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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: literature

literature stories: 138 news summaries

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OPINION

 Wife Shouldn't Worry
 Laura Bush: Dowd 

First lady is sympathetic character in controversial novel

Jul 9, 08 1:11 PM CDT
(Newser) - Words like "smear" and "gossip" have flown around American Wife, the novel probing the secret life of Laura Bush, but the book itself is pretty harmless, Maureen Dowd writes in the New York Times. Kings and queens have always inspired art, Dowd notes, and Wife isn’t sensationalist—... More »

MORE ABOUT:
White House • Laura Bush • sex • literature • book reviews • first lady • Curtis Sittenfeld

Obama as Writer: He's the
'Real Deal'

Literary critic sees an
eye for the universal, shades of Lincoln

Jul 8, 08 2:37 PM CDT
(Newser) - If it's true that the style is the man, then it makes sense, literary critic Andrew Delbanco writes in the New Republic, to take the measure of Barack Obama from his memoirs. Taking a tour of Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope, Delbanco finds a bit of... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Barack Obama • literature • Abraham Lincoln • leadership • hubris

GLOSSIES

'Laura Bush'
No Conservative
in New Novel

Character has an abortion, describes sex with future president

Jul 7, 08 4:44 PM CDT
(Newser) - In a new book unlikely to top the presidential reading list, author Curtis Sittenfeld fictionalizes the story of Laura Bush. Radar got a sneak peek and calls the novel "a masterful highbrow-lowbrow mash-up." The narrator is a librarian who falls in love with a future president upon seeing... More »

MORE ABOUT:
abortion • lesbians • Laura Bush • sex • literature • Curtis Sittenfeld

 Is Something
 Rotten in
 the Bard's
 Works? 

Debate over who really wrote Shakespeare's plays rages on

Jul 6, 08 12:37 PM CDT
(Newser) - Did William Shakespeare really write the plays attributed to him? The question remains the subject of an intense academic debate, NPR reports. Those who doubt the “man from Stratford” penned his plays point to a lame rhyming epitaph on the supposed bard’s headstone, and to lack of documents... More »

MORE ABOUT:
theater • literature • play • William Shakespeare • skeptics • academics

That's Sir Salman Rushdie

Pshaw Iran, Queen Elizabeth knights the controversial author in a 'private moment'

Jun 25, 08 12:54 PM CDT
(Newser) - Queen Elizabeth officially knighted Salman Rushdie today, the AP reports, a year after the award was announced to widespread Muslim protest. “I have no regrets about any of my work,” said Rushdie, when asked about his novel The Satanic Verses, for which the Shah of Iran awarded... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Queen Elizabeth II • literature • Salman Rushdie • Satanic Verses • knighthood

 Christian Novel
 Outstrips Oprah Pick 

Somewhat controversial book depicts God as a black woman named "Papa"

Jun 24, 08 9:16 AM CDT
(Newser) - Once rejected by multiple mainstream publishers, the slim Christian novel The Shack is flying off shelves, topping the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list. “Everybody that I know has bought at least 10 copies,” says one devotee. The Times looks at a blockbuster built around an unconventional... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Christianity • religion • literature • book • best seller • Christian literature

GLOSSIES

 Sentences 
 That 'Evoke 
 an Entire 
 Universe' 

Esquire celebrates some favorites it's seen over its first 75 years

Jun 22, 08 7:32 PM CDT
(Newser) - Celebrating 75 years of fiction, Esquire offers some samples from "writers who could evoke an entire universe with a single sentence." A smattering:
  • "Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well," Ernest
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
literature • Ernest Hemingway • Jorge Luis Borges • Louise Erdrich

'Realish' Sedaris Book Skirts Memoir Scrutiny

Genre 'the last place you’d expect to find the truth,' humorist says

Jun 8, 08 10:45 AM CDT
(Newser) - With his new book of nonfiction essays, Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris finds himself engulfed in questions of truth and accuracy. In America, the recent explosion of memoirs has been followed with one scandal after another, prompting more scrutiny of the humorist’s work. “I do think Sedaris exaggerates... More »

MORE ABOUT:
literature • humor • memoir • writer • book • fake memoirs • nonfiction books • David Sedaris

Bored at Work? Site Disguises Classic Lit

Readatwork.com lets you fool the boss

May 30, 08 2:08 PM CDT
(Newser) - Business world got you down? Want to escape into a classic poem or short story? The New Zealand Book Council has made a website to help you: ReadatWork.com. The site brings up a fake Windows desktop with folders and PowerPoint files, the Wall Street Journal reports. Click on them,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
corporate culture • literature • reading • poetry • office • website • novel

analysis

Fritzl's Crimes Rooted in Literary History

Dark Austrian captivity stories formed his 'cultural matrix'

May 18, 08 8:03 PM CDT
(Newser) - Josef Fritzl's crimes stunned the world, but such demented patriarchs have long haunted Austrian literature. The dark 1852 story "Turmalin" depicts a deranged husband locking up his daughter; the 1917 novel The Grave of the Living tells of a troubled family and an imprisoned child. "This is the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
torture • literature • Vienna • incest • Josef Fritzl • patriarchy

 Famously Bad Poet Fetches Big Bucks at Auction

Verses from the 'world's worst poet' fetch big bucks at auction

May 17, 08 8:05 AM CDT
(Newser) - William McGonagall had a tough time after deciding poetry was his calling, being roundly insulted by critics and even pelted with rotten fruit. But the 19th-century Scotsman has been remembered long after his peers—as the worst poet ever to mangle the English language. His works commanded a price higher... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Scotland • JK Rowling • literature • poetry

Publishers
Bank On a
007 Comeback

Bond franchise hoping new author can leave book sales, fans stirred

May 8, 08 1:55 PM CDT
(Newser) - This year is the centenary of author Ian Fleming's birth, but while Daniel Craig gave the James Bond movie franchise a much-needed recharge, sales of the 007 books haven't caught up. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, the Fleming estate has commissioned respected writer Sebastian Faulks to pen a new... More »

MORE ABOUT:
literature • publishing • James Bond • bookstore • Sebastian Faulks • Ian Fleming • Doubleday • Penguin • Barnes & Noble

50 Favorite
Cult Books 

From Hunter to Ayn, the Telegraph lists books you can 'wear like a leather jacket'

Apr 27, 08 10:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - It’s hard to define the "cult" book, but the Telegraph compiled 50 of the top contenders that “rewire your head.”
  • The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe (1968)
  • Baby and Child Care by Dr Benjamin Spock (1946)
  • Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (1922)
  • The
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
literature • list • Hunter S. Thompson • Jack Kerouac • On the Road • book • Harper Lee • To Kill A Mockingbird • The Catcher in the Rye • JD Salinger • Catch-22 • Joseph Heller • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas • Tom Wolfe • Ayn Rand • Siddhartha

essay

 We Need to Talk ...
 About Your Books  

Disagreements over books can kill the romance

Apr 2, 08 6:25 PM CDT
(Newser) - Forget toothpaste habits: Sometimes “a missed—or misguided—literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast," writes Rachel Donadio in the New York Times. Pasting your literary acumen all over your MySpace page has become the norm, and not a bad one. Just... More »

MORE ABOUT:
literature • romance • relationship • book

 Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90 

'2001' author shaped space-age thought

Mar 18, 08 8:55 PM CDT
(Newser) - Arthur C. Clarke, the sci-fi author who helped shape 20th-century scientific imagination, is dead at 90, the New York Times reports. The co-creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey faced post-polio syndrome in recent decades and died at his home in Sri Lanka due to breathing trouble. “No one can... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Sri Lanka • obituary • literature • satellite • space travel • author • book • science fiction • Arthur C. Clarke • polio • Stanley Kubrick • 2001: A Space Odyssey

OPINION

Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura

Son's imagined convo with dead dad might've saved final manuscript

Feb 29, 08 7:59 PM CST
(Newser) - Dmitri Nabokov's decision not to destroy his famed father's unfinished manuscript followed an imagined conversation with Vladimir's ghost, writes Ron Rosenbaum for Slate. Rosenbaum, who sleuthed his way through the "to burn or not to burn" debate, was previously told by Dmitri—who hinted at the book's genius before... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Russia • Tom Stoppard • fiction • literature • book reviews • book • Lolita • Vladimir Nabokov • John Banville • preservation • deathbed • Dmitri Nabokov • Brian Boyd • The Original of Laura • Nabokov Online • Zembla • The Nabokovian

The House of Mirthlessness

Drowning in debt,
Edith Wharton's
Mass. estate faces foreclosure

Feb 28, 08 12:19 PM CST
(Newser) - Edith Wharton's masterpieces include The House of Mirth, but the story of her own house is much less joyous. Her estate in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, currently a museum called the Mount that chronicles her life and career, is drowning under some $9 million in debt. Now, writes the Berkshire ... More »

MORE ABOUT:
philanthropy • literature • foreclosure • museums • Edith Wharton • the Mount • Berkshires • The House of Mirth • estate

Don't Know Much About History...

US teens have big holes in history, lit education: study

Feb 26, 08 7:00 PM CST
(Newser) - US teens know little history and less literature, says a study out today. Only 52% of 17-year-olds could name the theme of George Orwell's 1984, and 43% knew when the Civil War was fought. Students faired far better on topics that schools cover, however, such as Pearl Harbor and Martin... More »

MORE ABOUT:
education • literature • history • student • Martin Luther King Jr. • Civil War • George Orwell • Pearl Harbor

Literary Pioneer, Filmmaker
Robbe-Grillet Dead at 85

Developed the French 'new novel' style

Feb 18, 08 3:19 PM CST
(Newser) - French novelist and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet died today at 85, AFP reports. A pioneer of the “new novel” literary style, he was best known in the US as the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Last Year at Marienbad (1961). "The Academie Francaise today loses one of its most illustrious members,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obituary • literature • Alain Robbe-Grillet • nouveau roman • avant-garde

Nabokov's Last Work: Burn It?

Writers debate last request of Russian-American novelist

Feb 14, 08 10:43 AM CST
(Newser) - His works include Lolita and Pale Fire, but Vladimir Nabokov's greatest masterpiece might be an unfinished manuscript languishing in a Swiss safe deposit box. Nabokov demanded that The Original of Laura be burned after his death, but his heir has vacillated. Now that Dmitri Nabokov is hinting he might go... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Tom Stoppard • literature • Vladimir Nabokov • John Banville

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