I've never read a Chuck Palahniuk novel (and I live in Portland!) so I have no dog in this fight, but I love how the hate of this review cannot be contained and expands to attack the culture at large. (via Suderman)
Check out Tried to Rock, a blog that catalogs the bands that never made it. (via Brownstein) Here is my favorite band that never made it.
Do you recall the news of some years back that Ian McEwan has a long lost brother born of McEwan's parents, who eventually but were then adulterous lovers? The brother, Dave Sharp, has a new book on the way. McEwan wrote the forward, but his name is on top of the cover.
The NYTimes has a nice feature on Lee Child, the author of the Reacher books, one of the world's great not so guilty reading pleasures.
Monday, June 09, 2008
I miss the innocence I've known
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5 comments:
That marketing trick with McEwan's name on the cover is a bit cheeky. Sounds far too exciting to warrant reading anyway
Oh, well, Palahniuk. I'm not quite sure who would faint (or why) during any of his readings, but okay. Evidently his really crazy violent/gross stuff sells, so he's just writing more of it.
Why this bothers the New York Times I have no idea, since they're not all that bothered that W. lied to start a war where people--real people, mind you, not characters in a book--are killed in millions of messy ways. Hey, NYTimes, how about a sense of proportion before you descend into complete obsolescence?
On a completely different note: thanks for the reminder about Lee Child. I've been meaning to read him.
IB, yes I thought that was a bit naughty of them. If you just glance it really does look like they are co-authors with McEwan in the lead.
Come on CR, let the NYT have mean reviews. Don't blame the Book Review for the NYT's dropping the ball on the 2003 reporting!
A word of warning on Lee Child, I have seen a very wide range of response to his books. Some love and some hate with a burning passion. I am in the love camp, but there are those who find his style grating.
Tripp!
I LOVE mean reviews. No one ever need apologize for a mean review. I just get such a giggle out of anyone thinking Palahniuk (himself included) is so shocking. I mean, my god, they've got ultimate fighting showing on the networks in prime time (just the fighting, though, they still can't show the round girls from the neck down). Does anything really shock us anymore?
No worries on Lee Child. I mainly want to read him to satisfy curiosity, I'm not too concerned about his style. If I lived through a James Patterson I can live through anything! (Reading-wise, anyway.)
Thank goodness CR, I thought you had gone all hippie on me. i read the NYT review as focusing not so much on the shocking as the sucking.
As for shocking, how about how much James Patterson continues to sell?
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