THOUGH he's best known for his novels, wallace stegner's non-fiction, especially his essays, are among the wonders of the american west... here is a fine NYT piece by northwest correspondent timothy egan on the occasion of the great writer's 100th birthday. (stegner was born 60 years before yours truly, almost to the day.)the subject of egan's piece is stegner's assertion that the literary west … [Read more...]
Archives for 2009
American Newspapers and the Los Angeles Times
OVER the last few months, the only thing i've heard more than Thomas Jefferson's line -- that he would rather have newspapers without a government than a government without newspapers -- is people telling me they plan to cancel their LA Times subscription.i can't say i'm surprised by this -- the paper has become a poster child of bad ownership recently, and it's lost so many talented staffers, in … [Read more...]
New "Lost" Story by John Cheever
I'm pleased to direct my distinguished readers' attention to a story only recently unearthed called "Of Love: A Testimony." the story was part of cheever's first story collection, from 1943,fell out of print for decades, and it's now up on the site fivechapters.com, which is typically dedicated to work of contemporary authors.(this post is also the latest in my "WASP writers of the 20th c" … [Read more...]
Yiyun Li, "The Vagrants" and China’s Cultural Revolution
This sunday i have a piece in the LAT on author Yiyun Li, a native of China now living in Oakland -- and her new novel, "The Vagrants," which is quite beautifully observed as well as brutal in the tale it tells. some of you may know her from her exquisite short stories, which have a bit of william trevor to them.interested to read a bit of the book? this will take you to an excerpt published on … [Read more...]
Roberto Saviano and "Gomorrah"
THE italian journalist roberto saviano has become famous for his book blowing the roof off the neapolitan mob, which is bigger, older and likely more deadly than the sicilian mafia.Here is my interview with saviano, who has been under police protection since late 2006. his book is pretty incredible, and full of ideas and analysis in the way some of these tough you-are-there books arent. we talked … [Read more...]
Airborne Toxic Event and Indie Rock
last night i saw the L.A. band Airborne Toxic Event at the henry fonda/music box here in L.A. (i probably should have posted on this the day >before … [Read more...]
Great Makeout Records and Happy Valentine’s Day
Please forgive me a bit of cheesecake, folks, as i celebrate Valentine's Day, a bogus holiday that i learned the hard way (with a college girlfriend i considered too bohemian to care about such a hallmark inspired custom) not to ignore.i guess today i am feeling something to lift the spirits after looking at all that east german cold-war art. so today i'm going to be building a list of great … [Read more...]
Postwar German Art, Mexican Printmaking and LACMA
The other day i made my first concentrated trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in a very long time. in the last year or two i'd walked along the campus with architect renzo piano as he talked about upcoming renovations, and i attended the blowout opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, but this was my first visit as as civilian in quite a while. it also may be that only time i've … [Read more...]
John Updike Redux
There's so much to say about the prolific john updike that i've filed a second story... and still didnt have room to get into topics like his take on male sexuality, his very funny Bech books, or his very fine art and book criticism. (his new yorker review of "my name is red" turned me on to turkish writer orhan pamuk, for instance.)this piece came out of something i noticed over the years: when … [Read more...]
Fresh view of Narnia
As a kid, i loved the first few books of c.s. lewis's narnia series... until i realized that they were actually christian propaganda. (my religious education was slight enough that it took me a while to even figure out the whole aslan-christ symbol part.) it was years before i forgave lewis, and my sense of those books never entirely recovered. i was drawn mightily into tolkien, "dune," vonnegut … [Read more...]