Author: Mark Athitakis

More Home Troubles

by Mark Athitakis, posted in Edith Wharton

In Lenox, Massachusetts, Edith Wharton‘s home (aka the Mount) isn’t having the same luck as Bukowski’s:

This major tourist destination needs to raise $3 million by March 24 or their bank will foreclose on it. That’s because they owe $4.3 million and failed to make last month’s $30,000 mortgage payment. They say rising costs are the culprit.

“These bills include things like maintaining the garden, maintaining the house and the insurance bills, all of which have grown since the restoration,” said Copeland.

You can make donations at the Web site for the house.

Edith Wharton, Canine Tyrant

by Mark Athitakis, posted in Edith Wharton

Ask Dog Lady, an advice column for dog owners, is asked to settle a question regarding Edith Wharton‘s attitude toward dogs:

I am an English major and, in my American Novel course, we have been reading Edith Wharton’s “Ethan Frome” and “House of Mirth.” I also am a dog lover. When I bought a greeting card with a picture of a dog to send to a friend, I was glad to see it featured a quote from Wharton: “A heartbeat at my feet.” This quote also appears all over the Internet on various dog-devotional blogs.

The more I think of this, the more I wonder whether Wharton was really referring to the dog as a dominated creature of lowly position at her feet. Wharton wrote of the tyrannical forces of money and class. Look at poor Lily Bart, the anti-heroine in “House of Mirth” who basically killed herself because status and wealth eluded her. Bart became a heartbeat at various peoples’ feet. Does this oft-quoted line from Wharton slyly demean dogs?

An expert gets called in to answer.

A Stranger Comes to Town, With a Ladder

by Mark Athitakis, posted in Ann Packer, Bret Anthony Johnston, Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Robbins

Bret Anthony Johnston, head of the creative writing department at Harvard University, has a new book titled Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. Johnston solicited advice from Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Robbins, Ann Packer, and others (complete list) to assemble a collection of tips and tricks. As Johnston told Radio Iowa:

“They’ve asked the reader to do things such as, find an old postcard and make a story up from it,” Johnson explains, “they’ve asked to them to re-imagine a Greek myth in contemporary times. They’ve asked them to trot out their most shameful experience and render it on the page. There’s other things as well, imagine a scene involving a man carrying a ladder.” He says he was thrilled so many of America’s finest living writers signed on to take part in the collaboration.

The Creeps

by Mark Athitakis, posted in Elaine Dundy, J.F. Powers, Kenneth Fearing, Robert Montgomery Bird

New York Review Books has a habit of pulling me away from my regularly scheduled reading by putting out something that’s unfamiliar to me, well-written, and hits a lot of my pleasure points–last year Kenneth Fearing‘s The Big Clock, Elaine Dundy‘s The Dud Avocado, and The Stories of J. F. Powers all did a number on me. The Philadelphia Enquirer Inquirer points to another promising title, Robert Montgomery Bird‘s 1836 novel about metempsychosis, Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself. From Edward Pettit‘s review:

Poe wrote that the novel is “a farce of very pretty finesse.” True, but Bird’s humor is also sharp, even cynically driven. He leaves no social group (not even slaves) unscathed. Although I am suspicious of his characterization of the issues of slavery, it fits the broader purpose of his novel, which is to dissipate the delusions of a corrupt society. Sheppard Lee’s imposture of his fellow citizens mirrors the false pretenses of a nation. Bird’s richly nuanced novel wears the dramatic mask of comedy, but underneath lies the mask of tragedy.

(Side note: Christopher Looby, who wrote the introduction to the book, was my BA thesis advisor.)

Sunday Miscellany

by Mark Athitakis, posted in Ben Fountain, Curtis Sittenfeld, Dashiell Hammett, Dept. of Self-Promotion, Gordon Lish, Raymond Carver, Richard Krawiec, Samantha Hunt, William Faulkner

Richard Krawiec responds to the foofaraw regarding Gordon Lish‘s editing of Raymond Carver, making the case for a strong-willed editor.

Curtis Sittenfeld‘s Prep, like every popular novel that’s about adolescents and speaks to adolescents about the things that concern adolescents, is deemed unfit for adolescents.

The Millions compiles a list of favorite short-story collections. Good stuff, but: No Faulkner? No Hammett? This guy deserves a slot on the list too.

My brief review of Samantha Hunt‘s historical novel about the last days of Nikola Tesla, The Invention of Everything Else, is online at the Chicago Sun-Times site. I had high hopes for the book, but…

Dept. of Self Promotion

by Mark Athitakis, posted in Dept. of Self-Promotion

My interview at Tales From the Reading Room made a modest noise this week, getting some attention from Scott McLemee‘s Quick Study, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, and my home at the Washington City Paper, where the standing rule is that you cannot publicly say nice things about your colleagues without digging up bad five-year-old photos of them. Thanks to Victoria Best for the invite and the great questions, and to all the new folks who arrived here from her site.

Also, I have brief reviews of books on Jack Nicholson and Woody Allen in Sunday’s Washington Post Book World.

Making Up Is Hard to Do

by Mark Athitakis, posted in Mike Sager

Steve Weinberg wants to know where all the great journalism novels are:

Far too often…here is what I take away from journalism novels: As a group we experience a lot of sexual intercourse on the job, lack scruples when gathering information, and solve murders frequently enough to eliminate the need for homicide detectives in certain metropolitan areas. Good fun, I suppose, but disheartening because journalism should come across as something more noble.

Weinberg briefly notes Mike Sager‘s forthcoming novel about D.C.’s crack years, Deviant Behavior, a seriocomic, George Pelecanos-meets-Christopher Buckley tale that focuses on a reporter at a stand-in for the Post, the Washington Herald. I’m halfway through and it’s entertaining so far, but I suspect it won’t be the newsroom Moby-Dick Weinberg wants. I’m at a loss to think of any great books about reporters anyway. As the Mekons put it, “Turning journalists into heroes takes some doing.”

I still want Park Row released on DVD, though.