I Am So Sad About This
A staple of my childhood, a light of my life...is now gone.
Goodbye, Weekly World News. You will be missed very much.
Harry Dolan: Bad Things Happen
BAD THINGS HAPPEN is a nifty debut, cleverly told and unfurled from the very first line: "The shovel has to meet certain requirements" on through meeting "the man who calls himself David Loogan." There are reasons for concealment, just as there are reasons the editor of a mystery magazine bearing little resemblance to EQMM or AHMM might bring him into the fold, thus catalyzing a series of murderous events. The twists come quickly and the dialogue is sharp and if it falls apart slightly at the end, no matter - I want to read much more from Dolan from now on.
Ian MacKenzie: City of Strangers: A Novel
MacKenzie's debut novel reminded me a lot of Paul Auster's NEW YORK TRILOGY, whether it was intended or not, in terms of his choice of words, the thrust of the narrative and the existential nature of the main character (whose first name, incidentally, is Paul) caught up in a snowballing sequence of strange and violent events in and around New York City. MacKenzie straddles the line between thriller and internal examination of a man's failings, and his ability to do so establishes him as a young writer of serious talent and future.
Megan Abbott: Bury Me Deep
In a word: amazing. In more words: Megan Abbott, who has never delivered anything less than an excellent novel, exceeds expectations and takes a very bold and very necessary step forward both in the quality of the prose, the development of her characters and especially in portraying how obsession seeps into the very soul of people, transforming them into their worst nightmares all too easily. Just read this book. And then tell many others to do so as well.
Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit
Understandably, echoes of THE HANDMAID'S TALE are hard to ignore in this dystopic examination of a society where fertility is so high a priority that older, single, marginal women are shut away in secret locales to live out the rest of their lives in seemingly perfect harmony - at least, until the "donations" begin. But Holmqvist's marvelous book doesn't browbeat her thesis into the reader and smartly expands her ideas to look at the plight of all marginalized folk, women and men alike, and how the promise of comforts can be the most horrifying of all. Prepare to be disturbed, but prepare further to think about the ramifications.
Paula Froelich: Mercury in Retrograde
This is possibly the most perfect novel for today's economically challenged times. Why? Because it has plenty of glitz and glamor and blind items, as befitting a narrative by the deputy editor of Page Six, but Froelich isn't arch or snarky or acid-tongued in the slightest. Her trio of protagonists land in all manner of embarrassing situations but they aren't played for mean-spirited laughs. The New York here is something of a fantasy-land, but not so far off the mark that it's completely unbelievable. Most of all it's clear Froelich remains sincere and optimistic about her chosen city, and has retained her sense of fun. So no need to check your brain at the door, but sometimes it just needs to chill out and relax.
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A staple of my childhood, a light of my life...is now gone.
Goodbye, Weekly World News. You will be missed very much.
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Oh, say it isn't so! I never would have known about the Sadam Hussein/Osama bin Laden love affair if it weren't for WWN. Damn.
Posted by: AlisonGaylin | July 24, 2007 at 10:49 AM
Goddammit. My lifelong dream of writing for them, shattered.
And who's going to report on spontaneous combustion now?
Posted by: Clair Lamb | July 24, 2007 at 11:28 AM
For me, the WWN will live on forever in the songs from the official cast album of Bat Boy: The Musical.
Posted by: Bryon Quertermous | July 24, 2007 at 12:25 PM
No more Ed Anger and "our little cupcake"?
Drat!
Posted by: Cornelia Read | July 24, 2007 at 01:09 PM
Where oh where will we get our updates on the World's Fattest Cat? WWN, we will miss you.
Posted by: Clea Simon | July 24, 2007 at 03:06 PM
Where oh where will we get our updates on the World's Fattest Cat? WWN, we will miss you.
Posted by: Clea Simon | July 24, 2007 at 03:06 PM
Say it ain't so! This is a cultural loss on the scale of the burning of the library of Alexandria...any chance we could lobby for public funding, like for the opera or ballet?
Posted by: Tim Maleeny | July 24, 2007 at 03:18 PM
I did all my junior high current events assignments from the Weekly World News.
Haven't read it since then, but it was a good source of journalistic nonsense that didn't pretend it was something else.
Posted by: Keith | July 24, 2007 at 03:35 PM
This sucks mightily.
My fav memory of WWN was in a grocery store (of course) at 3am. My friend and I saw the best headline:
FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APPOCOLYPSE SPOTTED OUTSIDE OF TUSCON.
We, along with the cashier and the folks in front of us all seached the copy for the story but...
THERE WAS NO STORY!!
I wish I had bought a copy.
Posted by: Jeremy | July 24, 2007 at 11:11 PM
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Posted by: JDRhoades | July 24, 2007 at 11:45 PM
"I wish I had bought a copy."
Jeremy,
Hate to say it, but it's possible - likely even- that buying that copy back then might have saved the paper now. Ah well, how were you to know...
Posted by: Steven Torres | July 25, 2007 at 09:03 AM
I've still got the Saddam Hussein / Osama Bin Laden love affair on my refrigerator.
Is this yet another signpost on the road to the decline of American civilization, freedom of the press and democracy itself? Are the terrorists winning?
Posted by: Eric Stone | July 25, 2007 at 02:05 PM