Not too long ago, I raved about the podcast of Lorrie Moore’s story “Dance in America,” which was featured in April on the New Yorker website. Guess that was well timed, because The Collected Stories of Lorrie Moore has recently been published. If you’re late to the Lorrie Moore party (if that’s quite the right word for her hilarious but sad style), you should check out this excellent review.
Meanwhile, Louise Erdrich, who did a stellar job reading and discussing Moore’s story in the podcast, has also come out with a new novel, The Plague of Doves, which has gotten some intriguing reviews. You can read the first chapter at The New York Times or, of course, at TNY, where it first appeared as a story with the same title. I haven’t read either version yet, but I noticed the opening lines differ slightly.
In fact, it looks like all of Erdrich’s recent TNY stories made it into her new novel. Pluto, North Dakota, where Doves is set, was also the setting for her superb story “Demolition,” which I praised at length a couple of months ago, and one of the novel’s main characters is the subject of “The Reptile Garden,” one of the better stories TNY has published this year. That the latter should turn out to be part of The Plague of Doves didn’t surprise me, since it felt more like part of a novel than a short story, but “Demolition” worked so well on its own that I’m curious how Erdrich integrated it into something longer. Now I’ve just got to read the book….
Monthly Archives: May 2008
The Emdashes Summer Interns…
have been selected, and when I’m back from vacation next week I’ll announce them with proper fanfare—and start working with them on various tasks. Thanks for applying, everyone, and congratulations to the lovely people who—from around the globe—will be helping make Emdashes an even more pleasant, accurate, and whiz-bang place to be.
Ask Not For Whom the Booze Was Cold
Since the answer is “Hemingway,” who liked Papa Dobles with lots of ice. Other players in this daiquiri drama include Lillian Ross, Michael Palin, “cocktail scholar Philip Greene (a government intellectual-property lawyer in Washington),” A. E. Hotchner, lemon, lime, and, of course, a recipe. For God’s sake, no cherries!
An Admiring B(l)og
“Blogging” refers to a technology, no more and no less. Like all technologies (radio, television, books, newspapers, magazines), it’s created a few public cultures. There are celebrities, villains, temporary heroes, scandals, longing and envy, sweetness, cruelty, community, unexpected starbursts of connection; there is paranoia, conspiracy theory, self-censorship, external censorship, snobbery, loathing, self-loathing, obsession, exhilaration, truth and consequences, bravery, “innundo” (as Dinah Lord would say), mini-fortunes made and lost.
Meanwhile, millions of others, using the same technology, do a staggering variety of other things, all the more freely since most of it doesn’t pay a nickel. It’s hard not to follow what’s happening on the big stage, the same way it was hard not to have an opinion about the Taylor/Fisher/Reynolds drama, especially if you were in the wings or the first few rows. Sometimes, it’s hard not to emulate it, or even want to take part. But if you’ll turn your attention to the smaller stages, you’ll find public—just less public—cultures that may be more to your taste. So don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Don’t throw out the bathwater with the baby, either.
What’s the World Coming to (She Asked Rhetorically)
…if people can’t spot an obvious homage when they see one? You hardly have to be a comics historian to get the joke. B’gosh, Oshkosh.
(Thanks to B.K. who noted this a few weeks ago, and C.T., who also sent me a link—it just seemed too silly to mention.)
Nicely Put: On Paul Muldoon
The New Yorker, which I’ve now read for nearly 40 years, is surely publishing better poems now that Paul Muldoon has taken over for Alice Quinn. His selections are interesting, witty, striking, running the gamut from free verse to traditional poems. Quinn’s poems were often self-indulgent, sentimental, mannered, boring.
This is just another sign of the magazine’s revival under David Remnick, who has returned it to the best days of Shawn and Ross, and perhaps surpassed them. Too bad this excellent, wide-ranging cultural treasure keeps improving in a climate of anti-intellectualism and short attention spans. I often hear quite well-read folks say they no longer read the New Yorker, or just glance at the cartoons. Too bad, you fools.
That’s from Chasing the Blues, and that’s a fine site, by the way. I’m so happy I happened on it. I would argue there are many exceptions to the note about Quinn’s taste, but I’m not here to argue; I’m here to be glad we’re not said fools, often the very people who don’t read poetry because—we know the real reason, right? It’s too much work to worry about whether you’ll understand it. Be brave, prosey people!
The New Yorker Conference Is Viewable
There are now a whole bunch of conference videos online: Malcolm Gladwell; Rahm Emanuel and Ryan Lizza; Linda Avey, Anne Wojcicki, and Michael Specter; Gavin Newsom and Dana Goodyear; James Surowiecki and Andy Stern; Jane Mayer and Eric Haseltine; Yoky Matsuoka; Duncan Sheik and Susan Morrison; David Adjaye and Thelma Golden; and Bill Buford, David Chang, Daniel Humm, and Marc Taxiera.
“Campaign Trail” Podcasts Continue to Rock
For months now, Dorothy Wickenden has done a masterful job on the “Campaign Trail” podcasts engaging with the magazine’s talented political staff. They have been an undiluted source of pleasure in this exhilarating, maddening primary.
The latest installment, dated May 15, is one of the best yet. All three correspondents (George Packer, Ryan Lizza, and Hendrik Hertzberg) took part—I’d like to make known my desire that this happen as often as possible, as it worked so well this week. The three fellows grapple with McCain’s “2013” speech, with fascinating results. They don’t agree—indeed, they have wildly divergent reactions to McCain and his bid to recast himself as a moderate conservative. That may not sound very exciting, but I really liked how thoroughly undoctrinaire everyone’s contributions were, it made for a very lively discussion.
Plus Packer gave away the big surprise ending to the summer (spoiler alert—we attack Iran!). Wickenden seemed startled by that one, as was I!
Suggested Letters For Calvin Trillin and Paul Muldoon
B, for Trillin, for boudin; for Muldoon, F, for French (although I like the look of these two As, too). In any case, both of these kind and honorable men will have at least twenty-six at their service later this month, when they’ll be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The Bench Roundup
The Book Bench is the newest in an impressively expanding list of New Yorker blogs; it’s also a bench of fame and legend, piled with books for the taking. Thanks, James Molenda of FOUND, for performing such an appropriate service to our readers.