At Time Out Chicago, book editor Jonathan Messinger looks into how Richard Stark's Parker novels ended up with the University of Chicago Press. Actually the main answer lies with this guy...
Holy shit, Lucy Maud Montgomery killed herself? (via)
Add Patrick Anderson to the list of admirers of Stieg Larsson's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. Also, there's a lively discussion of the book at the New Yorker's Book Bench blog.
Janet Maslin raves yet again about a crime novel, this time Kate Atkinson's WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS.
Val McDermid's modern classic, A PLACE OF EXECUTION, now airs as a three part series on ITV. More here.
Olen Steinhauer is in the midst of a pre-publication tour for his next novel THE TOURIST (which publishes in March) and he's blogging from the road.
Michel Houellebecq and Bernard Henri-Levy collaborate on an epistolary book, so no wonder the French literati are in a tizzy about it.
Terry Teachout pays tribute to his friend Richard Sudhalter, the esteemed jazz critic who passed away last week.
Science fiction writer and editor Brian M. Thomsen has died.
Are we now the United States of France?
And finally, slash fiction personified. (via)
The unbelievable hype for Stieg Larsson's fairly average overlong crime novel may put those who read it may dissuade people from reading other Scandinavian crime fiction. Lisbeth Salander is an interesting character but even she can not carry a book of that length.
In the first book of the Millennium trilogy Stieg Larsson, a great campaigning journalist, is not in the class of other Nordic crime writers such as Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Jo Nesbo, Arnaldur Indridason, Karin Fossum, Henning Mankell, Camilla Lackberg and new star Johan Theorin. Perhaps the remaining two books will be sharper and more structured.
Why on earth did the New Yorker have someone discussing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo who states " I've never been to a Scandinavian country and I'm not sure I've read any other Scandinavian thrillers"?
Posted by: Norman Price | September 22, 2008 at 03:48 PM
News? The Guardian writes..."After months of speculation, the duo was revealed yesterday as Michel Houellebecq, France's award-winning enfant terrible, and Benard-Henri Lévy, the dapper, leftwing philosopher."
Sorry but it's more a publishing publicity stunt... here in Paris Zidane's bio is everywhere...and the man on the rue wants to know about him.
Posted by: Cara | September 23, 2008 at 02:31 AM