Category: Books

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My Writers: John Irving

Dan Seeger

When I was a kid, few things drew me to a book more assuredly than the existence of a corresponding movie. This could go in either direction, by the way. The nineteen-seventies and eighties were a sort of golden age for novelizations of movies, and I was happy to devour them. Similarly, if a movie was based on a book, inexpensive paperback copies were usually readily available, stocked generously into racks at the supermarket. In retrospect, I think I used it as a rough guidepost as to which books were worthy of my scattered attention. If the story existed in … Continue reading My Writers: John Irving

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My Writers: Anthony Bourdain

Dan Seeger

I own a Global kitchen knife because of Anthony Bourdain. Kitchen Confidential, originally published in 2000, was one of those rare books that became a sensation, stirring up interest among a wide range of readers, most of them charged up by the sense they were receiving a glimpse of something wonderfully secretive about the restaurant industry. At the time, Bourdain was the head chef at New York’s Brasserie Les Halles, but he was also an accomplished enough writer that he had a couple food-themed crime novels under his belt. Kitchen Confidential was his coming out as a nonfiction writer, providing a … Continue reading My Writers: Anthony Bourdain

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My Writers: Art Spiegelman

Dan Seeger

It was in high school that I started defensively insisting on the artistic value of comic book storytelling. Although in deference to the subject of this point, I should say it was co-mix narratives I was stumping for. Spiegelman prefers that nomenclature, undoubtedly in part because it is has some of the hardscrabble spirit of the term “comix,” which was used for the underground, head shop publications that served as his developmental home. But Spiegelman was even more specific in his choice, adding the hyphen to emphasize the two different words parts, each suggesting an intermingling of elements, in this … Continue reading My Writers: Art Spiegelman

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Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“While he was watching, Polly walked the length of the porch and bent over to scrape something out of a bucket — lye soap, it looked like. She was a pretty woman, light of step; he had always fancied women who were light of step. The sight of her made him all the more anxious to get the gunplay over with, so he could take her on home.” –Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Zeke and Ned, 1997   “DAWN CREEPS OVER MANHATTAN, PAINTING AVENGERS MANSION IN BLOODY HUES.  INSIDE, STRIDING PURPOSEFULLY DOWN A PLUSH-CARPETED HALL IS A LONE FIGURE…A QUIET, … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

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Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“I took a deep breath and told Arthur I wasn’t just somebody to fuck. ‘What did you think we were?’ he said. ‘A little family?’ He was getting into a lot of harder drugs — they made him say things he didn’t agree with a few minutes later. But they were still the things he said. That was the last time I felt betrayed by a man, I think. Afterward I expected it.” — Leslie Jamison, The Gin Closet, 2010 “THE POWER KNOWS NO DISTANCE! IT PROJECTS FOR MILES — TO THE CITY! TO A BUILDING — TO A WINDOW! AND … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

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Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“I stopped listening to tapes at some point: it was a phase. You either get used to noises in your head, or you learn to focus instead on whatever other noises happen to present in the room, like the air conditioner. Still, I kept them, and they’re arranged neatly on the top of the dresser in my bedroom, which means Vicky dusts them once a week. They look like museum pieces now. Chaos Blood, Black Lake, Rexecutioner’s Dream. Sean at sixteen thought Rexecutioner’s Dream was the greatest thing he’d ever heard, something so strange and different it seemed like a … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

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Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“I had solved nothing, but I felt clever in making progress. And feeling clever, I’ve always thought, is just a sigh away from being cheerful.” –Ian McEwan, Sweet Tooth, 2012 “YOU WHO DWELL HERE ARE ALL THE SAME! YOU THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY RACE INHABITING THIS PLANET! YOU NEVER SUSPECT THAT ANOTHER — MORE POWERFUL SPECIES MIGHT SHARE YOUR PLANET WITH YOU! DO YOU PRESUME TO THINK THAT HUMANS ARE THE ONLY INTELLIGENT LIFE EARTH HAS SPAWNED!” –Stan Lee, FANTASTIC FOUR, Vol. 1, No. 46, “Those Who Would Destroy Us!” 1966 Continue reading Great Moments in Literature