September 2011
74 posts
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“A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his...”
– Charles Péguy
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William Faulkner, I Love You But You're Bringing...
“It’s like morphine, language is. A fearful habit to form: you become a bore to all who would otherwise cherish you. Of course, there is the chance that you may be hailed as a genius after you are dead long years, but what is that to you? There will still be high endeavor that ends, as always, with kissing in the dark, but where are you? Time? Time? Why worry about something that takes...
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Answering Your Questions on Reddit: Ali Soufan,... →
And the Reddit community said it was good: “I think you’re extremely bloody epicly awesome. The fact that you said ’As I explain in my book…’ but you still fully answered the question, as opposed to saying ‘so go buy it’ is a cool-dude move” —FmMan3 on Reddit
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First Lines from New Books Out Today: September...
“‘So…you must like apples.’ Tell a stranger at a cocktail party that you’re a food writer working on an apple cookbook, and that’s the response you’ll likely get. And, of course, one would hope that the answer is yes, I do, very much. In fact, the more I’ve eaten them, cooked with them, learned their history, and studied their intricacies, the more...
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Late September Song
With the sound of a freight train rushing through the trees, the first strong wind
of autumn makes each leaf sing the song of its own execution.
Linda Pastan, from Traveling Light
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“Dogs had the habit of watching when you did it. Cats, not so much. Dogs were the...”
– Lydia Millet, Ghost Lights
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“He had read a pamphlet that said the softest and thickest towels and toilet...”
– Lydia Millet, Ghost Lights
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“Moneyball, the excellent film adaptation of Michael Lewis’s even more...”
– The Atlantic reviews Moneyball
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Ali Soufan Schools the Pakistani Agent Tailing Him
Excerpt from The Black Banners:
I traveled a few times with Steve Bongardt to Pakistan to meet the source. We made efforts to protect him; we didn’t want Pakistani or other intelligence agents knowing about our meetings with him. Whenever we were in the country, Pakistani agents tried to tail us. They weren’t very efficient, which made it easy to lose them. Sometimes, however, we...
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“Playing a musical instrument transports us to a place where Wall Street,...”
– Zippy The Pinhead
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“The key to the shift lies not only in the intense, deeply informed revival of...”
– Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve
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Highlights from Sarah Miller's Unrequited Letters...
On The Awl Sarah Miller shares her unrequited letters to Ali Soufan, former FBI special agent, author of The Black Banners, and stone cold fox. Some highlights:
I’m writing because after seeing “Frontline” (I had never heard of you before; sorry!), I listened to you on “Fresh Air,” read your Wikipedia page, Googled you several times (sometimes I accidentally type ...
One day Felice came across a novel on the Recommended Fiction shelf. It was about a man who was obsessed with young girls—nymphets. Hannah had used that word. When they had Mr. Rendell for orchestra, Hannah had said, he loves nymphets—watch out. As Felice read, the book began to bother her. She was angry with the show-offy language, some of which she couldn’t follow. But the story—about this...
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Quarantine
In the worst hour of the worst season of the worst year of a whole people a man set out from the workhouse with his wife. He was walking – they were both walking – north.
She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up. He lifted her and put her on his back. He walked like that west and west and north. Until at nightfall under freezing stars they arrived.
In the morning they...
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The Direct Route from Propagandhi to P. G....
Vol. 1 Brooklyn shares their story of discovering the novels of P. G. Wodehouse via the evergreen Canadian punk outfit Propagandhi.
“Less Talk was actually a much more in your face affair, which took on everybody from Nazis to big oil companies, and really made the listener want to go out and free a bunch of primates from some university laboratory. All that, and it persuaded young...
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“But is it not very monstrous to have a pirate aboard?”
– Patrick O’Brian, The Unknown Shore
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First Lines from New Books Out Today: September...
“Jason McCrory and Dan Mott were the first in line. It was early Sunday evening, and McCrory pulled his rabbit fur hat tight around his ears to protect himself from the frigid March wind whipping down First Street in Washington, D.C. A security guard told the two men, both in their early twenties, where on the sidewalk to wait. They were soon joined by two men from Phoenix, who had come...
“I am a Jane Austenite, and therefore slightly imbecile about Jane Austen.”
– E.M. Forster
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Riot Act, April 29, 1992
I’m going out and get something. I don’t know what. I don’t care. Whatever’s out there, I’m going to get it. Look in those shop windows at boxes and boxes of Reeboks and Nikes to make me fly through the air like Michael Jordan like Magic. While I’m up there, I see Spike Lee. Looks like he’s flying too straight through the glass that separates...
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“Sex to an Italian is something like a firecracker at a children’s party;...”
– William Faulkner, from Mosquitoes
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Norton at the Brooklyn Book Festival
Here’s a rundown of the Norton authors you can catch at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, September 18th:
Nicole Krauss, author of Great House and The History of Love At the End of the Story: Readings and Discussion with A.M. Homes, Nicole Krauss, and Randall Robinson. Moderated by Greg Cowles (New York Times) 10AM, St. Francis Auditorium, 180 Remsen Street
Meghan O’Rourke,...
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Faulkner? Never heard of him.
It is said that Faulkner wrote his second novel, Mosquitoes, “for the sake of writing because it was fun.” Read this passage from the book, proof he was feeling playful, wherein Faulkner has his characters talk about…well, Faulkner. It seems he didn’t leave much of an impression on them:
“He was a white man, except he was awful sunburned and kind of shabby...
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The Trouble Ball
At Ebbets Field, the first pitch echoed in the mitt of Mickey Owen, the catcher for the Dodgers who never let the ball escape his glove. A boy off the boat, my father shelled peanuts, waiting for Satchel Paige to steer his gold Cadillac from the bullpen to the mound, just as he would navigate the streets of Guayama. Yet Satchel never tipped his cap that day. ¿Dónde están los negros? asked the...
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Paul Krugman's Webbiness
“He loves using graphics. He tends to write short. He loves lists. He’s been known to post pictures of his cats. He takes personal offense when people make fun of him on the Internet, and has no qualms writing about it. He’s tried to get a blog-to-TV deal. Sometimes he expresses his thoughts about a piece of legislation by linking to a music video. (The New Pornographers appear...
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