Claire Lewis’ Exposed

 
Three or four of the best times I’ve had in my life have been as a member of a wedding party for friends and family. I’m not joking. Girls seem to have it incredibly tough, with the hair and the make-up and the dresses and the what-all, but guys (or at least the guys [...]

Read Full Post »

An interview with Donald Ray Pollock

A few weeks ago, a friend jokingly asked if I wanted to come over and have a fish stick. I almost fell on the ground when she asked. A few days earlier, I’d read Don Pollock’s Knockemstiff, a debut collection of stories, and the stories had hit me hard. One of the stories had featured [...]

Read Full Post »

Weisberg’s Extraordinary Book

Go ahead and check out Ursula K. Le Guin’s article in the February 2008 issue of Harper’s and get depressed. In it, she rails against the capitalistic impulses of the publishing industry, and, despite the fact that she’s right and that I’m on her side, it’s still hard to read defense-of-reading tracts as much more than, at [...]

Read Full Post »

A French Way to Yes

Imagine this: you’re dating someone and the two of you are very in love (even though there’s been trouble recently, some friction), and one afternoon when you’re out for coffee, your beloved sees someone across the room, goes and says hello, and several hours later leaves with that person—not just leaves with the other person, [...]

Read Full Post »

Another Old Review

(It’s the same deal with this review as with the KYoung review, down below. If you haven’t heard about Plascencia’s People yet, your life’s way way harder than it needs to be. Buy the hardcover from McSweeney’s, if you can find one, but either way: get a copy).
Salvador Plascencia’s debut novel, The People of Paper, [...]

Read Full Post »