At the
FSG blog, Ryan Chapman has a discussion on the state of book jacket design with three of the best designers out there: Susan Mitchell, Charlotte Strick, and Henry Sene Yee.
At Reading Matters, Kim has featured my blog on her
Triple Choice Tuesday. My choices?
The Ghost Writer,
So Long, See You Tomorrow, and
Butcher's Crossing. Pop on over and see my fresh, brief write-up of each title.
For Independence Day, the Huffington Post has a slide show of
fifteen great independent publishers, featuring a few of my favorites --
Open Letter,
Archipelago -- and a few I didn't know about.
New Directions is a model of perfection, and I agree. I have stacks and stacks of books from these three presses, and I'm anxious to see what the others have to offer.
This year's
Berkshire Wordfest will be held at the beautiful Edith Wharton estate,
The Mount, on July 23 - 25. I will be going north that weekend, but I will be stopping at
Tarrytown, New York, for some
other fun. Still, a trip to the Berkshires is always pleasant, and a literary festival at Edith Wharton's house is a must if you're available.
Michiko Kakutani's
review of Jacob de Zoet is surprising in its lack of substance. It's mostly just a plot rehash (which I think gives away a bit too much). It's boring to read and insightless, where I usually enjoy her reviews even if I disagree (as I do here). I'm not saying my reviews are better, surely, but this is pretty poor for
The New York Times daily and from a Pulitzer-winning critic.
The PEN American Center has started its first online book club (
click here for their page). Their first book is Clarice Lispector's
The Hour of the Star, published by the great
New Directions.
In the new issue of
The New Yorker, James Wood
takes a look at The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: "This is to argue not that David Mitchell should be more like Tolstoy or Conrad or Beckett but, curiously, that he might be more Mitchellian—that the reader wants a kind of moral or metaphysical pressure that is absent, and that has ceded all the ground to pure storytelling."
KevinfromCanada features
a guest post from Kathleen Winter, author of
Anabel, which KFC also just
reviewed.
The Paris Review blog has a
Q&A with Jennifer Egan, author of
The Goon Squad, a piece of which was published in
The New Yorker and discussed
here.
Click
here for the
Never Let Me Go trailer. I didn't like the book as much as I hoped I would, but the trailer makes the film look good.
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Click here to see what's happening in the fiction of each issue of The New Yorker.
Last Five Issues:
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I hope you have a week when the mood strikes. It is not a bad book, by any means, but (from my point of view) it is a very disappointing book. I have no problem with investing time in a 650-page book, but I do expect a return — Wolf Hall did not provide it. I won’t be reading volume two in the series.
I’m sure the mood will strike. It will probably be my next historical novel. As for the 650 pages — that I’m not looking forward to. There are other long books I’ve been meaning to read. So, sometime in the next year or so. None of this is to detract from Ms. Mantel. I’m just not sure I would be a good reader right now.
I actually won this book in a giveaway and have yet to read it, but I have heard some wonderful things about it so I am looking forward to reading it. I was expecting either Waters or Byatt to win. Oh well.
I’m getting used to the idea that Wolf Hall won and am coming around to the idea that she deserved it. She will do as much for the prize as the prize will do for her, as it was already a popular book before it even made the list if library waiting lists are anything to go by. I borrow many books and I have never seen as many reservations as this one has had, and still going strong in that regard. I’m sure booksellers are very pleased.
From a personal point of view, I expected not to like Wolf Hall but ended up liking it a lot. I will certainly read the next in the series. I learned a lot from this book in an enjoyable way, contrasted with Byatt’s offering which I put down after 104 pages.
Hilary Mantel seems to be a lovely, genuine, and enthusiastic person.
Even though I personally would have chosen Summertime to win, I do believe the judges did the right thing this year.
It’s not just 650 pages Trevor, it’s 650 pages in what isn’t yet a complete work, there’s a sequel on the cards and this isn’t intended to be standalone as I understand it.
I look forward to your thoughts though when you do get to it, but I fear it’s territory I shall be leaving you to chart for me, while I remain at home reading your despatches from the front…