- Catching up with a lot of things after returning from NYC last night. It was a good year for books I actually read (and liked) at the National Book Critics Circle awards: Alex Ross‘ The Rest Is Noise won in criticism; Edwidge Danticat‘s Brother, I’m Dying won in autobiography; and Junot Diaz‘s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao won in fiction. The NBCC’s blog, Critical Mass, has a complete list of winners.
- George Saunders pokes a few holes in the notion of realist fiction.
- And discusses Lost, hard-ons, and other sundry matters with Etgar Keret.
- The Guardian has an extensive study of Carson McCullers‘ dark side(s).
- Absalom, Absalom: Still impressing college professors.
- “To be a significant American writer you need to be an engaged citizen of the world,” says poet Scott Cairns in an interesting piece on the growth of literary translation in the U.S.
Category: George Saunders
Saunders vs. Keret
Israeli author Etgar Keret is one of my favorite short-story writers; I enthused about him at length for the Rake a while back. He’s smart, irreverent, quick-hit–in other words, the kind of writer who pairs up nicely with somebody like George Saunders. They talk together in Pen America 8, the latest issue of PEN America’s journal. Its blog has an excerpt.
markathitakis.com 