PrairiePundit (Free subscription) | yesterday
Guardian: The American winner of the Prix Goncourt, Jonathan Littell, has added another feather to his cap. His novel, The Kindly Ones, was tonight announced as the winner of the Literary Review's 2009 bad sex in fiction award . The Kindly Ones, which tells the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of one of the executioners, beat off stiff competition from a stellar shortlist that included entries...
George Szirtes (Free subscription) | 30/11/2009
So this is the man who won. Jonathan Littell from his Prix Goncourt winning novel, The Kindly Ones. According to the judges: The Kindly Ones, which tells the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of one of the executioners, beat off stiff competition from a stellar shortlist that included entries from Philip Roth, John Banville, Paul Theroux and the literary rock star Nick Cave. The judges paid tribute...
Powell's Books: Overview (Free subscription) | 28/11/2009
The Humbling by Philip Roth, a review from Identity Theory by Rhian Ellis .
Poor Mojo Newswire (Free subscription) | 27/11/2009
What’s Best and What’s Sexist -- Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes After reading this (and some of the linked pieces) I'm persuaded that the answer is YES. There is a bias for novels that feature a male protagonist fighting against a culture/world where the rules are defined by women. A week or so back, Andrew Seal spent some time testing an argument by literary scholar Nina...
Flavorwire (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
It may not be the Nobel Prize, but the competition for this year’s “Bad Sex in Fiction” award is just as stiff (cringe — pun intended). Philip Roth is on the Literary Review’s shortlist, and he’s in good company — current nominees include Amos Oz, Nick Cave, and John Banville, while past candidates include such [...] Related posts: Fiction Fix: Hugo Award Nominees...
the Literary Saloon (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
Writer Antonio Tabucchi is being sued by the president of the Italian senate, for libel -- for 1,3 million euros. There's quite a bit about this in the European media, but not a single English-language article I could find; last week, Le Monde published a petition, Nous soutenons Antonio Tabucchi , signed by quite a few well-known intellectuals (including Homero Aridjis, Andrea Camilleri, Patrick...
Poetry Hut Blog (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving this week, have a happy Thanksgiving. — scorching criticism — *** — Psychological therapy 32 times more cost effective at increasing happiness than money — *** — Can Nick Cave rival Bad Sex Award favorite Philip Roth? — *** — A list of Thanksgiving poems for family and friends. — *** — Just in time for Thanksgiving...
Open Culture (Free subscription) | 24/11/2009
The talk above is the first of 26 lectures making up a free Yale course called “The American Novel Since 1945.” Taught by Amy Hungerford, the course introduces you to the novels of America’s finest post-war writers -- Nabokov (émigré), Salinger, Keroauc and Pynchon, and also Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy and Jonathan Safran [...]
The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 24/11/2009
In her memoir, Claire Bloom describes Philip Roth as an extremely self-centered, often abusive man to whom she devoted herself for almost two decades.
Daily Express (Free subscription) | 22/11/2009
PHILIP ROTH is one of America's greatest living writers.
What's Left in the Church (Free subscription) | 21/11/2009
N.B.: This is a far more thoughtful response to Feodor's complaint about my remarks concerning Marcel Proust. If this doesn't satisfy him, well, I'll buy him a subscription to Dissent. One point George Scialabba made last evening with which I profoundly disagree (for obvious reasons) is the effect of the internet on literacy . I find this odd, in particular, since so much of what happens on the internet...
Emerging Writer (Free subscription) | 20/11/2009
As in written about Bad Sex. I've personally written sex badly and written bad sex quote badly too. Here's the nominees for this year. Paul Theroux’s A Dead Hand (Hamish Hamilton) Philip Roth’s The Humbling (Jonathan Cape), Anthony Quinn’s The Rescue Man (Jonathan Cape), Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones (Chatto), Amos Oz’s Rhyming Life and Death (Chatto), Nick Cave’s...
Voy Por Ustedes (Free subscription) | 20/11/2009
Hooray, Philip Roth is on the shortlist for the Literary Review's Bad Sex Award for a scene in his novel The Humbling involving three people and a green dildo. I haven't researched this thoroughly, but it's a travesty if he hasn't been a mainstay of this list throughout his career. I'm generally not enthusiastic about American Jewish fiction, but I've read a lot of his books mostly because of how filthy...
Pete's 'Today In History' Quiz (Free subscription) | 20/11/2009
No, the title isn't a typo! Believe it or not, Nick Cave has been nominated for the 17th annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award presented by the Literary Review magazine for his book " The Death of Bunny Munro ". Other nominees include Philip Roth and Paul Theroux , whilst Tom Wolfe , Melvyn Bragg and Sebastian Faulks are all past winners! The award was set up by Auberon Waugh to "draw attention...
Daily Express (Free subscription) | 20/11/2009
by Philip RothCape, £12.99 Philip Roth has been the most enthralling American writer of the past 25 years. As a result his readers expect a masterpiece every time. Roth does not always deliver one but he doesn’t always try to. His new novel is very short and limited in scope. But it is by no means a negligible work.Simon Axler is an aging American stage actor whose powers are on the wane....
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