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castle: He had the most marvellous voice. He could have been a great singer if he hadn’t been completely unmusical and tone deaf. This voice was like a barrel organ. It was mellifluous. He would be interested in you and this voice would wrap you round. It had a kind of caressing quality. I think women fell like ninepins. He had a curious animal magnetism. He wasn’t handsome – you wouldn’t rush towards him because he was so beautiful or alluring. But there was a profound animal magnetism. It was like being in the presence of a temporarily tame tiger. Brigid Marlin, ‘A temporarily tame tiger’: Brigid Marlin on J.G. Ballard, Paul Delvaux and surrealist art

castle:

He had the most marvellous voice. He could have been a great singer if he hadn’t been completely unmusical and tone deaf. This voice was like a barrel organ. It was mellifluous. He would be interested in you and this voice would wrap you round. It had a kind of caressing quality. I think women fell like ninepins. He had a curious animal magnetism. He wasn’t handsome – you wouldn’t rush towards him because he was so beautiful or alluring. But there was a profound animal magnetism. It was like being in the presence of a temporarily tame tiger.

Brigid Marlin, ‘A temporarily tame tiger’: Brigid Marlin on J.G. Ballard, Paul Delvaux and surrealist art

“It is odd enough that my own individual taste is for quite another class of novels than those which I myself am able to write. If I were to meet with such books as mine by any other writer, I don’t believe I should be able to get through them. Have you ever read the novels of Anthony Trollope? They precisely suit my taste; solid and substantial, written on strength of beef and through the inspiration of ale, and just as real as if some giant had hewn a great lump out of the earth, and put it under a glass case, with all its inhabitants going about their daily business, and not suspecting that they were made a show of.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne on Anthony Trollope
MCNALLY JACKSON PRESENTS:  Andre Dubus III in conversation with John Burnham Schwartz Friday, Feb. 3 at 7PM 52 Prince Street, New York, NY ”’Townie’ is the story of how Dubus made the journey to his own writer’s life, and also of how he almost didn’t make it. Unsparing and occasionally brutal, but never bitter, it’s an exceptionally eloquent depiction of something many Americans have experienced in the past three years: what it feels like to be left behind.” —Laura Miller, Salon Enter to win a free copy of Townie in paperback from Goodreads.

MCNALLY JACKSON PRESENTS: 

Andre Dubus III in conversation with John Burnham Schwartz
Friday, Feb. 3 at 7PM
52 Prince Street, New York, NY

”’Townie’ is the story of how Dubus made the journey to his own writer’s life, and also of how he almost didn’t make it. Unsparing and occasionally brutal, but never bitter, it’s an exceptionally eloquent depiction of something many Americans have experienced in the past three years: what it feels like to be left behind.” —Laura Miller, Salon

Enter to win a free copy of Townie in paperback from Goodreads.

thewhitetanktop: very amusing Readings section in the February Harper’s, capped by John D’Agata and Jim Finkel’s exchange on the nature of facts in an essay (which is, at least for D’Agata, different from an “article”). I love love that D’Agata changed the number of strip clubs because “thirty-four” had a better rhythm in a sentence than “thirty-one.” (aside: is it possible that there are only 31 strip clubs in Vegas?! as a former resident I’d be stunned.) subscribers can read here. looks like I have another book to think about buying. In stores 2/27.

thewhitetanktop:

very amusing Readings section in the February Harper’s, capped by John D’Agata and Jim Finkel’s exchange on the nature of facts in an essay (which is, at least for D’Agata, different from an “article”). I love love that D’Agata changed the number of strip clubs because “thirty-four” had a better rhythm in a sentence than “thirty-one.” (aside: is it possible that there are only 31 strip clubs in Vegas?! as a former resident I’d be stunned.)

subscribers can read here. looks like I have another book to think about buying.

In stores 2/27.

“Sunday came. The sun baptised the sea. O tireless, sleepless sun! It burned and kissed things. It baked the ship into a loose, disjointed state. Only the brave hoarse breezes at dusk prevented it from leaving her so. It refused to keep things glued. It fried sores and baked bunions, browned and blackened faces, reddened and blistered eyes. It lured to the breast of the sea sleepy sharks ready to pounce upon prey.”

Eric Walrond, Tropic Death