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June 27, 2004
Like Boomtown, It's Got David and David
by Ron HoganEverybody who was worried that the new New York Times Book Review was going to be a wasteland when it came to literary fiction should be pleasantly surprised by this weekend's short story issue, which offers critical takes on David Foster Wallace, Julian Barnes, E. L. Doctorow, and David Bezmozgis. And then there's the first of the "on publishing" dispatches, an in-depth look at the editorial track record of Alice Mayhew, doyenne of political blockbusters.
Meanwhile, books and authors crop up in other sections of the Times this weekend. Meg Wolitzer takes a page in the City section to describe the process of writing her latest novel in locations all over Manhattan once she lost the workspace in her own apartment. I don't know why she didn't just go to the Rose Room, but it's an okay piece anway. Over in the soon-to-fade Arts & Ideas section, Brian Lavery considers the International Impace Dublin Literary Award, a 100,000-euro prize that's genuinely international in nature, concentrating primarily on the most recent winner, Tahar Ben Jelloun.
Much as I like the sudden burst of feature articles, I'm still troubled by how male, Caucasian and established the writers in the short story roundup were.
Posted by: Ed at June 28, 2004 12:28 PMFair enough. OK, let's have a comment game: you can choose any four contemporary (i.e., published within the last few months) short story collections. Readers, who would you go with?
I'll start, even though I haven't actually read most of this: Keeping David Bezmozgis, we'll add Hannah Tinti's Animal Crackers, um, maybe that new A.S. Byatt, and, well, probably back to the Julian Barnes, at that. But I suck when it comes to short stories, so you folks should have better ideas.
Posted by: editor at June 28, 2004 12:38 PMyour PayPal donation
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