

New Reader May Top Kindle

Plastic Logic's version is lighter, thinner, wider

(Newser) - Move over, Kindle. A new e-book reader made by German/British firm Plastic Logic is on its way, and seems to fix many of the Amazon reader’s apparent flaws, Wired reports. PL’s as-yet-unnamed reader is 8.5 inches by 11 inches, but less than 3/10 of an inch thick...

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...

A 'Prose Guy' Explores the Comics Boom

How graphic novels went from nothing to something

(Newser) - Bob Thompson is a self-professed “prose guy,” but still can’t ignore the biggest trend in publishing: graphic novels. Thompson sets out for the Washington Post to discover how literature that uses word balloons can be book world's sole growing sector. He discovers that many “little see-saws”...

Aspiring Novelist? Read This
 Aspiring Novelist? Read This
OPINION
Aug 11, 2008 2:15 PM CDT

Aspiring Novelist? Read This

Fiction writer offers tips on juggling creativity, career

(Newser) - “I’ve always wanted to write” is something novelist Allegra Goodman hears a lot, so she lays out some advice in the Boston Globe for the doctors, venture capitalists, and lactation consultants with stories to tell:
  • “To begin, don’t write about yourself.” Writing is about imagining
...

Remembering Russia's Prophet
Remembering Russia's Prophet
Appreciation
Aug 4, 2008 1:05 PM CDT

Remembering Russia's Prophet

Reflections on Solzhenitsyn's life reveal complex legacy

(Newser) - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who died yesterday at 89, left a complicated legacy and an unassailable record as one of the great writers of the 20th century. Three takes on the Nobel laureate:
  • The National Review, which on occasion published Solzhenitsyn’s work, says he may have been the man of the
...

Du Maurier: Neglected Genius?
 Du Maurier:
 Neglected Genius? 
OPINION
Aug 2, 2008 7:51 PM CDT

Du Maurier: Neglected Genius?

Author of Rebecca was more than pop-lit hack

(Newser) - Novelist Daphne du Maurier’s works have been read by millions, adapted into films, and kept in print for decades—yet she has been unable to shake her reputation as a pop-lit hack. Cynthia Crossen looks at her career in the Wall Street Journal and argues that the author of...

An Outsider Becomes Poet Laureate
An Outsider Becomes Poet Laureate
Jul 17, 2008 7:54 AM CDT

An Outsider Becomes Poet Laureate

Kay Ryan, master of introverted verse, takes the national stage

(Newser) - Kay Ryan, a poet from Fairfax, Calif., with a reputation as an individualist, has been chosen as the nation's new poet laureate. The 62-year-old writer is known for her sly, concise verse that incorporates plays on words and uses intricate rhyme structures. Despite receiving many of the field's highest accolades,...

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...

Bard-Working Librarians Help Nab Book Thief

Shakespeare folio stolen in England surfaces in Washington

(Newser) - Quick-thinking librarians have helped recover a valuable book of Shakespeare's works stolen from a British university 10 years ago, the Washington Post reports. A man who arrived unannounced at Washington's Folger Shakespeare Library with a copy of the 1623 First Folio set off "alarm bells" with his tale of...

Anne of Green Gables, at 100, Goes Legit
Anne of Green Gables, at 100, Goes Legit
OPINION
Jul 10, 2008 12:31 PM CDT

Anne of Green Gables, at 100, Goes Legit

Scribe cheers as Modern Library adds heroine to canon

(Newser) - Impetuous redheaded orphan Anne of Green Gables got the biggest gift of all on her 100th birthday: Official introduction into the literary canon. The Modern Library will issue a centennial edition of the first book in the series of eight. Some scholars bristle at the decision to place Anne alongside...

Wife Shouldn't Worry Laura Bush: Dowd
 Wife Shouldn't Worry
 Laura Bush: Dowd 
OPINION
Jul 9, 2008 1:11 PM CDT

Wife Shouldn't Worry Laura Bush: Dowd

First lady is sympathetic character in controversial novel

(Newser) - Words like "smear" and "gossip" have flown around American Wife, the novel probing the secret life of Laura Bush, but the book itself is pretty harmless, Maureen Dowd writes in the New York Times. Kings and queens have always inspired art, Dowd notes, and Wife isn’t sensationalist—...

Obama as Writer: He's the 'Real Deal'

Literary critic sees an eye for the universal, shades of Lincoln

(Newser) - If it's true that the style is the man, then it makes sense, literary critic Andrew Delbanco writes in the New Republic, to take the measure of Barack Obama from his memoirs. Taking a tour of Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope, Delbanco finds a bit of...

'Laura Bush' No Conservative in New Novel
'Laura Bush'
No Conservative
in New Novel
GLOSSIES
Jul 7, 2008 4:44 PM CDT

'Laura Bush' No Conservative in New Novel

Character has an abortion, describes sex with future president

(Newser) - In a new book unlikely to top the presidential reading list, author Curtis Sittenfeld fictionalizes the story of Laura Bush. Radar got a sneak peek and calls the novel "a masterful highbrow-lowbrow mash-up." The narrator is a librarian who falls in love with a future president upon seeing...

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