Knopf 100--Day 9

I'm watching the World Series and the Fox Sports coverage and commentators have me thinking about the pros and cons of sports broadcasting-related suicidal fantasies, so I'm distracting myself by
updating le blog. Hey look, we're almost a third of the way through our 100 title tribute for Knopf's 100th Anniversary.

29. Arthur & George by Julian Barnes, originally published in 2006. First, I think Julian Barnes is one of the best living novelists out there. The snooty literary people love him because he's a wordsmith and plays with form. Everyone can read him too, though, as he doesn't get so lost in the craft of writing to neglect things like plot. For example: Arthur & George. Barnes's historical fiction takes Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes and a gentleman obsessed with 19th Century mysticism (seances and the like), is the Arthur of the title. George is an immigrant outsider with poor people skills who's been an outsider his whole life, so when some animals turn up mutilated, instead of blaming space aliens like we do in these modern times, the villagers blamed George. Arthur hears about George's plight and decides that he can play Sherlock Holmes and solve the case himself. The characters are addictive and flawed.

30. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell, originally published in 2011. If you're one of the dozen fans of this blog, you know that Gianna and I LOOOOOOOVE Karen Russell. Remember when we interviewed her? Let's all revisit that post, as it's arguably the pinnacle achievement of our bloggish efforts (slightly above a recent keyword search of "how to text flirt with a girl" that somehow led to this literary hub of intellectual geniuses). Swamplandia! was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and one of my favorite books. It's a quirky novel about a family running a tourist theme park attraction in swampy Florida, but the park has fallen on hard times since the mother and alligator wrestler died. Ava, the youngest of three kids, is the focal point of the novel as her family unravels and the weirdness of the swamp closes in. I think of this novel as the collapse of the American Dream and it's one of the few books I've reread.

31. Hitler's Willing Executioners by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, originally published in 1996. I...still don't know how I feel about this book and it's been two decades. To characterize it as controversial would be accurate, but Knopf hasn't shied away from controversy. Goldhagen's book is about how ordinary Germans were able to aid the Nazi agenda of Jewish extermination. He argued that medieval religious prejudices became secular and cultural prejudices that he termed "eliminationist antisemitism." Basically, the whole country had an ingrained antisemitism that Hitler and the Nazis were able to tap into to push their political ambitions and led to the Holocaust. The book became a bestseller when it was published and is one of those works that historians have argued with ever since.

32. I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son by Kent Russell, originally published in 2015. Since I mentioned Karen Russell, we should also mention her brother and his essay collection that is one of the more delightful books I've read this year. These Russells are such excellent oddities. Kent Russell's book is a series of essays exploring manhood and how to define "manhood" when he isn't following in his father's and grandfather's military service. Kent chronicles a series of tough guy-esque encounters, from a Juggalo convention, to visiting the guy who lives on the island where Captain Bligh was abandoned after the mutiny on The Bounty, to spending a weekend with a guy who in inoculating himself to snake venom has decided to be bitten by five poisonous snakes in one weekend. It's freaky. Kent Russell is a talented writer and I'm eager to read what he writes next...as long as it doesn't involve snakes. I don't like the snakes. I had nightmares.

Best Books of 2013 (So Far): Liz's Picks

(Gianna) Liz and I thought it would be fun to ask our friends in Book Land what their favorite book of the year is so far. After all, we are halfway through 2013 and July is an excellent time to reflect on all the choices you've made to arrive at this point. Everyone hated the idea. How can you pick just one book? It’s not fair! It’s not right! Well those are the rules, just one book. End of discussion.

Now having said that, Liz and I think it’s crazy to even attempt to pick a favorite book so we will list our top ten favorite books of the year.

(Liz) Please note that this project was Gianna's idea, and then she volunteered me to go first. Fine. I always allow her to pick first and I end up with her leftovers. Good luck tomorrow, Gianna. 

I'm not going to actually rank these picks, as the MLB All Star Game is on momentarily and I have some Yankees to boo. Quick and dirty, here we go:

Americanah: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a brilliant writer and I'll read anything she writes. If you liked Cutting for Stone, you'll like Americanah, the story of two Nigerian friends who leave Africa, and then return as adults to find each other again. Adichie's observations on race and class are astute but not heavy-handed.

Between Man and Beast: Normally I avoid the monkeys, but I can't resist good exploration history. In this case Monte Reel brings to life the world of Paul Du Chaillu, a Victorian era explorer who was the first to bring back proof of gorillas to the western world. From the African jungles to Broadway to the Royal Geographical Society, Between Man and Beast brings to live this story that ultimately inspired the King Kong tales.

Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel: The literary world lost a gem when David Rakoff, hilarious essayist and frequent contributor to NPR's This American Life, succumbed to cancer. Knowing he was dying, though, and with the help of close friends, Rakoff left us with one last book. Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish is a novel in verse, warm and comedic and tragic and an extraordinary accomplishment. Think of it as Rakoff's love song to America.

One Thousand and One Nights: I'm a sucker for a beautiful book, and I was already a fan of Hanan Al-Shaykh. In her retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, Lebanese writer Al-Shaykh brings to woman's perspective to the magic carpets and thieves and genies of the Arabian Nights. Mary Gaitskill writes the intro and the book itself should win design awards for the stunning package.

Instructions for a Heatwave: Instructions for a Heatwave was a huge discovery for me. I'd heard of but never read Maggie O'Farrell, and now I regret that I missed her earlier novels. I'm working to remedy that mistake. O'Farrell is every bit as skilled a writer as Jonathan Franzen, and like Franzen her subject is family interactions. In Heatwave she proves you can't go home again when three adult children rendezvous at their mother's house to search for their missing father. They have their own lives, regrets, secrets, and joys, but they are also adults who were once the bickering siblings growing up together. You know how you turn into your bratty 12 year old self when you're around your brother and sister? You'll get this book.

The Woman Upstairs: Damn. Claire Messud. She's got to be one of the ten or so best writers in the country. The Woman Upstairs tells the story of Nora, a quietly seething teacher who gave up her dreams of being an artist. When a family moves to Cambridge and into her life, though, she discovers new dimensions in her life and rediscovers her dreams. The son is the compassionate new kid in her third grade class. The mother is an artist on the brink of wild success, with whom Nora shares a studio. The father is a brilliant visiting professor at Harvard who awakens Nora's intellectual and physical passion. Claire Messud reveals through Nora a woman on the brink. I love this book.

The Antagonist: As far as I'm concerned, Lynn Coady's The Antagonist should be required reading. It's surprising, funny, angry, wise, and simply incredible. Here's a novel written as a series of drunken emails from a man wronged by an old college friend. Gordon Rankin Jr is a former hockey prodigy plagued by a hilariously awful father, and when his friend uses Rank's life as the basis for his bestselling novel, Rank takes to email to set the story straight. Have you read it? You need to read it. I'm looking at you.

Vampires in the Lemon Grove: We have already heaped praise upon Karen Russell and her short story collection Vampires in the Lemon Grove. I love KR, I love these sometimes creepy, sometimes funny, all terrific stories. 

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: A major literary debut, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is the book that the Random House sales force buzzed about for many months before it went on sale. It's set in Chechnya, Anthony Marra creates a multifaceted story of a village terrorized by war and a hospital desperately trying to keep going in the worst circumstances. Don't think of it as a war book, though (or just a war book). This is a character driven novel about betrayed friendships, an orphan hunted by an army, and two doctors just trying to survive.

Benediction: Allow me to conclude my list with Benediction. Few books have meant as much to me as this novel from Kent Haruf, the author of Plainsong. Benediction is set in a small town on the Colorado plain. The owner of the local hardware store is slowly dying of cancer, but summoning his adult son is fraught with problems. They are estranged and they have no address for him. Even as they wait, and hope, the town people gather and swirl around this man. Having grown up in a small town, and having a dad who runs the local hardware store, and having lost my mother to cancer, I related personally to Benediction. Having said that, though, I think this is a novel for everyone. It's full of humanity and the communities we hope will sustain us throughout our lives. 

Generally Horrible Questions: Karen Russell

Holy freakin' God, Karen Russell! Pulitzer Prize finalist. One of the best young writers in America. Did we convince Karen Russell to answer our horrible questions? Yes we did. You know what turns Monday into Funday? Receiving an email from Karen Russell. Yeah, I'm going to keep saying her name. Karen Russell. Karen Russell!

Karen Russell
My new best friend

Karen Russell is the author of three books: the much lauded debut story collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, the Pulitzer Prize finalist novel Swamplandia! (which was one of our favorite books of the year for 2011), and the recently released short story collection Vampires in the Lemon Grove. Russell is known for her imaginative characters and plots, and she's fearless in blending fantasy, horror, folklore, and general oddity into her brand of literary fiction. No one is writing like Karen Russell. In Vampires in the Lemon Grove, for example, one story is about former Presidents of the United States who have been reincarnated as barnyard horses. Rutherford B. Hayes thinks he wants to seduce a sheep, but it's okay because he thinks the sheep may be his wife. You know you want to read this story.

A couple of months ago, Russell spent a day in the Random House warehouse in Maryland signing a bunch of copies of Vampires. My pals in the telephone sales department facilitated the signing, and several of them posted about it on Facebook. I responded to their Facebook posts because I was petty and jealous. Someone read my envious remarks to Russell, and she somehow remembered that I'd posted the first reader review for Swamplandia! on Goodreads. She graciously agreed to answer our generally horrible questions even though the telephone sales reps told her all about me.

What follows is going to be my favorite blog post pretty much ever. Karen Russell!


Generally Horrible Questions: Karen Russell

1. Describe your literary odyssey--how did you become a writer?

My Poets by Maureen McLane

I like “literary odyssey,” which has such an epic ring to it! Basically I was a terrified child who lived inside of books, and early on I wanted to apprentice myself to these architects of imaginary places, to make a world of my own on the page, a place that did not exist and yet that readers could nonetheless inhabit. To draw breaths and die and get reborn inside of books--when I was a kid and today, I thought this reading business was real magic. As dorkily earnest as that sounds, forgive me. But I am still amazed and relieved that we humans are creatures who have access to these alternate, placeless spaces, which are made out of language but which become so real inside of us, and which we can always revisit, via re-reading. What a piece of luck, you know, that we get to read. It’s a spooky intimacy that binds readers to characters in books, and their authors. My friend Maureen McLane, in her amazing book, My Poets, has a quote that I find myself thinking about at least once a day, about how certain poems and stories provide us with “deep seas in which to swim and make a self.”

But wait a sec, that’s a long tangent--basically, my route to becoming a writer was a pretty land-locked odyssey. As I mentioned, I was an anxious kid, a reader. What Joan Didion calls in her great essay, “a private keeper of notebooks.” I liked to bike around the mangroves near our house. I sucked at many things: sports, math. I loved language with a feverish intensity. I took phenomenal writing classes at Northwestern University and in Columbia’s MFA program. I got really, really, unaccountably lucky, relatively early-on. I wound up with a really excellent agent and a phenomenal editor, at Knopf, where everybody genuinely loves making books. I’m still trying to make good on all the help and encouragement I’ve received. [For the record, writing for this blog doesn't really help pay off that debt. Actually, you might owe more. Penance for a lack of taste. Everything else about this answer is gold, though.]

2. Gianna lived in the Miami area for several years while in her twenties; she calls these her drinking years. Which of the following cultural hot spots did she get kicked out of?

A) Weeki Wachee Springs?
B) Monkey Jungle?
C) Busch Gardens?
D) The Holy Land Experience (Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like)?
E) All of the above? Remember, these were her drinking years.

The Holy Land Experience.
Watch out for drunk Gianna

I really want to go with E, ladies! I’m going to say Monkey Jungle? Only because that’s right in Miami, and the others are a drive, and I guess that even retrospectively I hate to imagine an intoxicated Gianna bounced from, say, “The Holy Land Experience,” driving drunk without a seat belt...buckle up, Gianna in the past! Wait a sec, I’ll call you a cab! Gianna! Come back, your toga from the Holy Land Experience is on backwards... 

3. I've never read Ulysses (not a word!) and I'm so ashamed.
Been hearing some good buzz about that one. 

4. I've read The Rules and I'm so ashamed. (Be advised: we mock Twilight fairly regularly.)
Note: This was a gift from my father, purchased for $1.50 from a used bookstore in Miami, when I was in high school. I truly think he thought it was some kind of self-help type inspirational book. I’m sure he would be horrified to know he gave me the world’s most sexist dating manual. [...Yet you still read it. Huh. This is
Gianna's favorite book, I think.]

5. One of our favorite KR (we call you KR) stories is "Z.Z.'s Sleepaway Camp for Disordered Dreamers," (from St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves). Liz has a sleep disorder; it's very annoying. Which cabin should we put her in?
Hey, I love to be KR! There are a lot of Karens out there. Some days I feel more like a Russell than a Karen, for whatever that’s worth. Maybe I have a name disorder. Gianna, Liz I’m so sorry to hear about your sleep disorders. I have your run of the mill insomnia and some vivid nightmares, but my brother is an occasional sleepwalker with legitimate and alarming night terrors. He sleeps with a baseball bat next to his bed, because nearly every night he wakes up to the sensation that there is a malevolent presence in his bedroom. (I share this only because he himself is sharing his sleep troubles publicly, in an amazing profile of Tom Savini, zombie special effects artist, that will appear in Tin House soon...).

I think that we would probably all be in the “Others” cabin--see my thoughts on Liz’s “Miscellaneous” qualities below. I’m no REM-expert, but I’m going out on a limb here to say that whatever Liz and Gianna have might be gloriously undiagnosable. [I'm pretty sure that what Gianna has is contagious, though.]

6. You can disown one person from this impressive list of Floridians: William H. Macy, Victoria Jackson,

Sidney Poitier, 2 Live Crew, or Hulk Hogan. Who doesn't make the cut? Why? Show your work.
Ha! This might be one of my all-time favorite interview questions. 2 Live Crew! I had the "Pop That Coochie (Clean)" Cassingle from Specs. And a bad crush on Luke. And Sidney Poitier is from Miami? I’m so ashamed not to have known that! Who would disown Mister Tibbs?? Hulk Hogan, Victoria Jackson, that noble bloodhound-looking, careworn superstar, William H. Macy: all Miami native sons and daughters. I think this is a trick question, you guys. Like when God told Abraham he had to sacrifice his firstborn. I think Florida’s strangeness is capacious enough for everyone on this eclectic list. And how could I disown even one of these people, given my familiarity with my own weirdness? Glass houses, Hulk Hogan! [With "Pop That Coochie" appearing on this blog, I anticipate many, many more Google porn searches landing here. Sigh. Also, Karen, did you consider Hulk Hogan's sex tape? I think that's reason enough to cut that one loose.]

7. You're known for taking quirky, often fantastical characters and having them confront themes facing more ordinary people these days. In SWAMPLANDIA!, alligator wrestling and the homogenization of American entertainment and culture square off against each other. In the title story of VAMPIRES IN THE LEMON GROVE, aging vampires deal with the struggle of maintaining a relationship long term as they age and grow apart. How did you come to find your voice in this mixture of worlds/genres? Did you have an imaginary friend as a child?
Ah, well, I suppose one answer is that I grew up in Florida, where there are so many overlapping worlds: artificial fantasy parks and real swamps and everything in between. Then, too, I have some great role models, folks like Italo Calvino, Juan Rulfo, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, with highly lyrical and idiosyncratic literary voices. Writers with a sweeping, syncretic vision, whose skill with language gives them the ability to fuse many different tones and atmospheres into a single cohesive work. ["Syncretic" is such a great word.] They are real mix-masters, these authors; the single arbiters of the worlds which they create, regardless of whether they are set on the moon or under the sea or under the flame-red skies of Georgia. And then there are contemporary authors--Rivka Galchen, Ben Marcus, Heidi Julavitz, to name just a very few--who are genre mash-up artists, and create fictional universes that are irrigated by many diverse aquifers, both the classics of literature and detective stories, science fiction, philosophy, children’s parables.

I think part of the reason why I like monster stories and hybridized styles has a lot to do with the homogenization that you cite, Liz. As a writer and a reader, I’m drawn to books that defy categorization. I watched South Florida overrun by strip malls, franchises, inundated with “processed food” fantasies dictated to everybody by corporations, so much of the indigenous color draining into a dreadful sameness. Monsters, emblems of difference, skulking around the margins of the dominant culture, have a real appeal in literature and film right now, and I’d guess it’s because we’re all drawn to the freakish freedom they embody. 

8. Consider the 50 states. Where does Florida rank on a spectrum of eccentricity?
I want to say, with pride and love, “the most eccentric.” Do you read the news coming out of that isthmus?

Seriously, don't molest the gators. Bad idea. Weirdo.

Do you see the prehistoric looking plants and birds and lizards that we’ve got down there, right next to Adventureland and the Pleasure Emporium? More proof: remember when that megalithic blue eyeball washed up recently, in Pompano Beach, FL? Now, was the eyeball magnetized to, say, Cape Cod? Of course not! That homeless deep sea peeper followed some vibrational gravity ashore, to its rightful home in Florida.

But you know, my experience of other places is limited; I wouldn’t doubt that states like Texas or Louisiana or even a dark horse like Ohio might give us a run for our counterfeit Day-Glo Florida money. I spent 18 years at the bottom of that peninsula so my own bias has deep roots. My brother says “Florida is our Australia.” Sometimes I meet people from states I’ve never visited, like Alaska or Nevada, and I feel an immediate kinship with them. We recognize each other as survivors of a deeply strange atmosphere and culture...although I guess “strange” is an overused descriptor and certainly very relative. Because what would constitute an “ordinary” state, Connecticut? Look what happened there! It’s Stepford Wife country! Those placid green lawns and standard suburban facades turned out to be the breeding ground for some wild dysfunction! 

9. Liz or Gianna? (This is a question we ask everyone. There is a correct answer.)
Liz AND Gianna. In bathroom graffiti, I believe, the transcription is: LIZ AND GIANNA 4EVA!!! [Really? REALLY? The correct answer is ALWAYS Liz!] 

10. Since you don't mind channeling Liz, what's wrong with her?
This is just a guess, where I extrapolate from my own often-dysfunctional echo chamber to yours, Liz:

The greatest thing ever:
Karen Russell wearing my nametag
from sales conference. Which,
apparently, was hanging on the
telephone sales dept's Wall of Shame.

Liz, to Liz: Liz, you are such a harsh critic of Liz! And this Liz-on-Liz self critique is just tightening the noose-knots! Holy smokes, how can we Lizes turn this stranglehold into a sisterly embrace? Augh! Liz, I am not interested in hearing that long-ass “To-Do” list right now, I just freaking opened my eyes on the pillow! It’s Sunday morning, call off your dogs, Liz! You don’t even own dogs, Liz, you have a cat! Let's go back to bed and try this conversation again in a few hours...

Also, another educated guess, based on the data I acquired several months ago in the RH offices:

I’m guessing that whatever a limited person might label “wrong” about Liz is in fact what makes Liz so deeply right, a true original. Just based on what I heard around the RH offices. Like, do you sometimes fall asleep with your boots on, or eschew underwear, or invent new curse words in family restaurants, or read Murakami stories about cats to your cat? People who know you speak of your wild streak with awe and tremendous affection. Just so you know that folks are talking good about you behind your back, I always like hearing that. 

11. What books/writers make you giddy? What book(s) is/are woefully under-read?
Kevin Brockmeier’s stuff I think is skin-tinglingly beautiful and deserves a wider readership (The Illumination is his most recent), and Kelly Link has a humongous rabid fan base but I’m shocked when folks haven’t heard of her, given the potency of her literary sorcery. Jim Shepard is another brilliant and prolific writer to whom the same applies...but if I start on the “woefully under-read” category, I’d wind up with an endless list. I read some staggering statistic that 50% of Americans did not read a single book last year. But I don’t like to join the doomsday chorus--I think a small but significant group of us self-selecting weirdos will always be ravening for fiction. I used to evangelize for George Saunders and I’m so happy to see him getting this overdue and hugely deserved tsunami of new readers. 

One book I love to recommend is by a young woman who attended graduate school with me, Affinity Konar. It’s called The Illustrated Version of Things and was put out by a small press, FC 2, that publishes sound-barrier breaking (and, thus, noncommercial and woefully under-read) fiction. Here’s what another ferociously funny and brilliant writer, Lydia Millet, has to say about it: 

“Affinity Konar has invented a language. It’s sonorous, brilliant, and at least half insane; its word substitutions and trickery are both charming and maddening, reminding us of the thoughts we almost but never quite had. Like Samuel Beckett, this is literature for the superhuman: reading it makes us greater than we are.” 
[SOLD. I'm ordering a copy as soon as I post this blog.]

12. We've blogged about gorgeous book covers in the past, and have of course mentioned the jacket for Swamplandia!. As sales reps we hear a lot (probably more than we would like) about covers, but we also understand how important it is. What kind of input do you have regarding the cover art that will represent your books? And if we wallpapered our offices with dust jackets from your books, would that be A) creepy, or B) awesome?

C) All of the above! Right? I mean, I think it would be creepy if I wallpapered my living space that way, but I’d be very flattered/disquieted if you guys chose to do that. Both things.

Man, I have been so lucky with covers. I cannot claim the smallest portion of the credit--my input is usually just to say “Yes!” while pumping my fist in the air after downloading the attachment image. And, I supposed, writing the stories in the first place. Carol Devine is the designer and she has an uncanny knack for visually translating the spirit of each book into cover art. In every case, I have been elated. With Vampires in the Lemon Grove, I did request that she maybe put a hint of green on the cover, just because I thought that would be refreshing, a zap of green. And she did me one better and added that lovely candy-bright stripe of color on the spine, which I love. I feel a real affinity with that bat, too. He looks a little like a gleeful flasher, doesn’t he, opening his trenchcoat like that? Scandalizing everybody with the stark outline of his winged skeleton? There is something both goofy and genuinely frightening about him to me. I had a similar reaction to the red-eyed wolf on the cover of St. Lucy’s, and the alligator on the hardcover of Swamplandia!

In fact, in one of those stranger-than-fiction coincidences, I recently learned that the cover image of Swamplandia! comes from an extremely rare nineteenth-century children’s book by Luther Bradley. His great-great-descendant called me while I was doing a radio show in D.C. to tell me. Now Swamplandia!’s cover hangs in his one-hundred year old mother’s bedroom. So that illustrated alligator has gone swimming through some labyrinthine channels, down the decades.

Thank you Karen Russell! Some day we will meet in real life, probably over a drink, probably with Gianna still dressed in her toga from the Holy Land Experience, and we'll pinky swear eternal friendship and loyalty and talk books for hours on end.

Good and Cheap (Books)! Day 16

Best Young Novelists

My favorite literary magazine is Granta and I am going to talk you into a subscription. Well, I am going to talk you into at least buying one copy. Baby steps.  Granta recently announced their list of Best Young British Novelists, something they do once a decade.  Now, before we get to that, you may ask "Well, what kind of track record do these clowns at Granta have in picking great writers?"  And to you I say two things: 1.Calm down 2. Why so negative all the time? Why not just trust that Granta is going to hand you a list of truly promising talent; why do you need proof? You’re that jaded?

Have you ever heard of William Faulkner? Is that impressive enough for you?  Granta didn’t discover him, of course, but I sort of just want to gauge what impresses you. Since you’re not easily impressed, I will start off with a writer that will send you running for your checkbook: A.A. Milne. That’s right, Winnie the Pooh. Let me throw some other names at you: Sylvia Plath (who, you know, could have benefited from a bit of Winnie the Pooh in her life), Stevie Smith (who I was obsessed with at one point), and Ted Hughes (did he not go anywhere without Sylvia?).

You want recent names, don’t you? You’re bored with the past? Well the past ain’t bored with you. Salman Rushdie, A.L. Kennedy, Jeanette Winterson, Zadie Smith,  Kazuo Ishiguro, Julian Barnes, Martin damn Amis, and Will Self. You need a minute to take all that in. I understand.

 

You could be reading these guys before anyone else in your house does. Unless you're at Lizzy's house, where it's just Liz and Zorro. So sad. Do you know how good it's going to feel when you are sitting around the dinner table discussing the Man Booker Prize (like most American families are prone to do) and someone says, “Oh I was so surprised that David Mitchell was long listed for the Booker?” And that’s where you bust in and say, “What? The man is pure genius! I first read him when Granta published him years ago, you dummy! I want a divorce!” Uh, and you can finally get a divorce from a man who doesn’t appreciate David Mitchell the way he should be. Or you know, you can just work it out; it's your marriage, I’m just laying out options.

Here are your 2013 Best Young British Writers (and yes Zadie Smith is on here, but it's not her fault she is still so young): Evie Wyld [I love her], David Szalay, Adam Thirlwell, Kamila Shamsie, Naomi Alderman, Tahmima Anam, Ned Beauman, Jenni Fagan, Adam Foulds, Xiaolu Guo (call Liz for a correct pronunciation), Sarah Hall (call Gianna for a correct pronunciation), Steven Hall, Joanna Kavenna, Benjamin Markovits, Nadifa Mohamed, Helen Oyeyemi, Ross Raisin, Sunjeev Sahota, Taiye Selsi, and the great Zadie Smith.

I know it’s pretty annoying that over half are women and the list is incredibly diverse. Sigh, what can you do, progress.

Who are some American writers that Granta helped get started? Glad you asked. Mona Simpson, Edwidge Danticat, Ethan Canin, Sherman Alexie, Jeffrey Eugenides, Lorrie Moore, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, and Karen Russell.  Also, Jonathan Franzen, you know it’s hard to keep the riff raff out.

So there you have it.  If you want to be ahead of the curve on the very best writing and art in the world, subscribe to Granta. If not, don’t, but I think you’re going to look like a dumb dumb at the dinner table. Unless you're Liz and eat all of your meals on the couch because she's just sad.

Things I Love, Things I Hate, Things in Between, V3

Thing I Love: The Random House Telephone Sales Department. Sure, they are my colleagues, but that's no guarantee that I'll like you. Heck, Gianna was once one of my colleagues. This group, though, makes me happy. First, they are professionals who do a great job of selling books to hundreds (thousands?) of stores. Second, they are team players who regularly chip in to help out toward the bigger picture.  If you're in a bookstore and there's a signed copy of, say, My Beloved World by Justice Sonia Sotomayor or the soon to be released Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell, there's a good chance that the phones sales team set up that warehouse signing with the author. Most importantly, though, they are HUGE Baltimore Ravens fans, and they've had a great week. Also, they are 1,200 miles away, so I can take this picture:

The Random House telephone sales department, Ravens fans

And re-post it on Facebook as this picture:

I could used Photoshop, but cutting and pasting really points to my dedication
to a prank. They love me. (They threatened me. On a public forum.)

I'm pretty sure that the telephone sales department loves me too.

Marisha Pessl

Thing I Love: Fall books. Yeah, it's barely February, but we're beginning to hear about the upcoming fall books. There's a new novel coming from Marisha Pessl, the author who wrote Special Topics in Calamity Physics, which I loved. The new one is called Night Film, and holy hoo-hahs is it creepy. A disgraced reporter is fairly obsessed with the Oscar winning director Stanislas Cordova, a recluse who specializing in movies that combine Hitchcock-esque suspense and slasher films. They are freaky, and because of the content, they've become cult pictures only screened at secret gatherings. Then Cordova's daughter Ashley dies. Suicide? Foul play? What's going on at Cordova's mansion? What's up with the occult-like clues surrounding the case? And where is Cordova? Marisha Pessl's book has rep buzz already along the lines of what I heard for Justin Cronin's The Passage a few years ago. I flew through it, even at 700 pages. Seriously, 700 pages, three days. Mark it down on your list (and get comfy; it doesn't come out for quite awhile). This book is crazy fun and just creepy enough to keep you reading.

Thing in Between: The Super Bowl. Consider this: people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, yet this is supposed to be the pinnacle of the NFL season. And those commercials? About 75% of them are less entertaining than an episode of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Some--looking at you Go Daddy--are incredibly offensive. And the most memorable part of this year's Super Bowl was the power going out. So let's think about this: the game is so dull that a power failure was more entertaining than the "sport." Can we finally agree that baseball is a superior sport? Good. Spring training starts in a week and my team is set to lose 120 games! Go Astros!

More Tina! More Amy!
These two are invited to our
dinner party.

Thing I Hate: Seth McFarlane is hosting the Academy Awards. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are not. Televisions need selective mute controls. If you haven't heard, by the way, Amy Poehler signed a book deal. If it's even half as good as Tina's, it should be terrific. (Thing I Hate: Amy's book isn't from Random House.)

Thing in Between: I know that I have hoarding instincts when it comes to books, but seriously, how is it that I live in a cruel circle of buying books, buying bookshelves to hold new books, then seeing that I have shelf space and thinking I need more books? I think that I've been hexed or something.

Who doesn't love a list? (Gianna)

Thing I Love: Book lists. Make a list and I'll read it. What did you read last week? I want to know. Also, I love that Gianna hates making lists. Torturing Gianna is a pleasure unlike any other. She whines quite a bit. I haven't suggested we tackle the Modern Library List, yet. She has it so good.

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 28

 Day 28: Upcoming Books We're Excited About.

Gianna:

As we near the end of our thirty-day book challenge, we thought it might be nice to look ahead and see which books we are most excited about. Mostly right now though, I am excited for this damn thirty day challenge to end. Oy.

The Fight to Save Juarez by Ricardo Ainslie (April)
This will be of particular interest to those of us who live in a border state. This is a portrait of Mexico’s bloodiest city. It's a first hand perspective on the drug war that has claimed close to 60,000 lives since 2007. Yes, you read that correctly, 60,000.

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (June)
I just learned that we would have a new McCann this morning and I am so thrilled. I believe, and I could be wrong, but think it’s a novel from his short story about the first non-stop transatlantic flight in 1919.  The short story was published in the New Yorker last year.  

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (March)
A family is haunted by an accident that has killed their father. The two sons move away from their small Maine town, leaving the sister behind, but years later she calls them home where their past must be dealt with.

A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee (March)
An emotional drama of a marriage in crisis. I hope you read the Pulitzer Prize nominated novel The Privileges; it was absolutely fantastic and this sounds like a perfect follow up.

Benediction by Kent Haruf (March)
I’ve written about Kent Haruf a few times, he is just a beautiful writer. Haruf has used the town of Holt, Colorado again as in previous books, this time a family deals with a father’s diagnosis with terminal cancer.


Liz:

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell (February)
Karen Russell is a brilliant short story writer, and I'm a huge fan. I'm her #1 fan. Think Annie Wilkes from Misery. This stellar collection is playful, whimsical, and...frightening. Russell plays with horror here, and with great success. And don't forget that her novel Swamplandia! was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.


Ghostman by Roger Hobbs (February)
The last time I heard the Knopf folks so excited about a thriller, it was for a series of books written by Stieg Larsson. After a bank robbery goes wrong, the ghostman (normally the guy in heists who is so unmemorable that he's a ghost) is sent in to track down the robbers, the money, and the explanation for what happened. Think Ocean's Eleven meets Harvey Keitel's character from Pulp Fiction.

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud (April)
It's been awhile since Claire Messud had a new book, but this one is worth the wait. The woman upstairs is the quiet neighbor you don't notice except in passing in a halfway when you exchange half-smiles. She's the repressed woman who's given up her dreams. This is Messud's protagonist, a teacher who lives in solitude and fear until she meets a family that opens her eyes to her dreams deferred. I love this book.


The Antagonist by Lynn Coady (January)
Okay, so I'm cheating a little because this book is on sale now. I'm guessing that you're not hearing about it much, though, and that's a huge shame. It's crazy good. Here's the premise: A guy writes a novel. One of his college friends, Gordon "Rank" Rankin reads the book. Rank discovers that his friend has based the novel on Rank's life, and he, Rank, starts writing emails to the author--outraged, crazed, drunken, pleading, confessional messages. Rank is the opposite of Midas; everything he touches turns to shit. Fans of A Fraction of the Whole should take note. Really, this book is the best novel out there that's flying under the radar.

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala (March)

While on vacation over Christmas a few years ago, Sonali Deraniyagala's life was destroyed when the tsunami wave killed her husband, two sons, and parents. One moment she was in a Jeep rushing away from the devastation, and the next moment she's coming to into ruins. Yeah, it's not an upbeat or easy read, but it is courageous and unflinching. It's gripping. 

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 14

Day 14: Favorite Book by Your Favorite Author

Gianna:

If I were to answer this question directly (for a change), I would say my favorite book by my favorite author is The Habit of Being: The Letters of Flannery O’Connor, but since these letters were published after her death, perhaps it's not exactly her book. If you’re going to be that picky (and why would I expect anything less from you sons a bitches), I would say Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Stories. Wait, that was also published after her death. Jesus, did anyone publish anything while this poor woman was actually alive?

Anyway, yesterday I added to the question of who my favorite author is and added a bonus answer of who my favorite author right now is (too lazy to go back one day and look? Don’t blame ya, I chose Miranda July). Today I thought I would choose some additional favorite books of late.

Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht. Set in the Balkans, the story follows a young doctor as she tries to uncover the truth surrounding her grandfather’s mysterious death. If you’re new to Tea, here is a wonderful interview on NPR.

Like You’d Understand Anyway by Jim Shepard. Sometimes you hit a lull in your reading life. You think that maybe you’ll never love a book again. Jim Shepard has the cure. I chose Like You’d Understand for this piece but really, I could have chosen any of his books. He writes about big subjects, far ranging subjects; Jim Shepard is big and bold.

Swamplandia by Karen Russell. What I love about Karen Russell is that she is truly original and fearless. How original and fearless? Swamplandia’s main character is a twelve year old alligator wrestler. And can I just say that if you are going to buy any book based on the cover...this is it.

Tenth of December by George Saunders. What all of the writers above have, including Flannery O’Connor and Miranda July, is a true sense of originality. Yes, Tenth of December is a collection of stories, but my friends, this will be, I promise you, this book will be on your top ten year end list. I know, it's only January and don’t Jhumpa Lahiri, Kent Haruf, Susan Minot, and Elizabeth Strout have books coming out t his year? Isn’t UT Press publishing Sam Shepard letters this year? Yes, yes, all true, but Tenth of December will be the very top of your list. 

Liz:

What the hell is this?

(chomp chomp chomp) Yeah.  I'm eating barbecue potato chips and American Idol.  There's a Muppet on there named Minaj or something. I don't know what's happening. And there's this kid who wants to be Justin Bieber, so apparently the contestants are extra delusional.

Hang on a second....I needed to lick the barbecue flavor off my fingers.

Okay. What am I doing now? Right. ....Dear god, Mariah's clothes don't fit.

Gah, the one-legged tap dancer is terrible. Cannot sing.

Joyce Carol Oates. Blonde. Or We Were the Mulvaneys. Or Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Why are ruffled chips better than flat?

Oh, great. Family-nominated "singers."  Extra delusional people. My ears! They should place a specific, keep away from Q-Tips when watching this show, warning label on the packages of objects I can shove into my ear canals.

I really love barbecue potato chips.