Rolling Contemporary Literary Fiction

and yeah I guess is actually more of a long literary tradition than a recent trend, so nevermind. I just want to talk about those books. They both ended up affecting me more than I expected.

yeah super sad love story was pretty great, + i like that thing w/ how gross the heroes are but i kinda hope that shteyngart doesnt do it again w/ his next book, i had read absurdistan only a month or so ago + it's the same thing

Key transition between paragraphs 9 and 10:

So when you are a lady writer, or an African American writer (sometimes you are both, whee!) and you write something, and it is met with silence by those you see yourself as writing to, or, perhaps worse, a shrug or faint praise, well, that does seem to undermine your project. It makes you feel like your voice is worth less than someone else's. It makes you wonder if you should bother to keep speaking at all.

Your writing doesn't get the reaction you think it deserves, and as a result you feel less confident.

And the silencing and devaluing of those voices has consequences, particularly when it tends to happen disproportionately to certain populations.

Those feelings aren't your responsibility now. They are symptoms of external agency. Your voice is being silenced and devalued. It's being done to you.

Another move I don't follow:

Isn't it fair for her to ask critics to value for something that speaks more closely to her actual life?

No cheap shots about grammar from me. But this writer has already dismissed (accurately, I think) not only the gatekeeping role of traditional publishing but the "mere ego stroke of getting praise in a good review." From that stance, why should she plead for critics to value anything at all? I don't think she or anyone can maintain that critics are keeping gates between readers and writers when the gates have dissolved in the internet cloud.

Franzen doesn't live in Brooklyn.

I think these complaints are so daft, pointless, self-serving and time-wasting!

So I hope I agree with you alimosina!

I'm going to read this, but it looks like I'm going to have to wait for a new edition because those covers are horrible.

i have no idea how you can spend the best part of a decade on a book then accept that cover (the US one, the UK one is bad but not offensive) just... i mean, it's totally baffling. so awful.

I'm looking forward to the book though, I have it pre-ordered. Pretty sure it will be great.

hello book friends--i am working on a fall books preview (geared toward an american audience); is there anything coming out in sept/oct/nov/dec that you are particularly looking forward to?

who claimed he lives in brooklyn?

also there's nothing i am looking forward to not covered in the books preview at the start of the thread /: mainly twain's autobio and the pale king, i guess

also, that stating that the literary efforts of women and of people of colour are occluded by the auto-lionising treatment given to white dudes is "daft, pointless, self-serving and time-wasting" without bothering to engage with the particular complaint is pretty abhorrent. just saying.

yeah i dont know that i "get" the virulent response to that awl article, even if i dont agree with it 100%

the pale king <--- otm x 10,000

max, i'm guessing you've already been through conversational reading's 'interesting new books 2010' list? doesn't entirely overlap w the list at the the start of the thread.

(the things i've been looking forward to are i think already out in the us - the lydia davis short story collection, mo yan's life and death are wearing me out)

pale king doesn't come out until next spring

here's a "pro tip" for you guys: if you buy a hardcover book, you can "take off" the offensive paper cover and discard it/defecate in it/blog about it

yes i have c sharp though thanks for linking! i am sort of wondering if theres anything special to ilxors hearts that they are v excited for, because my personal anticipations are pretty basic and in-line w/ the lists that are out there

excited about the lydia davis translation of madame bovary

The Ask had more lol lines than any book I've read this year. Really not much more than that, but a hoot nonetheless.

excited about the lydia davis translation of madame bovary

― Mr. Que

i am now also excited about this idea

Anyone read Jennifer Egan's A Visit From The Goon Squad yet?

Good stuff.

Yeah, I enjoyed it too. I think any of the chapters expanded into its novel would be kind of insufferable but the format helps move things along before things get too morose or the characters wear out their welcome.

The Ask had more lol lines than any book I've read this year. Really not much more than that, but a hoot nonetheless.

― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:20 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'd say it's a little more than that, I thought it successfully built up some pathos by the end and I was more emotionally affected by it than I expected.

anyone heading out to pick up Freedom today?

the Franzen frenzy is a little weird to me. I liked The Corrections but that's pretty much his only book that anybody cares about so when did this turn into such a big deal? Is it just because it's been so long since the last one?

that and it's gotten stellar reviews

oh

I get people getting excited about a book that will probably be good, but like the cover of TIME magazine seems kind of unnecessary

I liked The Corrections but that's pretty much his only book that anybody cares about so when did this turn into such a big deal? Is it just because it's been so long since the last one?

all it takes is one of your novels to turn into a modern classic for the hype for the followup to be deafening

joke is on TIME magazine, no one reads books, or magazines

yeah and the article seemed 100% insane, from what i read online

all it takes is one of your novels to turn into a modern classic for the hype for the followup to be deafening

― markers, Tuesday, August 31, 2010 11:42 AM (28 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

and this is how David Mitchell was named People's Sexiest Man of the Year

it seems weird to me too, and it makes me a little sad because i'm expecting it to be a solid book that doesn't justify the hype/backlash.

apparently there's a translation of some bolano short stories coming out today as well?

xp

I wonder how many copies it'll end up selling -- I have no idea how well "blockbuster" literary novels tend to do

quick google suggests his last novel did over a million in hard cover

also one of the ten best sellers of '01, up there with the stephen kings and john grishams, sales-wise. i have no idea how you'd look at the long-tail sales for it, though.

yeah, a million plus is probably a really good & rare number for literary fiction to pull off

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/books/review/Burn-t.html

came out in the late spring but still looks rad

I'd say it's a little more than that, I thought it successfully built up some pathos

Yeah, I agree.

Que, that does look pretty awesome.

(And the reviewer apparently wrote a book on Franzen: "Stephen Burn’s latest book is “Jonathan Franzen at the End of Postmodernism.” He teaches at Northern Michigan University.")

Wow. The new James Franco book, a collection of short stories, actually has some big authors giving it really positive blurbs ...

http://www.amazon.com/Palo-Alto-Stories-James-Franco/dp/1439163146/ref=br_lf_m_1000535991_1_24_ttl?ie=UTF8&s=books&pf_rd_p=1272423682&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_i=1000535991&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0H2AY4DPEFT658406BN1

I'll be damned if I read it though.

This is a book to be inhaled more than once,

O RLLY

http://mimg.sulekha.com/english/the-pineapple-express/stills/the-pineapple-express05.jpg

I don't see why it's inconceivable that a dude pursing an advanced English degree at Columbia might be a good writer

He could be!

but he's got one helluva agent.

i think i defended his story that esquire published. i dont know if i remember it being amazing but it wasnt embarrassing

that story he had published somewhere (new yorker?) was awful.

xp

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/page-to-screen/article/44284-james-franco-s-palo-alto-our-review.html

ha

I don't see why it's inconceivable that some big name authors would want to blurb this either. Couldn't hurt, and it would probably help them to sell a few more copies of their own books.

But yeah ... maybe he's decent.

(Note to self: if I ever want to easily land a publishing deal, I need to star in at least one superhero movie.)

are you cuet?

(most) blurbs are used as currency by publishing houses fyi