Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for 2010

Shop Talk |

Book of the Week Giveaway: Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives, by Brad Watson

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Each week we give away several free copies of a featured novel or story collection as part of our Book-of-the-Week program. Last week we featured Picking Bones From Ash, by Marie Mutsuki Mockett, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Lucy Biederman, Thea Burgess, and Brian Boyle. Congratulations! Each will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author. This week we’re featuring Brad Watson’s Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives. Stories in this collection have appeared in such places as The New Yorker, Granta, The Idaho Review, The Greensboro Review, Ecotone, and The Oxford American. In the […]


Shop Talk |

Defending the un-Status quo

by Lee Thomas

In The Faster Times, Chloé Cooper Jones holds a discussion with her former fiction professor, Deb Olin Unferth, and Unferth’s former professor, George Saunders. The results: a rational, practical and, in the end, laudatory discussion of MFA programs – a counterpoint to the voices raised against the model. The piece, You Are Not the Only One Writing About Moldavian Zookeepers: George Saunders and Deb Olin Unferth Discuss the State of the Creative Writing Degree, left me feeling hopeful and refreshed – mostly because, as good writers can, Saunders and Unferth reminded me that the world is not made up of […]


Reviews |

Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives, by Brad Watson

by Tom Bennitt

There are no zombies or vampires in Brad Watson’s new collection, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives (W.W. Norton, 2010), but there are plenty of folks who act like they’re either dead or from another planet. And, yes, many of Watson’s characters are “aliens”—not green creatures with large heads, but alienated, isolated. They are people who wander through life without an anchor, who don’t feel the pull of gravity.


Shop Talk |

Fiction on the big screen

by Lee Thomas

The announcement that Carey Mulligan has been cast as Daisy Buchanan, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway in Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of The Great Gastby has gotten me thinking about film adaptations in general. I’m of two minds. Sometimes the director or actors chosen are enough to entice me. When Joel and Ethan Coen signed up to make No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy’s searing Western/manhunt, I knew I would see it. They did not disappoint. But by the same token, I have resisted seeing another McCarthy novel, The Road, because I didn’t […]


Shop Talk |

Under the Covers

by Lee Thomas

For all of you readers who love new technology, but remain bookish at heart, how about an iPad/Kindle/Nook cover that marries the two? We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite trompe l’oeil covers, so you can have your cake … but dress it up like a book. Or give a bibliophile friend a lovely gift. 1. Leather bound by Pad and Quill 2. Hans Christian Andersen by Vintage Covers 3. Hardback Cloth BOOK by Nedrelow 4. By the Numbers Moleskine-style by RightBrainy 5. Classic black Dodocase 6. Horses (I can’t help but think about Patti Smith with this one) […]


Essays |

The ReCorrections: Part II

In the second part of his essay, Scott F. Parker discusses The Corrections as a key to Franzen’s thoughts on commerce and art, and how this tension led to the controversy surrounding the Oprah Book Club. Parker argues that the deep connection the reader forges with the Lamberts is precisely because of their abiding flaws and loneliness, because Franzen reveals how their struggles are our own.


Shop Talk |

A Million Little Writers (perhaps just a dozen)

by Lee Thomas

Lots of digital ink has been spilled this week about James Frey’s Full Fathom Five endeavor. In simple terms, the company has enlisted bright young writers (most from MFA programs) to try to write the next big Young Adult series, a la Twilight or Harry Potter. Hillary Busis on MEDIAite has an article looking at two competing pieces (both published 11/12/10) – one in the Wall Street Journal, one in New York Magazine – and their very different takes. The blogosphere has picked up the story and run with it. Busis writes: The articles’ tones vary drastically. The WSJ’s Katherine […]


Essays |

The ReCorrections: Part I

Nearly a decade after publication, Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections still looms large in American fiction. The novel, and the controversy surrounding it, have influenced the way we think about issues of family, identity, art, commerce, and the role of the writer. In Part I of “The ReCorrections” Scott F. Parker reveals the impact the book had on him as a reader and why he believes “the mood of The Corrections trumps its plot.” Look for Part II tomorrow.


Shop Talk |

And the winner is ….

by Lee Thomas

Tonight, the National Book Award will be announced. The National Book Foundation – who awards the prize each year – will be live tweeting the event “from pre-show setup to post show celebration.” Anne shared an interesting piece from Salon that posted on Monday. In the aptly-titled essay, “Who will win the National Book Award for fiction?“, Tom LeClair breaks down the five books in the running – Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey; Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon; Great House by Nicole Krauss; So Much for That by Lionel Shriver; and I Hotel by Karen Tei […]


Shop Talk |

Book of the Week Giveaway: Picking Bones from Ash, by Marie Mutsuki Mockett

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

At the end of August, Fiction Writers Review launched a Fan Page on Facebook. The goal is threefold: to introduce new readers to FWR, to create an informal place for conversations about writing, and to give away lots of free books. Each week we’ll give away several free copies of a featured novel or story collection as part of our Book-of-the-Week program. All you have to do to be eligible for our weekly drawing is to be a fan of our Facebook page. No catch, no gimmicks. And once you’re a fan, you’ll always be automatically entered in our subsequent […]




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