Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 170

Ploughshares Blog

I guess I haven't visited the Ploughshares Blog in some time because the managing editor just emailed me (very, very politely) to ask that I update my link. Oops. I hate it when I have stale links. Seriously.

So, I've now updated the link in the sidebar. Check out the blog, which looks great. I need to visit more often . . .

J. D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger has died. Like just about every other American writer, especially anyone close to my age, I've been influenced by Salinger, especially Catcher in the Rye, but also the other books: Nine Stories, Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters, Franny and Zooey. I even re-read Catcher a few years ago--for a class on Point of View, admittedly, but I really enjoyed the chance to look at it again. It might be time to pull it out once more.

Upcoming Appearances: Chicago in February

Brrr. I used to live there, though, right? So I'm not going to let a little cold weather bother me. I'm scheduling some appearances in Chicago in late February, including these two confirmed events to talk about In an Uncharted Country:

Thursday, February 25, 2010, 6:00 pm at 57th Street Books in Hyde Park. This is a great bookstore and I'm really looking forward to the reading and signing!

Saturday, February 27, 2010, 2:00 pm at The Book Stall in Winnetka. This is another fine store and should...

NBCC Award Finalists

The National Book Critics Circle this weekend announced the finalists for the 2010 NBCC Awards:

Autobiography:
Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End (Norton)
Debra Gwartney, Live Through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Mary Karr, Lit (Harper)
Kati Marton, Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America (Simon & Schuster)
Edmund White, City Boy, Bloomsbury

Biography:
Blake Bailey, Cheever: A Life (Knopf)
Brad Gooch, Flannery: A Life o...

ASC: Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe is the second entry in this year's Actors' Renaissance Season at the American Shakespeare Center. I haven't talked to any of the actors about it, but it must have been a real challenge for them, especially mounting the production in such a short time (as is the norm in the ARS). These actors are accustomed to doubling in Shakespeare's plays, but here, with the exception of Faustus and Mephistopheles, most actors are tripling or qua...

The New Yorker: "Trailhead" by E.O. Wilson

Ants? When I saw that this week's story was by E.O. Wilson, I figured we were in for something unusual. But ants? Move along, people, nothing here to see.

Actually, this "fiction"—which is really just a dramatization (for want of a better word) of the lifecycle of an ant colony—is an excerpt from Wilson's forthcoming novel, Anthill. (No, I'm not kidding.) So, this is neither terribly interesting, unless you really like insects and happen to know nothing at all about them, nor is it a story.

It...

Waltzing Cowboys by Sarah Collins Honenberger

Waltzing Cowboys
Sarah Collins Honenberger
Cedar Creek Publishing 2008, $15.95

This engaging small novel has feet in two worlds. It begins in the West, in the land of cowboys and horses and rugged terrain, and at that point the reader would be forgiven if she mistook the story for something by Annie Proulx. It then shifts—by train, sticking close to the land—to the gritty streets of New York, and becomes primarily an urban tale, despite its protagonist's longing for open spaces.

This is the story...

Book Blogger Convention

I wonder if there's any way I can go to the Book Blogger Convention? (May 28 in NYC)

Harper's: "My Pain Is Worse Than Your Pain" by T. Coraghessan Boyle

In my discussion of the Boyle story in this week's New Yorker I commented that it was interesting that the author's name is T. Coraghessan Boyle in The New Yorker, but T.C. Boyle elsewhere. In the printed Harper's the short form is used. BUT I just noticed that online they use the long form. I'm sure there's an explanation, but I can't tell you what it is.

This story, in my opinion, is the much stronger of the two stories, but in reality they're the same story. They're set in closed communitie...

The Death of Fiction?

The Virginia Quarterly Review Blog links to and discusses VQR Editor Ted Genoways's essay in Mother Jones: The Death of Fiction? (and also link to this blog in the process). The article is sobering and a must-read.