New Yorker Festival '09: Best Book Picks

This will be my third year attending the New Yorker festival, because that's how I roll. I'm not going to all of these, but if you're making up your literary dream slate now based on available tickets as of posting time, it would look like this. As I pointed out before, signings are free.

FRIDAY:
David Bezmozgis and Jonathan Franzen, 7PM (tickets) Bezmozgis I know only by reputation but it would be great to see Franzen have more air time than he got at last fall's State by State reading. Also, according to an interview he gave to an Italian newspaper Franzen's new novel will be out next fall, so -- will there be excerpts?
George Saunders and Gary Shteyngart, 9:30PM (tickets) In this hour it would be best to clone yourself in order to make Saunders/Shteyngart, Joshua Ferris/ Aleksander Hemon and Jonathan Lethem/ Colson Whitehead simultaneously. But since my duplicator is broken I'd try something new in Saunders (whom everyone tells me I should or would get into) and looking for more of Shteyngart's winning deadpan as seen at the Brooklyn Book Festival.

SATURDAY:

Annie Proulx, 10AM (tickets) I'm not a huge fan of Proulx's writing -- the real attraction here is seeing how New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman handles the interview.
"Quai des Orfevres" with Anthony Lane, 1:30PM (tickets) How did a movie sneak into my book picks? Lane's collection of criticism, NOBODY'S PERFECT, is that good that I would more or less see him discussing anything. (Well, except this time, because my mom, who is visiting for the festival, wanted to go to see Malcolm Gladwell -- yes, that Malcolm Gladwell. The relevant parties have already been notified.)
Signings to check out (McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St.): T. Coraghessan Boyle, noon; Junot Diaz, 1PM. I wonder if Bill James would sign my copy of MONEYBALL? Nah, probably not.

SUNDAY:

The real prize is getting into Calvin Trillin's eating tour of Little Italy and Chinatown, but I blinked and it was sold out. Bad daughter.

Tailing Tilley, 11AM (tickets) The program describes this as "a live, interactive game drawing on eighty-four years of New Yorker history," which has a camp counselor-ish ring to it. But if it's not fun -- and how could anything starting at a place called Galway Hooker not be? -- unlike with your camp counselor, you can quit.
Signings to check out: Colson Whitehead, 2PM; Hendrik Hertzberg and Adam Gopnik, 3PM.

"I did start 20 novels, and then went, 'Ah, too hard,' and went to the bar."

-- The reading world's loss is the rest of the world's gain when it comes to Ricky Gervais; instead of those novels we get "The Invention of Lying" which opens Friday in perhaps the best box-office field since last year's award-show season.

The time-traveler's widower is also dead (but it's okay)

Audrey Niffenegger's HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY hits stores today, the follow-up to the wildly popular novel (which I actually liked) THE TIME-TRAVELER'S WIFE. The new book follows a London woman buried in Highgate Cemetery (pictured) who becomes a ghost haunting her younger lover and her twin nieces, who have inherited her apartment. I hear not-so-great things, including from Commenter Marjorie who called it "twisty without being really satisfying" but I'm still putting it on my library hold list.

Guilty pleasure Sara Paretsky's new V.I. Warshawski thriller HARDBALL is also out today. I don't need to pretend like the Washington Post that these books have some Greater Significance other than gluing my eyeballs to the page for hours at a stretch. I won't buy this one in hardcover either, I'll wait for the mass-market, but I'll enjoy it when it gets there. On the other end of the teeter-totter from Paretsky, Richard Powers' GENEROSITY, his follow-up to the National Book Award-winning THE ECHO MAKER, describes a writing teacher in Chicago who becomes involved with a perpetually cheerful student. Surprised he didn't go for the Homesian title THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY.

Photo: tyla

66. W. Somerset Maugham, OF HUMAN BONDAGE

This one's been a while in the making, not only because I started it in installments back in July but because this is the 50th book off the Modern Library list I've read. It only took four years (and a lot of other books in between). Of course, that's a false measurement since I had already read 30 books when I started, so I'm not really halfway through--but to the novel!

Somerset Maugham's best known book begins with the orphaning of Philip Carey, age 9, and follows him through boarding school, adventures abroad, and ultimately into professional life. Along the way, he falls in love, contemplates a life in art and experiences several strata of London life. If you think I'm being vague for a book that's almost 100 years old, you are correct: but that's because you should go out and read it, preferably right away.

I have to pay this novel a high compliment: I didn't always enjoy the company of Philip Carey but his life and the things that happen to him forced me to think. This book depicts, in a way I wouldn't have expected for its age, the way a personality and a belief system can change over time, gaining and shedding layers of itself based on experiences and friendships and hardships. Even reading it in bits and pieces as I did, I found myself returning to earlier passages, wondering who was Philip now? And who now? But it was all a continuum; even the moments where he acknowledged for himself that a change was taking place joined that endless curve rather than throwing up the stop sign of epiphany.

For me OF HUMAN BONDAGE represents the bridge between the "classic" novel pummeling the reader with Lessons and the modern novel for which the presence of a moral is either an insult or evidence of poor writing. Okay, I'm coming down a bit hard on both ends, but to the extent that instructional fiction has gone out of vogue, it is out of vogue now (which is not to say moral fiction isn't being written). I think Somerset Maugham would have had a lot to say to Zoë Heller's conviction about the point of fiction, but he still employs a moral avatar, doesn't he? In a way his predecessors never would have dared, but there it is.

And nothing exemplifies this better than my reactions to the ending, which I will not spoil nor use as a sort of emotional Rorschach test, though it is tempting. (Personally I cycled through vague disappointment and suspicion to recognition of the decisions Philip Carey makes throughout the book, into which the last fits like a puzzle piece -- recognition, but not full acceptance.)

In terms of the Modern Library project, this is one of those books (like THE GOOD SOLDIER) I'm sure I would have gotten around to eventually, but I'm so glad to have read now. Guess I'll have to re-read it in 10 years (in my hovercraft, I assume) to see how it strikes me then. Frankly, it reminded me of when I started looking at this list lo these many months ago, which, now that I'm numerically halfway done, is just the mind I want to have.

LN vs. ML progress: 50 read, 50 unread.

Next up: #22, John O'Hara's APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA in paper, and from Dailylit, #49, D.H. Lawrence's WOMEN IN LOVE.

Another Noughties round-up

It's early days yet, but The Millions just counted down its 20 best books of the millennium. It's not a spoiler to say that some made me go "Yes!!!", some "I'm on that!" and some "Huh?" Unlike the list I put together earlier, the choice wasn't restricted to American authors, so great books I couldn't even consider made it into competition (like #3).

My dream was realized but I was sleeping

One person who's got to be closely watching the arrest of director Roman Polanski is author Christopher Sandford, whose biography of Polanski came out last year (and is scheduled to be released in paperback in November). Its final chapter expressing the hope that Polanski would reach a deal with U.S. authorities soon looks foolish now, but it offers valuable background on the director's early life and on the 1977 case.

Washington Post: A new public-interest campaign is calling for congressional representatives to sign a pledge that they will read every word of the bills they vote on. Does anyone in the world have time for that? That is the question. This isn't the class of reading normally discussed around here, to be fair, but it's interesting to think about.

Via wallace-l: Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned betting over the Man Booker in Britain? Here are the current odds for the Nobel Prize for Literature, announced next week; I had to Google the top 3 names, but the next two are well-known American authors. Maybe next year, Paul and Maya. Warning: Depending on where you're reading this, actually betting on this may be illegal.

YouTube: For his new book GENERATION A, Douglas Coupland released a free 10-minute video of himself talking about odd subjects. You can get it on iTunes, but for now, here's this totally bizarre teaser.

The Hamlet Weblog: Some of the news on the only blog I've ever seen devoted to one particular Shakespeare play is scary, like a 3-D children's version of the big H, but creator Stuart Ian Burns has seen an impressive twenty Princes so far. (This month's outing makes 8 for me, counting movies, not counting "Hamlet 2.") Mostly, I just wish I'd thought of this first, but it may come in handy.

826NYC: Want to see "Where The Wild Things Are" two whole days before the discriminating public? 826NYC, the creative-writing outfit we know and love, is hosting a preview screening on October 14 at the Paris Theatre hosted by professional nerd John Hodgman. Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers will conduct a Q&A afterwards, included in your $75 ticket price. ETA 10/9 Sorry, this is sold out. But if you have that kind of money, could you just rent Hodgman for me for a few hours? Uh, I'll return him in good condition?

Please enjoy this ridiculously twee accompaniment to today's suggested reading (video is a static image):

Dear Nicholas Sparks,

We know how you feel. Really, we do! There was an era in our lives during which no work got done unless "Family Guy" was on in the background. (Fun times.) But... come on, man. At least pretend that you're somewhat engaged in the business of churning out your fifteenth best-seller (yes, we looked it up). You're not alone, you have your characters. If you don't want to spend any time with them, why should we?

Thank you,

The Management

We ain't popping no Kris, that's $500 a bottle. It ain't that serious.

I would be hard pressed to explain what exactly I find so hilarious about this article speculating on Malcolm Gladwell's dating success. It's probably the second bitchiest story about an author I've read this year.* It contains so much hearsay as to practically be fan fiction, and the author's "Women really go for that?" stance gets a bit grating, but what can I say? I still laughed. And though I've never met the man, I bear him no ill will and I never skip his New Yorker articles, I proceeded to forward it at the rate of a vengeful ex-girlfriend. Sorry, Malcolm.

---
*And the first one's so toxic I can't post it, so you'll just have to trust me it's a masterpiece.

Mamet to Disney: That's who I am, and you're nothing.

Hey, remember when David Mamet was announced to be adapting THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK for Disney, and we all laughed? Vegas marriage, Reno divorce: Sources say Disney is severing ties because the script he turned in was too "intense" for their purposes. Apparently they didn't like the climactic scene in which Anne shouts, "Nothing's black and white? Nothing's black and white? ... What about a Nazi?"

New Yorkers, there is a shitload of Mamet onstage this fall: "Oleanna" on Broadway and two one-acts off-Broadway now and the world premiere of "Race" (with James Spader and Kerry Washington) in November. He's also rumored to be working on the screenplay for "The Prince of Providence," the adaptation of Mike Stanton's book about Operation Plunder Dome. As a former Providentian, I have very high expectations for that project.

The Autumn of Dick

A couple weeks ago I wrote about some group reading projects that I wasn't doing. Well, here's one I am doing, and you should too.

My blogmigos over at Common Sense Dancing are tackling Herman Melville's classic MOBY DICK for an Infinite Summer-inspired project beginning October 1st called the Autumn of Dick. Head over there now for the schedule and thereafter for Sunday discussion posts and hardtack. It's 50-60 pages a week, fewer than INFINITE JEST (and depending on your edition, fewer footnotes!)

To be fair, I have already read MOBY DICK once, so in theory it shouldn't be as difficult this time. In theory. But I think it's worth revisiting regardless.

Undermining the project with adorable crochet work: cristina_r_t

NYC: Housing Works Open Air Street Fair Saturday

10AM, 126 Crosby Street, and they had me at "thousands of $1 books." I know, I'll go early and browse, then I can go home and be productive. No, I'll go in the afternoon so I won't be able to buy any more than I can carry out with me (though this strategy has never worked before). I'm not even trying to come up with a decent excuse, am I?

Here's hoping for hot cider and good finds.

Photo: zizzles

Reading on the rails?

The blogger behind the Subway Book Club is using reader spottings in transit in New York to guide her reading. That is so brave! So far, titles have included Pete Hamill's DOWNTOWN and Erik Larson's THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY. Granted, there are some ground rules, but if I did this on my regular trains I'd be praying for a pretentious subway reader to come along.

Mostly it's a good thing Ms. Subway Book Club has not run into Sarah Wendell, blogger and romance fan who told the Daily Beast people are always judging her subway reading material:

"You’d think that people in New York City would have better senses of self-preservation than to mock the reading material of an uncaffeinated morning commuter, but it’s happened to me more than once."

Judgment oils the city, allowing us to slide past each other without getting stuck. As long as we're all equally covered in it, no one is hurt! So the best defense, as she clearly has done, is to judge the judgers.

Related: Authors tell their favorite underground stories in THE SUBWAY CHRONICLES; does that cover really say KEEP CLUBBING?

Photo taken on the downtown platform of the 96th St. 1/2/3: Ed Yourdon

Holiday Gift Guide 2010, Part 2

I was joking the first time I did this, but here's something every bookworm on your list will want this year: The 1128-page NEW LITERARY HISTORY OF AMERICA. With over two hundred essays by authors you already love like Sarah Vowell and Cass Sunstein, you'd better put in for an extra-long vacation. And even at a $49.95 cover price (ouch!) it's still $249.05 cheaper than the Kindle. (Via Shelf Life.)

Really, what is the point of dispensing rabbinical wisdom if you people are just going to take no notice? If you’re coming to an event over the next few weeks, in the UK and the US, with the express purpose of asking me for my guidance in professional or matrimonial matters, I really must insist that you do what I say, otherwise the whole thing is a waste of my time and yours. (There may be a simple but legally binding document for you to sign.)

--Nick Hornby wants his words of wisdom to be taken seriously, damn it! Keep it in mind if he's coming to your East or West Coast town on tour for his new book, JULIET, NAKED. But what would you go to Hornby for advice for, pray tell?

Genius time!

Congrats to Edwidge Danticat, Heather McHugh and Deborah Eisenberg for holding up the writerly end of this year's MacArthur genius grants. Who's your favorite genius?