Author Shannon Hale blogs about moral and message in fiction: Is the book powerful in and of itself, the carrier of a message that can change a reader’s life? Or is it just a story, and the reader is powerful by deciding if and how the book might change her life?
FWR readers should check out Book Balloon, a great online community of
Kathryn forwarded me this Washington Post piece by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Here’s an excerpt: I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein Obama…What I find most unconscionable is the refusal of the McCain-Palin tandem to publicly condemn the cries of “traitor,” “liar,” “terrorist” and (worst of all) “kill him!” that could be heard at recent rallies. McCain is perfectly capable of telling hecklers off. […]
Like many, I bristled at recent remarks by Nobel Prize Committee head Horace Engdahl that American writers are “ignorant,” “isolated,” and “insular,” unworthy of consideration for the prize. Guaridan writer Jean Hannah Edelstein agrees that these remarks were offensive but wonders if particular limitations imposed on American writers might restrict our capacity for literary greatness. In this article, she argues that American writers “need support to reinvent the national literature. This will require a great deal of support and sympathy from US publishers: what the industry must do, in order to give American literati the license to unequivocally scoff at […]
I teach in Connecticut on Wednesdays, so it’s the perfect excuse to shirk blogging duties and link to two of the best stories I’ve read this year: 1. “Nine” by Aryn Kyle, from the Atlantic‘s 2008 Fiction Issue. If it strikes your fancy, read Kyle’s debut novel, The God of Animals, now available in paperback and reviewed here on FWR. 2. “Face” by Alice Munro, from the September 8 New Yorker. What a fresh story! Who can “make it new” after more than a dozen collections? Alice Munro, that’s who.
I know I’d rather spend time with Becky Sharp than with that drip Amelia Sedley. — Juliet Annan Juliet Annan offers this post on The Penguin Blog – Little Dorrit deserves a smack – on readers who whine about “unlikeable” characters, including those in Zoe Heller’s The Believers. I, too, am tired of hearing people say a character is “unsympathetic,” though at least the term is more nuanced than “unlikeable.” But who is at fault when a character is unsympathetic? If we have not a single way in — if said character has a heart of ash and no desires […]
Celeste just linked me to this article. “You can’t just make a book anymore,” said Mr. Haarsma, a former advertising consultant. Pairing a video game with a novel for young readers, he added, “brings the book into their world, as opposed to going the other way around.” Celeste: Really? Isn’t falling into the world of a book one of the joys of fiction? But then, if a game *does* draw kids to reading, maybe it’s a good thing after all. We found the following scene disturbing — and not just because it transpired in our MFA Homeland: At a gaming […]
In this week’s NY Times Book Review, Stephen Millhauser waxes succinctly on the short story — its virtues and titanic ambitions: The short story — how modest in bearing! How unassuming in manner! It sits there quietly, eyes lowered, almost as if trying not to be noticed. And if it should somehow attract your attention, it says quickly, in a brave little self-deprecating voice alive to all the possibilities of disappointment: “I’m not a novel, you know. Not even a short one. If that’s what you’re looking for, you don’t want me.” Read the rest (and see what cut of […]
Idlewild Books, a new Manhattan bookstore specializing in international literature and travel, shelves guidebooks and novels together, organized by location. As a fiction devotee, I like this idea for two reasons: First, would-be-explorers can get a taste of their destination’s literary landscape. Second, this is further testament to fiction’s (and, yes, memoir’s) ability to capture a specific, detailed sense of place and experience — to offer a more “true” account, in many respects, than the brief synopses and practical advice you’d get from a guidebook alone. You can read the New York Times review here or visit the store itself […]
Most of the stories from Kelly Link’s second collection, Magic for Beginners are now available in a free download. Link’s first foray into YA lit, Pretty Monsters (illustrated by Shaun Tan), published earlier this week; I’m excited to get my hands on a copy.
