Doris Kearns Goodwin tricked me into reading the work of a historian. I didn’t necessarily have anything against reading history, but there are so many books out there that I usually insisted on the need to concentrate on fiction. There’s … Continue reading My Writers: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Throughout middle school, I swear I always had a copy of a Douglas Adams book with me. That’s almost certainly not true, since he was only two books into his five-volume trilogy launched in 1979 with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to … Continue reading My Writers: Douglas Adams
“Everyone laughs except Bix, who’s at his computer, and you feel like a funny guy for maybe half a second, until it occurs to you that they probably only laughed because they could see you trying to be funny, and they’re afraid you’ll jump out the window onto East Seventh Street if you fail, even at something so small.” –Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 2010 “YOUR NAME IS BEVERLY GABLE, AND YOU ARE RETURNING HOME AFTER AN EVENING OF BABY-SITTING. FOR THREE AND ONE-HALF HOURS YOU WATCHED THE FLICKERING IMAGES PLAYING ON A TELEVISION SET, OBLIVIOUS TO … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
“My ideal picture of citizenship will always be an argument, not a sing-along.” “Voice” is a word that’s used commonly to describe writers, at least good ones. It’s usually meant to describe something that’s found strictly on the page: point … Continue reading My Writers: Sarah Vowell
“If ifs and buts were candies and nuts we’d all have a very Merry Christmas, I heard my aunt Diane boom in my head. Those words had been the bane of my childhood, a constant reminder that nothing turned out right, not just for me but for anyone, and that’s why someone had invented a saying like that. So we’d all know that we’d never have what we needed.” –Gillian Flynn, Dark Places, 2009 “CLARKE FUTURISTICS: CALL IT A DREAM GONE BUST–JUST ONE MORE INSIGNIFICANT VICTIM OF THE RECESSION. STUART CLARKE HAD POURED HIS SOUL INTO A VISION OF THE … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
“‘I wonder,’ she was fond of remarking, ‘what they’d say if they knew that we two old tramps were going to be the most marvellous novelist and the greatest actress in the world.’ “‘They’d probably be very much surprised.’ “‘I expect we shall look back on this time when we’re driving about in our Mercedes, and think: After all, it wasn’t such bad fun!’” –Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin, 1939 “THEY WALKED ACROSS THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE AT DAWN, STOPPING HALFWAY TO WATCH THE RISING SUN> PAINT THE MONOLITHIC OFFICE TOWERS OF LOWER MANHATTAN IN STREAKS OF FIRE. THEY’D STARTED THE … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
I’m not so arrogant as to believe that I’ve got something profoundly novel to contribute to the vast ongoing discussion about the most important writer in the history of the English language. I can only do what the title of … Continue reading My Writers: William Shakespeare
I operate under the belief that I saw the very first Calvin and Hobbes comic strip when it appeared in the newspaper. I have a vague memory of being in one of my high school classrooms, a social studies course where the teacher had the daily newspapers and a bevy of weekly current affairs magazines delivered and on display, actively encouraging us to peruse them while others were completing assignments. (He also regularly made us watch C-SPAN, which is a sort of torture for adrenaline-fueled, hormone-addled teenagers, as well as forced us to sit through entire Mark Russell comedy specials, … Continue reading My Writers: Bill Watterson
“Paul Espeseth, who was no longer taking the antidepressant Celexa, braced himself for a cataclysm at SeaWorld.” –Jonathan Lethem, “Pending Vegan,” 2014 “THE BEAST’S SCALES ARE CUTTING EDGES THAT WELT HIS FLESH, TEARING HIS UNIFORM INTO BLOODIED TATTERS! THE MONSTROUS TAIL LASHES IN DEADLY FRENZY, WHIPPING THE WATER TO FOAM, FRAGMENTING ITS REFLECTIONS–AND STRANGELY, IN THAT MOMENT, THEY ARE IMAGES THAT HAVE A STABBING CLARITY THE MIRROR-PERFECT FIGURE LACKED! PAIN BIRTHS INSANITY WITHIN HIS MIND…AND DESPERATION IS THE MID-WIFE. HIS BOOTS PURPOSEFULLY GOUGE INTO THE YIELDING, SALIVATING MOUTH, AND ITS TONGUE BULGES BENEATH AND AROUND HIS HEELS! HOLD ON! PLEASE, … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
I was in a creative writing class in college when one of my fellow students asked the professor if it was acceptable for him to write his stories about sports. When the professor was reluctant to agree, my classmate added that his desire was to write a series of loosely interconnected stories about baseball. As I recall it, the professor settled immediately in the affirmative given the additional information. Baseball, he said, was the one sport that actually merited literary attention. If I weren’t already inclined in that direction, I’d have to accede the point every time I read one … Continue reading My Writers: Roger Angell
Coffee for Two 