TOM MCCARTHY news

Not only is a movie adaptation of Tom McCarthy's "Remainder" coming out this year, but there is also a new McCarthy novel due out February 17. Feast your eyes on the cover for SATIN ISLAND, about a "corporate ethnographer" trying to write the definitive history of the era. I wasn't a huge fan of C, McCarthy's last novel, but excited to give this one a try. The movie is a British production starring Tom Sturridge (of "Pirate Radio," we are informed) and directed by Israeli video director Omer Fast.

Leftovers

• Not only is there potentially a fourth Stieg Larsson book, his dad is now claiming there is a fifth which he wrote before #4 because it "was more fun to write." (L.A. Times)
• "The Kindle changed my reading habits, because I now buy books pretty much only when I’m drunk, and late at night." Elif Batuman sounds like she'd be fun to hang out with. (Boston Globe via Peter W. Knox)
• Forgive me if you all knew that Keith Olbermann is a huge James Thurber fan who reads his short stories out loud on his show. I just found out this week, perils of the cableless. (GalleyCat)
• Literary betting news! Britons can no longer bet on the Booker Prize after a suspiciously large amount of money was placed on only slightly tarnished star Tom McCarthy. (Guardian)
• "Discussed: Comical Hats, Tertiary Characters, Conan the Barbarian, The Dark One, Typologies Within Typologies, Moral Predicaments, Braid-Yanking, Rhapsodies Over Brocaded Silk, Arcane Metaphysical Theology, Clark Gable." Name that fantasy author! (The Believer)
• This SPOILERY review of "The Social Network" is probably my favorite which I also disagree with. It's an art. (The New Republic).
• "It was a great way of getting out of the house, of not being stuck alone in my room all day, and, as I have Lonoff say in THE GHOST WRITER, I got to use a public urinal — that was a breakthrough — and also I got to read a lot." Yeah, Philip Roth, it sounds like you really got a lot out of teaching. Any of his former UPenn students wish to speak to that experience? (Esquire)

Bad reputations

I'm collecting links like a postmodern Collyer brother, so here are some quick hits:

• To the surprise of no one, Facebook isn't that thrilled about the new movie based on Ben Mezrich's book. (New York Times)
• In other adaptation news, "The Switch," the romantic comedy based on the Rick Moody Jeffrey Eugenides (see comments) story "The Baster," is tracking dismally and will probably finish 7th this weekend, behind a "Twilight" parody, "Eat Pray Love" and "Piranha 3-D." [Unrelated: I've been spelling 'piranha' wrong all this time?!] Jason Bateman, fire your agent. (Deadline.com)
• Jodi Picoult should not be startin' somethin' with the aforementioned Times about their rave review of FREEDOM. For one, her reviews in the Times have been complimentary enough; for another, Jennifer Weiner did this routine 6 weeks ago (and not wrongly) abotu Gary Shteyngart. Summer's for reruns? (NY Mag via DRA)
• Anyway, all the cool kids are already over FREEDOM and looking forward to Tom McCarthy's next book C, out Sept. 7. Here he is on technology, Futurism and James Joyce. (The Guardian)
• Where did "Chicago" come from? Bookslut-in-Chief Jessa Crispin investigates in the review of a new book called THE GIRLS OF MURDER CITY about the Second City in the 1930s. (The Smart Set)
• Finally, I walked by a bar on Friday whose awning read "The Tavern O. Henry Made Famous." Is it ever okay to grant a bar the endorsement of someone who eventually died of cirrhosis? Unfortunately, the claim that O. Henry wrote "The Gift of the Magi" in a bar booth in Gramercy Park is dubious and likely unprovable; on the other hand, there was a "Seinfeld" episode shot there. (Petestavern.com; Iamnotastalker.com)

Post-Its: Frank McCourt Memorial Edition

ETA 9/23: The public memorial service for Frank McCourt will be held on October 6 at 5PM at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway) in New York. According to their site, a limited number of tickets will be available at the box office between 3 and 5PM that day, or you can stream it online at symphonyspace.org. Malachy McCourt mentioned the memorial earlier in an August 5 article in the Irish Echo, where he also said authors Peter Quinn and Colum McCann would be in attendance. I'm not affiliated with the McCourt family, Symphony Space or Stuyvesant HS; I'm just trying to help!

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Even if you didn't like his books (or don't remember what you thought about them when you read them, ahem), the ANGELA'S ASHES author put in 30 years as a New York City public school teacher and that is nothing to sniff at. Here's a nice recollection from RAPTURE READY author Daniel Radosh. We choose to honor this Irish-American with Brits who are sad, drunk and barely legal:

• Another week, another book list. The L.A. Times runs down the best postmodern books from "Hamlet" (yes, that one) to I AM NOT SIDNEY POITIER. (Two cheers in this corner for THE BLIND ASSASSIN and REMAINDER.) This list is flawed in ways that the commenters have already started pointing out, but I still want to do it. Book club, anyone?
  


• "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" opened this past week atop the box office despite being, tonally speaking, a complete mess. If you have any interest in this movie, you'll probably get these not-for-children Harry Potter "Yo Mama" jokes. (via Cristin Stickles on Twitter)
  


• From the Department Of What Nick Hornby Is Up To: His new movie, "An Education," out in limited cities October 9:
  
  Looks like a British version of a movie I once walked out of, but I will withhold judgment. (via lindsayism)
  


• Same department, via Emily of The General Point, here's a link to Dominic West reading from HIGH FIDELITY. Oh, that brow.
  


• Thanks to Joe Queenan in the New York Times, I'm officially adding literary escort to my list of fantasy jobs, since I love books and am not above playing cruise director. In fact, electronic shingle: If you are an author coming to New York City inexplicably reading this blog and you need a literary escort, drop me a line. I speak Midwestern nice and I know where things are.


• Finally, I can't remember where I saw Dude Watchin' With The Brontës first, but I love it, particularly every expression on Anne's face. Anne, I'm sorry I never read any of your books.