Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 48
March 11, 2021
Literary Birthday: Douglas Adams
Even for novelists, a famously time-wasting bunch, Douglas Adams (born today in 1952) was a procrastinator of epic proportions. One of his favorite jokes was about how much he loved deadlines, particularly “the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Adams had such a grueling time finishing Mostly Harmless, the bleak fifth entry in …
March 7, 2021
Writer’s Desk: Edit After You Write
In “How to Practice,” Ann Patchett writes about what she learned when helping a childhood friend clean out her late father’s apartment, and how it reminded her of writing. In short, she says you cannot do two things at once: I made the decision to wait until we’d finished with the entire house before trying …
March 5, 2021
Literary Birthday: Frank Norris
Like many 19th century American novelists, Frank Norris (born today in 1870) led a full life outside of his bibliography. He studied painting in Paris, worked as a foreign correspondent in South Africa, and covered the Spanish-American war in Cuba. Inspired by the naturalist style of Emile Zola, drawing on his journalistic background, and fueled …
March 3, 2021
Reader’s Corner: ‘Soul City’
Thomas Healy’s new book, Soul City, tells the story of Floyd McKissick, a civil rights leader who wanted so badly to create a racially harmonious city out of nothing that he became a Republican to make it happen. Here’s one of the ads: My review of Soul City ran at PopMatters: Though he worked closely …
March 1, 2021
Screening Room: ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’
The new Lee Daniels movie, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, is out now on Hulu. My review is at PopMatters.
February 28, 2021
Writer’s Desk: One Idea per Sentence
Though Bill Bryson takes on large subjects, including but not limited to the history of everything, he tries to keep things simple. In his Dictionary of Troublesome Words, he gave some particularly specific advice: There is no quota on periods. When an idea is complicated, break it up and present it in digestible chunks. One …
February 26, 2021
Screening Room: ‘Cherry’
Adapted from Nico Walker’s semi-autobiographical novel, Anthony and Joe Russo’s Cherry stars Tom Holland as a slacker who goes to war and turns to addiction and then bank robbery once back on the home front. Cherry is playing now on Apple+. My review is at Slant: “I’m 23 years old,” Cherry says in the narration …
February 22, 2021
Literary Birthday: Joanna Russ
One of the few female and openly gay writers in postwar science fiction—at the time even more straight male-dominated than the rest of the publishing world—Joanna Russ (born today in 1937) first made her name with a metafictional story cycle featuring the time-traveling assassin Alyx before penning the controversial women-only utopian novel The Female Man. …
February 21, 2021
Writer’s Desk: Create Something New
The late James Gunn, the Hugo-winning science fiction novelist and editor who passed away in December, had this to say in a 2017 interview about connecting writing with purpose: I feel I earn my place here on Earth each day when I am able to create something that wasn’t there before, and, in turn, some …
February 20, 2021
Reader’s Corner: Dan Rather on ‘What Unites Us’
I interviewed Dan Rather about the graphic novel adaptation of his essay collection What Unites Us, out this month. You can read our talk here at Publishers Weekly.
