Douglas Unger Turns Rapacious Greed and Moral Slipperiness into High Literature

Forty years after the publication of Leaving the Land, Pulitzer Prize finalist Douglas Unger returns with his fifth novel, Dream City, an excoriating tale of hope, greed, and betrayal in Las Vegas. C.D. Reinhart is Unger’s fatally flawed protagonist, a failed actor bent on self-improvement who is forced to be the public face of his […] The post Douglas Unger Turns Rapacious Greed and Moral Slipperiness into High Literature appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2024-10-08 11:05:00 UTC ]

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Pulitzer winner Alison Lurie dies, aged 94

Alison Lurie, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for her novel Foreign Affairs (Vintage), has died at the age of 94. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-03 22:01:54 UTC ]
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Boys Will Be Boys, Girls Have to Cover Up

In Fariha Róisín’s debut novel Like a Bird, protagonist Taylia Chatterjee lives a privileged life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her sister Alyssa. Alyssa often receives preferential treatment from their liberal, overbearing parents—a white Jewish mom, a Hindu Bengali dad. Taylia is... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Help Us Pick the Best Book Cover of 2020

This hasn’t been an easy year for sustained, careful reading. But you know what doesn’t take any attention at all? Judging a book by its cover! That’s why we’re doing our first ever “best book cover of the year” tournament—and we want you to weigh in. Vote for your favorites on Electric... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-30 12:00:30 UTC ]
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11 New Books by Native American Writers

This year has been a dumpster fire and we mean that literally. But the shining bright spot in the literary world is an abundance of great new books by Indigenous writers being published in 2020. Since it’s National Native American Heritage Month, we’re focusing on books coming out of the U.S.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
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A Definitive Ranking of Roald Dahl Film Adaptations

Roald Dahl holds a special place in my childhood. I still have vivid memories of reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda in school (we even read his rather unsavory memoir Boy; his accounts of boarding school bullying haunt me to this day!) and of watching the delightful early ’90s... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-20 12:00:50 UTC ]
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Stories Happen in the Space Between How We Feel and What We Say

Short stories are a complex form, one that author and professor Danielle Evans continues to show herself adept in. The ever-shifting opportunities of short fiction are evident in Evans’s work, from her debut collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self to her latest, The Office of... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-20 12:00:00 UTC ]
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“Hillbilly Elegy” Is the Last Thing America Needs in 2020

My first novel was released within six months of Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s memoir of Appalachian roots and a youth spent in a Rust Belt community with a dearth of jobs and resources. Vance’s book came out just before the 2016 election; mine was released just after. Donald Trump’s victory had... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-17 12:01:45 UTC ]
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7 Literary Translators You Need to Know

Imagine bookstores, libraries and life really, without Anne Frank, The Little Prince, the Quran, and Murakami. This is what a world without literary translators would look like—our literary travels would be devoid of global textures and much, much less rich. Through the work of translators,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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What Do We Owe Our Comunity in a Time of Crisis?

In her first novel published in 14 years, author Julia Alvarez explores grief, isolation, and sisterhood. Afterlife follows Antonia, a writer and retiring English professor, who has just lost her husband Sam. As she reimagines what her life will be without her husband, Antonia also struggles... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-02 12:00:33 UTC ]
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20 Small Press Books from 2020 You Might Have Missed

There’s no denying that this is a rough—if not catastrophic—year for many businesses, from mom-and-pop-run local eateries to huge corporations like Macy’s. But as the Washington Post noted, a national array of bookstores and readerly good-will has helped Bookshop.org raise millions for indie... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Where Is Hong Kong Literature When We Need It Most?

One of my most vivid childhood memories took place in an English bookshop in Causeway Bay, a short minibus ride from my family home in Hong Kong. I was a voracious reader growing up, eyes constantly trained on any printed text available, even during dinnertime and when brushing my teeth. Intent... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-22 11:00:06 UTC ]
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A Plurality of Traditions: Anthony Davis and the Social Justice Opera

ANTHONY DAVIS, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his opera The Central Park Five, is a composer with a great future behind him. Five is his eighth opera, and during those labors, spanning four decades, he’s found the time and talent to write orchestral pieces and music for plays, to... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-17 12:30:47 UTC ]
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A Definitive Ranking of Tana French Novels

In the thirteen years since Tana French published her first novel, she’s gained a rabid and dedicated readership (a friend of mine refers to herself as a Tanavangelist), a shelf’s worth of awards (Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Barry, and the Irish Book Award, among others), and countless places on... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-15 11:00:19 UTC ]
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How Much Does Your Job Shape Your Identity?

“You think you’ve known someone for a long time,” a character in one of Jenny Bhatt’s short stories says of her Indian colleague shortly after he’s shot dead by a white man in a bar. “Maybe he never really took to us. Never really became one of us.” Turn by turn, each of his white […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Karen Russell has recommended reading for you, Joe Biden.

Welcome to the Book Marks Questionnaire, where we ask authors questions about the books that have shaped them. This week, we spoke to Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Sleep Donation, Karen Russell. * Book Marks: First book you remember loving? Karen Russell: The Last Unicorn by Peter S.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-07 15:16:17 UTC ]
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Erika A. Niedowski, a former Sun foreign correspondent and 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalist, dies

Erika A. Niedowski, a former Sun foreign correspondent and Moscow bureau chief who was a 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalist and later worked for The Associated Press, died Friday of undetermined causes at Rhode Island Hospital two days before her 47th birthday. Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2020-10-06 21:08:37 UTC ]
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Why is The Known World So Good?

Edward P. Jones’s The Known World occupies a somewhat odd space in the literary canon: it is highly decorated, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and it was even a bestseller, but 17 years after its publication, it feels curiously underread. I acknowledge, of course, that all notions of “underread,” like... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-05 08:49:24 UTC ]
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Are Frats and Sororities Really Just Cults?

What lengths will we go to in order to belong? To be part of something exclusive? To be part of a sisterhood or brotherhood? That’s the searing question that authors Benjamin Nugent and Genevieve Sly Crane try to answer in their books about college Greek life. Nugent’s Fraternity, a collection... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-02 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Horsing Around

With her new novel about a talking horse, Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley continues to defy expectation—and classification. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-10-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A Memoir About Growing Up Undocumented in America

In his memoir Children of the Land, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo tells the story of growing up undocumented in California and having to navigate the convoluted and dehumanizing American immigration system. Hernandez Castillo captures the emotional and psychological toll that being both invisible... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-01 11:00:54 UTC ]
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