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By Sean Clark, on September 16th, 2009 Sorry for the lapse last week. Got a little catch-up to do this week now.
By Nico Vreeland, on September 14th, 2009  Author: Maile Meloy
2009, Riverhead
Best ebook deal: Sony
Filed under: Short Stories, Literary
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
7 |
| Entertainment..... |
6 |
| Depth..... |
6 |
Meloy’s oddly styled first novel, Liars and Saints, consisted almost entirely of plot summary, something verboten by the old writers’ group adage about showing and not telling. Liars and Saints covered decades in just a few hundred pages, and rarely paused long enough to let a full scene play out.
Both Ways has the vestiges of that technique, but Meloy shows signs of moving toward a more traditional dose of dramatization to go with her narration. Still, Both Ways has a broad, could-go-anywhere feel to it, and Meloy keeps her penchant for packing years into paragraphs.
As a reader, this means that you’re never quite sure, for better or for worse, what you’re reading about. The story that begins with a man’s parents dying might never mention them again, instead focusing on his crappy construction job years later.
In this collection, the strongest stories are those that feature more scene than summary, but Meloy’s tendency and ability to take stories on long, snaking left turns gives them a wild-card feel and a persistent, compelling undercurrent of danger.
However, Meloy hasn’t quite mastered this mix of dramatization and narration―sometimes she plays out scenes that have no real weight, and she often stops short of pushing her characters into the pit of drama they can so clearly sense.
Ultimately, Both Ways is connective tissue in the muscular body of work of a very good writer. She’s taking the next step in her career, and while she’s not there yet, she’s definitely an author to keep an eye on.
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By Adam S. Ain, on September 11th, 2009 Here are this week’s reviews in condensed and zen-ish haiku.
this dude’s a genius
review needed mulligan
it’s tough but awesome
.
a slipstream caper
by a book award winner
needed more D. J.
.
And here’s a bonus limerick for Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises For Whom The Bell Tolls:
There once was a man named Jordan.
His love evolved out of boredom.
He found the cropped head,
And took her to bed,
And that was all time could afford him.
.
By Mike Beeman, on September 10th, 2009 
Author: Denis Johnson
2009, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Best ebook deal: Not Available
Filed under: Literary, Mystery
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
7 |
| Entertainment..... |
9 |
| Depth..... |
6 |
With Nobody Move Denis Johnson joins the growing league of literary writers trying their hands at genre writing for fun and profit, and garnering remarkable success for their efforts. In the last several years we’ve seen Michael Chabon and Philip Roth tackle Alternative History, Cormac McCarthy move into the Apocalypse genre, and Thomas Pynchon releases a detective novel for some reason (imagine yourself saying that to a friend only a few years ago). It makes you wonder who will be next.
Myself, I’m looking forward to Marylin Robinson’s upcoming novel, a multi-generational chronicling of a family of werewolves. Given the recent trend towards crossing over the genre lines, Jonhson’s foray into crime fiction is a bit surprising considering his last novel won the National Book Award (i.e. huge, literary prize), but not hugely shocking. …
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By Eric Markowsky, on September 8th, 2009  This book has been chosen as a Great Read
Author: Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
2007, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Best ebook deal: Barnes & Noble
Filed under Literary
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
9 |
| Entertainment..... |
9 |
| Depth..... |
7 |
I’ve tried to write this review several times already over the summer. I sit down, I start typing, and then I just stop. I stare at the screen until my eyes start to hurt, and then I go back to the book, rereading large sections or hunting through the pages for a particular passage about poetry that might serve as a catalyst for everything I want to say. I copy out lines that didn’t seem very important before, thinking I’ve found what I need, and then I go back to staring at the screen.
I want to say something about the novel’s treatment of time, which is almost magical in its subtlety, or something about its formal elements, a combination of diary entries and interviews. I want to say something about the way the novel slices up its world into ribbons and weaves them together into one vision of two lives.
These are the things I’d like to say, but when I try, I see the strands of my arguments begin to unravel and tangle with the novel’s other threads and my thoughts go on and on. So for the purposes of writing a review that isn’t as long as the book itself, I’ll confine myself to commenting on its scope: reading The Savage Detectives is a project, and well worth the effort. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on September 7th, 2009 (You might have seen the outline for this post pop up in your RSS feed last week; my apologies for the oversight.)
A couple of weeks ago, I summarized new and recent ereader additions. This week, let’s look forward at some upcoming devices. If there’s a trend emerging, it’s that touchscreens and 3G access are quickly becoming standard features, which is great news.
A quick note before we start: take the information here with a grain of salt. I’ve tried to cite my sources when possible, but even cited information should be considered rumor until these devices actually come out.
 The Plastic Logic Whatzamawhoozit
Even though it doesn’t have a name yet, this is the device I’m most excited about. Even the earliest videos of the PL in action (this one was posted a year ago) showed a slick touchscreen with no contrast compromise and a sleek form factor.
Barnes & Noble hopped on as the primary book provider, and AT&T’s involvement combined with the large screen suggests newspapers will be a big target.
It’ll be crucial to see exactly how the touchscreen works. Is it fast? Is the contrast still as good as it looks? Can you write freehand on it? If this video features the same screen used in the ereader, it looks pretty much unbreakable, so that’s nice.
The other big question is price. Some have reported that the PL will be competitive with the Kindle, which we’re hoping means a $300 price point. Realistically, I think that’s a little too good to be true. I’m guessing closer to $500, but I’d be happy to be wrong. I also heard a rumor about a smaller size somewhere, but I can’t find any evidence of that now.
Last, B&N is reportedly developing “their own flavor” of ePub for the PL. I’m not sure why. Incompatibility kind of defeats the purpose of using a universal file format.
Sign up for Plastic Logic updates at their website.
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By Sean Clark, on September 4th, 2009 Here’s this week’s review in condensed and zen-ish haiku.
writing thick as soup
spiced with character flavors
Shelby will haunt you
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By Sean Clark, on September 2nd, 2009 While Nico’s on hiatus, we’ll try our best to keep up with the Wednesday links. We’ve been having some techinical troubles so far this week, so I’ve kept this one short (since I was worried I might not even be able to post it). Bear with us while we work out the kinks: we can’t all be all-star internet scourers of Nico’s caliber.
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