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The New Yorker Fiction Forum

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Click here to see what's happening in the fiction of each issue of The New Yorker.

Last Five Issues: ____________________________

Links & Stuff

I'm liking Ron Charles more and more and more, and this video review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom makes just makes me giddy.

Over at Critical Mass, the blog for the NBCC, Wyatt Mason writes about Roth's "tenth, short, and perfect novel, The Ghost Writer." I agree with Mason; this is one great novel, and a great place to start if you're looking to get to know Roth. Here is my review. It wasn't my first Roth, but it is the book that made him one of my favorite writers of all time (if not my favorite).

This promises to get interesting. Anis Shivani of The Huffington Post has posted his list of the fifteen most overrated contemporary American authors. As usual, he makes some great points. Often when I see these, though, I think, "Okay, so they are bad. Now, tell me who is good -- and why the difference." Shivani promises to follow-up with the most underrated contemporary American writers. Followed with similar lists for American writers of the past century, and going further to include lists for the global writers.

Patricia Zohn interviews Jennifer Egan at The Huffington Post. I still think A Visit from the Goon Squad is one of the best books of the year.

New York Magazine has a nice look at independent bookstores in the City, which are rising "against all odds."

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.

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.

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."

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. ____________________________

2010 Book Awards

  • National Book Critics Circle Award
    • Winner: Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall
  • PEN/Faulkner Award
    • Winner: Sherman Alexie's War Dances
  • Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
    • Winner: Brigid Pasulka's A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
  • Pulitzer Prize
  • Orange Prize
    • Winner: Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna
  • Man Booker Prize
    • Late July
    • Early September
    • Winner: October 12
  • Nobel Prize in Literature
    • Winner: October
  • Giller Prize
    • Longlist: September 20
    • Shortlist: October 5
    • Winner: November 9
  • National Book Award
    • Finalists: October 13
    • Winner: November
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2009 Book Awards

  • National Book Critics Circle Award
    • Winner: Roberto Bolano's 2666
  • Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
    • Winner: Michael Dahlie's A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living
  • PEN/Faulkner Award
  • Orange Prize
    • Winner: Marilynne Robinson's Home
  • Man Booker Prize
    • Winner: Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall
  • Nobel Prize in Literature
    • Winner: Herta Müller
  • National Book Award
    • Winner: Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin

The New Yorker Fiction Forum

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In 2009 I made it a goal to read all of the short fiction published in The New Yorker that year.  Not only that, I made it a goal to write a brief summation of the story and of my verdict, posted here.  It was a great exercise, but one thing was missing — your comments.  Posting a slew of reviews at once had a nice effect, but it doesn’t necessarily give way for much discussion on any individual piece. 

KevinfromCanada had the great idea of creating a forum to discuss the fiction pieces throughout the year.  Well, here it is.  During the year (hopefully as closely to each week as I can) I will create forums wherein we can discuss the fiction as it is published. 

Click the links below to go to that short-fiction piece’s discussion forum where you will also find a link to the story on The New Yorker website.

September 6, 2010 — Nell Freudenberger: “An Arranged Marriage”
August 30, 2010 — Yiyun Li: “The Science of Flight”
August 16 & 23, 2010 — Daniel Alarcón: “Second Lives”
August 9, 2010 — David Bezmozgis: “The Train of Their Departure”
August 2, 2010 — Téa Obreht: “Blue Water Djinn”
July 26, 2010 — Karen Russell: “The Dredgeman’s Revelation”
July 12 & 19, 2010 — Dinaw Mengestu: “An Honest Exit”
July 5, 2010 — Sarah Shun-lien Bynum: “The Erlking”
June 28, 2010 — Nicole Krauss: “The Young Painters”
June 14 & 21, 2010 – 20 Under 40 Issue
          Joshua Ferris: “The Pilot”
          Jonathan Safran Foer: “Here We Aren’t, So Quickly”
          Phillip Meyer: “What You Do Out Here, When You’re Alone”
          Rivka Galchen: “The Entire Northern Side Was Covered With Fire”
          Gary Shteyngart: “Lenny Hearts Eunice”
          ZZ Packer: “Dayward”
          Salvatore Scibona: “The Kid”
          C.E. Morgan: “Twins”
June 7, 2010 – Jeffrey Eugenides: “Extreme Solitude”
May 31, 2010 – Jonathan Franzen: “Agreeable”
May 24, 2010 – Roddy Doyle: “Ash”
May 17, 2010 – Nathan Englander: “Free Fruit for Young Widows”
May 10, 2010 – Dagoberto Gilb: “Uncle Rock”
May 3, 2010 – Allegra Goodman: “La Vita Nuova”
April 26, 2010 – E.L. Doctorow: “Edgemont Drive”
April 19, 2010 – Roberto Bolaño: “The Prefiguration of Lalo Cura”
April 12, 2010 – Ben Loory: “The TV”
April 5, 2010 – Janet Frame: “Gavin Highly”
March 29, 2010 – Joyce Carol Oates: “I.D.”
March 22, 2010 – Junot Díaz: “The Pura Principle”
March 15, 2010 – David Means: “The Knocking”
March 8, 2010 – Jennifer Egan: “Ask Me If I Care”
March 1, 2010 – Saïd Sayrafiezadeh: “Appetite”
February 15 & 22, 2010 – Claire Keegan: “Foster”
February 8, 2010 – Roberto Bolaño: “William Burns”
February 1, 2010 – Kevin Barry: “Fjord of Killary”
January 25, 2010 – E.O. Wilson: “Trailhead”
January 18, 2010 – T. Coraghessan Boyle: “A Death in Kitchawank”
January 11, 2010 – Jennifer Egan: “Safari”
January 4, 2010 – Uwem Akpan: “Baptizing the Gun”

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