NYT Contradicts the “No New Stars” Buzz

Remember that AP story two weeks ago on the current dearth of literary fiction, in particular the lack of “dazzling debuts” from new writers? At the time, I pointed out that this didn’t seem to match the eagerness with which Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep was received earlier this year. Now here’s another counterexample: the New York Times Book Review just gave front-page placement to Benjamin Kunkel’s Indecision, “which manages to make the whole flailing, postadolescent, prelife crisis feel fresh and funny again,” says Jay McInerney, “even as it sometimes resembles nothing so much as a self-conscious, postmodern homage/parody of the genre.” I heard Kunkel read a scene from the novel late last year, and of course it’s hard to judge with such a limited perspective, but it sounded pretty decent to me.

Hmm…both of these counterexamples are from Random House–which is conspicuous in its absence from the array of New York publishing insiders quoted in that AP story. Something to think about? Maybe. (Not that it means they weren’t interviewed or approached, of course. As a working journalist, I know you don’t always hear back from everybody in a timely fashion, and you can only cram so much into a story before your editors start to make throat-clearing noises.)

And here’s something else: there’s a literary world outside New York City. That principle’s underscored in the first of what promises to be a series of “from the publisher” dispatches at the website for Unbridled Books, which has quickly established itself as an independent publisher worth any literati’s attention. (Not that I’m a completely objective observer, as you’ve seen its authors here on numerous occasions.)

29 August 2005 | uncategorized |

Lawrence Tierney Is Dead, Alas…

…because if he were still with us, the headstrong and tempermental actor would be perfectly suited for The Outbursts of Everett True. The comic strip’s nearly a century old, but it runs on a simple premise that could just as easily catch on with audiences today:

“In the first panel, Everett is subjected to one of the many common annoyances, indignations, and outrages that are foisted upon each of us daily. In the second, he beats someone up.”

Some bits, like revenge against rude hotel clerks (click on the drawing above for a full-size version) or people who cut in line, are just as fresh in 2005 as they were in 1906. A handful of other gags aren’t quite as successful, and the strip isn’t immune to the racist caricaturing of the early 20th century, but I swear, you could take this into a pitch meeting at Comedy Central today and walk out with a pilot development deal. After all, isn’t this pretty much how the majority of American stand-up comedy works, with the physical violence weakly replaced by verbal abuse from a distance?

29 August 2005 | uncategorized |