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[any given story by a young American male writer]
[Friend from childhood who made poor life choices] and I went to [location in a small American town that connotes economic misfortune but also freedom from authority] to perform [custom that is...
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The Year in Fiction
The “Book of the Year,” by popular consensus, is Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. It’s on everyone’s Best of 2010 list, often in the top spot. There was a thunderous rumbling of pre-publication buzz for...
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#boyfiction
There’s a new Twitter hashtag with checking out: #boyfiction. It began when Ginia Bellafante, a TV critic at the New York Times, blasted a new HBO series by saying: “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction...
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Peacocking
Michiko Kakutani’s review of The Tragedy of Arthur is intended as high praise. But it makes the book sound like an absolute chore. Not only does Mr. Phillips have a lot of fun concocting this play,...
View ArticleIs there a new fiction in pop music?
Rock and pop lyrics, on the whole, are about hooking up, breaking up, and partying. That’s how Elvis and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Motown and Michael Jackson and Madonna did it, anyway....
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Junot Díaz Is Still Fucking With Us
But maybe not as much as he used to. In his new story “Miss Lora,” from the forthcoming book This Is How You Lose Her, the author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is up to his usual tricks. The...
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As Seen on TV
Does anyone read books anymore? Sure they do! But only on TV. Orange is the New Black is the latest TV show to become an authority on books, at least among its fans, who are scouring every frame of...
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#GreatReviewsMatter: Your Daily Lack of Perspective
There is so much injustice in the world. And maybe you’ve been too preoccupied with cops getting away with killing citizens or women being fired because they’re pregnant to realize that the Worst....
View ArticleWHERE DOES MY MONEY GO? McSweeney’s Issue 33
Is McSweeney’s the Google of the literary realm? Google was founded as a search engine, but after revolutionizing that part of the industry, it felt compelled to cross over and show us a thing or two...
View ArticleAre stories getting shorter?
I don’t have a scientific study to back this up, but I remember when a short story was 10,000 to 20,000 words. Then it was 5,000 words if you were slacking. Then it was 1,500 words for everyone but the...
View ArticleThe Post Where I Hate on Comic Books
Recently I saw Kick-Ass, and while I enjoyed parts of it, it reminded me of my frustration with comic books in general—specifically, comics about crime-fighting superheroes. I realize that Kick-Ass is...
View ArticleHipsters and Kid Art
The obituary for hipsters by Mark Greif in New York magazine (excerpted from this) is interesting enough that you should probably read the whole thing. But I want to highlight one paragraph. Here’s the...
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