Here’s a bit of weekend reading for you. The Angel’s Game author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón is interviewed in Time.
And to all of our American readers, happy Independence day.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón interview
July 3rd, 2009 by slamingCanada’s top under 30 book collectors
July 3rd, 2009 by Richard DaviesThe National Post profiles the top three rare book collectors from a contest to find Canada’s best book collectors under the age of 30.
Winner - Charlotte Ashley
2nd place - Vanessa Brown
3rd place - Naseem Hrab
Michael Jackson is Jack London in Call of the Weird
July 3rd, 2009 by Richard Davies
Call of the Wild first edition
The journalist fails to point out the irony of alias - there was also much controversy and debate about London’s death. Was it suicide? Was it an overdose of morphine?
A first edition of this classic book isn’t cheap - I wonder if Michael owned one. I suspect he did.
Karl Malden memoir
July 2nd, 2009 by Richard DaviesThere’s brisk demand for Karl Malden’s 1997 memoir, When Do I Start?, following the sad news about his death yesterday at the age of 97. I think he was a truly memorable actor. On The Waterfront remains one of my favourite movies. Only a handful of signed copies remain.
Salinger’s phony ban of Coming Through the Rye
July 2nd, 2009 by Richard Davies
The banning of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye by J.D. California reflects very badly on J.D. Salinger (not that he cares). This unauthorized sequel of The Catcher in the Rye is a bad book and would have sunk like a stone without any legal intervention. The big-hitting literary critics would have savaged it – they’d have done Salinger’s dirty work for free and probably in a very entertaining way. Most readers would have ignored it. The book is harmless but rubbish. Banning books is never a good thing and being a bad book is not a crime.
I’m sure Coming Through the Rye IS a sorry attempt to cash in on the fame of Catcher in the Rye but is that illegal, especially in America where cashing in is a way of life? The actual author, a Swede called Fredrik Colting, will probably keep pushing to get his book published because the publicity surrounding the book will make his efforts worthwhile. The curiosity factor surrounding this book is now very high, and all because America’s No.1 recluse went through the courts. In the meantime, the book has been published in Sweden and the UK. In today’s world of global bookselling, people will get their hands on copies so this storm in a tea cup will continue.
I believe Salinger lost control of his famous creation, Holden Caulfield, four decades ago. Holden Caulfield, the world’s first alienated teenager, became public property when Catcher in the Rye became required reading for all readers, and that happened a long time ago. How can some badly written book by a bloke from Sweden remotely damage the legacy of Salinger and his famous novel from 1951?
Catcher in the Rye sequel banned - Salinger wins
July 2nd, 2009 by slaming
60 Years Later, Coming though the Rye, the unauthorized sequal to JD Salingers classic has been halted perminantly as a US Judge rules that the book borrows too heavily on Catcher without offering parody or critique.
Colting’s defence claimed the book was a parody, and a literary critique of the original, but US District Judge Deborah Batts yesterday rejected these arguments, issuing a 37-page written ruling which said the book’s narrative “largely mirrors that of Catcher”, and that it had “taken well more from Catcher, in both substance and style, than is necessary for the alleged transformative purpose of criticising Salinger and his attitudes and behaviour”. Mr C, meanwhile, “has similar or identical thoughts, memories, and personality traits to Caulfield, often using precisely the same or only slightly modified language”. She pointed to the fact that both characters love to use the words “goddam”, “phony”, “crumby”, “lousy”, “hell”, “bastard”, and the phrase “kills me”.
Read our review of 60 Years Later, Coming though the Rye
Philip Hoare wins BBC Samuel Johnson Prize
July 2nd, 2009 by slamingThe £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Non-Fiction Prize was awarded recently in London to none other than Philip Hoare for Leviathan, or The Whale.
From the prize website:
In Leviathan, Philip Hoare seeks to locate and identify his life-long obsession with this mythical creature of the sea. From his childhood fascination with the gigantic models of London’s Natural History Museum to adult encounters with the wild animals themselves, Philip Hoare has been obsessed with whales. Leviathan is a gripping voyage of discovery into the heart of this obsession and Moby-Dick, the book that inspired it. Travelling around the globe and taking the reader deep into the whale’s domain, Philip Hoare sheds light on our perennial fascination with whales, whose nature remains tantalizingly undiscovered.
The Terrorist Hunters by Andy Hayman - Publication Ban
July 2nd, 2009 by Kathleen
The Guardian reports that the British Government has stopped sales of The Terrorist Hunters, a book detailing the fight against Islamic extremism. The book’s author is Britain’s former head of counter-terrorism, and retired Scotland Yard assistant commissioner, Andy Hayman.
Hayman, gives a behind-the-scenes account of the 7 July attacks, the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and the fight against terror.
The Joys of Book Collecting According to a Prize Winning Collector
July 2nd, 2009 by Kathleen
Works: The Romances of Alexandre Dumas. Complete 48-volume set.
The National Post’s blog “The Afterword” features an interview with Canada’s first national book-collecting contest winner, Charlotte Ashley. The contest, sponsored by The Bibliographical Society of Canada (BSC), the Antiquarian Booksellers of Association of Canada (ABAC) and the Alcuin Society, “was created … to encourage young Canadians to collect books and study the discipline of researching and writing bibliographies.”
Ashley won the contest for her collection The Works (and Quirks) of Alexandre Dumas pere and was presented with $2,500.
Cory Doctorow wins John W. Campbell award
June 30th, 2009 by slamingMore science fiction news this morning, Cory Doctorow and Ian MacLeod were announced as the joint winners of the John W. Campbell award for the best science fiction novel of the year. It was Doctorow’s Little Brother and MacLeod’s Song of Time which won them the honors.
It’s only the third time that the balloting has resulted in a tie the other two being in 1974, Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama and Robert Merle’s Malevil tied. In 2002, Jack Williamson’s Terraforming Earth and Robert Charles Wilson’s The Chronoliths tied.
Alice Hoffman Apologizes for Scathing Twitter Remarks
June 30th, 2009 by Kathleen
Ok…Alice Hoffman didn’t like The Boston Globe’s review of her new book, The Story Sisters. I totally understand - criticism can be hard to take, especially when it hacks apart a piece of work you’ve slaved over for goodness knows how long - but hey, everyone is entitled to an opinion. But Hoffman’s reaction won’t be in an updated version of How to Win Friends and Influence People any time soon.
Using Twitter, Hoffman made her feelings known - “Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron,” she tweeted. “Now any idiot can be a critic,” stated another tweet.
Criticized for her criticism of the criticism, Hoffman defended her actions saying, “Girls are taught to be gracious and keep their mouths shut. We don’t have to…And we writers don’t have to say nothing when someone tries to destroy us.” Then she added a cherry to the top by publishing Silman’s phone number and email address so that readers could could “Tell her what u think of snarky critics.” (Ironically, Silman didn’t get any phone calls as Hoffman got the number wrong.)
Interestingly, Hoffman’s Twitter account (@AliceHof) is currently offline…hmmm But Hoffman has come to her senses, or more likely her publicist has told her to fake it, and has made the following official statement:
I feel this whole situation has been completely blown out of proportion. Of course I was dismayed by Roberta Silman’s review which gave away the plot of the novel, and in the heat of the moment I responded strongly and I wish I hadn’t. I’m sorry if I offended anyone. Reviewers are entitled to their opinions and that’s the name of the game in publishing. I hope my readers understand that I didn’t mean to hurt anyone and I’m truly sorry if I did.
Best,
Alice Hoffman
Does an author have a right to defend his/her work? Of course they do but this really comes across as a “Tit-for-Tat” scenario. Quit with the childish name-calling and make your point in a mature, professional manner - that is of course, if you want to be taken seriously. (In my humble opinion, that is.) And fact of the matter is, not everyone is going to like your work…
About the book in question:
The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
Alice Hoffman’s previous novel, The Third Angel, was hailed as “an unforgettable portrait of the depth of true love” (USA Today), “stunning” (Jodi Picoult), and “spellbinding” (Miami Herald). Her new novel, The Story Sisters, charts the lives of three sisters–Elv, Claire, and Meg. Each has a fate she must meet alone: one on a country road, one in the streets of Paris, and one in the corridors of her own imagination. Inhabiting their world are a charismatic man who cannot tell the truth, a neighbor who is not who he appears to be, a clumsy boy in Paris who falls in love and stays there, a detective who finds his heart’s desire, and a demon who will not let go.
What does a mother do when one of her children goes astray? How does she save one daughter without sacrificing the others? How deep can love go, and how far can it take you? These are the questions this luminous novel asks.
At once a coming-of-age tale, a family saga, and a love story of erotic longing, The Story Sisters sifts through the miraculous and the mundane as the girls become women and their choices haunt them, change them and, finally, redeem them. It confirms Alice Hoffman’s reputation as “a writer whose keen ear for the measure struck by the beat of the human heart is unparalleled” (The Chicago Tribune).
2009 Locus Award winners
June 30th, 2009 by slaming
The 2009 Locus awards for the best science fiction books were announced yesterday. You can see the whole list of winners at their website but here are the highlights
Sci fi novel: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Fantasy novel: Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
First novel: Singularity’s Ring by Paul Melko
YA book: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Novella: Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
Philip Roth’s Jewish Shouting dance track
June 30th, 2009 by Richard DaviesI missed this story yesterday about the Philip Roth dance track, created by writer and critic James Marcus after he interviewed the famous American author about his latest novel, Indignation. The track features Roth doing ‘Jewish shouting’!!!!!!
During the course of the interview, Marcus asked Roth what he thought of the film version of Portnoy’s Complaint, and was told it was “unspeakable”. “It’s a movie about shouting. Jewish shouting,” said Roth, proceeding to give “a brief, comical example” of what this might sound like.
The actual track is thoroughly rubbish.
Signed copy of Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk book sells for $450
June 29th, 2009 by Richard DaviesThere has been steady demand for collectible Michael Jackson books over the past few days. During the weekend, a signed first edition of Moonwalk sold for $450. There have also been a couple of articles about Jackson’s love of books and particularly poetry - here’s the LA Times on the bibliophile/music icon.
Ordinary copies of Moonwalk can be found here.
Literary summer quiz
June 29th, 2009 by Richard DaviesThe Guardian offers a literary summer heatwave quiz - I got a woeful four out of 10.