Dave Astor
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Dave Astor is the author of Comic (and Column) Confessional, a book slated for June 2012 release from Xenos Press. In the part-humorous memoir, Dave chronicles his years covering columnists, cartoonists, and other famous people for Editor & Publisher magazine. The book will soon be available for online purchase. For information about ordering signed copies, contact Dave at dastor@earthlink.net

Astor also writes the award-winning "Montclairvoyant" column -- a weekly Montclair (N.J.) Times topical-humor feature that differs from his Huffington Post pieces -- and serves on the National Society of Newspaper Columnists board. Dave, an avid reader of novels, is not related to the rich Astors.

Blog Entries by Dave Astor

A Look at Literature That Lampoons

(40) Comments | Posted June 1, 2012 | 11:12 AM

With apologies to Joseph Heller, I've managed to catch 22 or more satirical novels during my lifetime.

Fiction books that spoof might be best in small doses -- perhaps one every couple of months -- but they can be a real pleasure. Who doesn't want to laugh while seeing certain...

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Close and Not-So-Close Encounters With Famous Authors

(57) Comments | Posted May 23, 2012 | 10:18 AM

Literature fans love "encounters" with living or dead authors. These might involve seeing novelists at book signings, listening to them give a talk, visiting homes/museums connected with famous authors of the past, meeting descendants of iconic writers, hearing anecdotes about novelists from people who conversed with them, and so on.

...
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A Novel That Stirs Interest in Short Stories

(85) Comments | Posted May 17, 2012 | 1:42 PM

Olive Kitteridge is enthralling and appalling, and it might cause novel readers to find themselves falling... in love again with short stories.

That's because Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer-winning novel consists of interlocking short stories that look at the title character from various angles. Several of the thirteen tales prominently feature Olive;...

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I Could Write a Book About My Book Ordeal!

(50) Comments | Posted May 10, 2012 | 10:35 AM

Celebrity entertainers and politicians have no problem getting their memoirs published. So a book partly about celebrity entertainers and politicians should have had no problem getting published, right?

Wrong.

Here's the story, which I hope contains helpful tips and warnings for would-be authors.

Back in 2009, I decided to write...

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Are Novels Better With Large Casts or Small Casts?

(74) Comments | Posted May 2, 2012 | 7:56 PM

For a book with "Solitude" in its title, it sure has lots of characters!

After recently reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, I've been thinking about whether novels are better with large casts or small casts. There are positives for both levels of character population.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's masterpiece offers...

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Mothers of (Literary) Invention Make Good Mother's Day Gifts

(36) Comments | Posted April 27, 2012 | 5:48 PM

If you're trying to think of a Mother's Day present for mom, how about a novel featuring a memorable mother?

The book could star a saintly mom, a hellish mom, or a more realistic mom between those two extremes. If your mother realizes she resembles the fictional mother in the...

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Novelists Who Were More Enlightened Than Their Era

(44) Comments | Posted April 19, 2012 | 10:38 AM

In my previous post, I discussed "second banana" authors from the 19th century. Today, I'll talk about the surprisingly fair way some novelists wrote about second-class citizens of that era.

The 1800s were of course a time of blatant racism, and many authors reflected that by depicting fictional characters of...

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'Second Bananas' Who Were First-Rate Authors

(127) Comments | Posted April 12, 2012 | 4:50 PM

Why do some 19th-century novelists resemble the pre-2004 Boston Red Sox or some current singers other than Adele? This post will explain!

The 1800s were a time when the novel truly came of age -- thanks to literary superstars such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, and...

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Finding Time to Read More Novels

(262) Comments | Posted April 4, 2012 | 11:46 AM

There are 24 hours in a day. Perhaps you spend eight hours at a job, seven hours sleeping, three hours with family or friends, two hours commuting, two hours freelancing, and five hours watching TV, emailing, "social media-ing," exercising, doing errands, etc. Grand total: 27 hours.

Yup, that's the problem....

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One and Done (for Now) After Reading Certain Novelists

(69) Comments | Posted March 28, 2012 | 1:36 PM

I recently wrote about loving particular authors so much the first time you read them that you want to devour their other books ASAP.

This post will look at the flip side of that coin. Yes, it will be about reading novelists for the first time, perhaps liking...

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Many Famous Authors Started With 'Novel 101'

(73) Comments | Posted March 20, 2012 | 1:49 PM

Just like babies crawl before they walk, authors usually write early books that are simpler than their later ones.

After all, creating a novel is tough. Until you get the hang of it, it can be hard to do the Proustian thing. Also, you might have a better chance of...

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Religion in Novels Is Better Than Religion in Politics!

(132) Comments | Posted March 9, 2012 | 1:12 PM

As some right-wing Republicans try to narrow the gap between church and state, I'd rather discuss church and book. And synagogue and book. And mosque and book.

Yes, many novels have religious content that dominates a book or at least adds a small thread to its tapestry. Some of these...

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Not Many Novels From Some Novelists

(91) Comments | Posted March 2, 2012 | 1:17 PM

What do these authors have in common? Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Sir Walter Scott, and Emile Zola.

And what do these authors have in common? Ralph Ellison, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Franzen, Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, and Marilynne Robinson.

The first group includes authors who wrote/write...

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A Look at Unhappy Literary Characters

(143) Comments | Posted February 23, 2012 | 12:52 PM

I recently read Freedom, and one thing that struck me was how unhappy the Patty Berglund character was for much of that excellent novel.

She was mopey, self-pitying, dissatisfied, and passive-aggressive -- a tour de force of negativity courtesy of author Jonathan Franzen. And one couldn't always figure out why...

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The Cupid-Like Pleasure of Canon Love

(67) Comments | Posted February 14, 2012 | 3:48 PM

Valentine's Day is all about love -- and one thing I love is a great novel that inspires me to read the author's other books.

Something I hate? You'll have to look near the end of this post for that!

I recently finished my first Margaret Drabble book, The...

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Life Spans of Literary Giants

(11) Comments | Posted February 8, 2012 | 11:56 AM

Charles Dickens' 200th birthday on Feb. 7 and Edith Wharton's 150th birthday on Jan. 24 got me thinking about how old famous novelists were when they died. Here are some of the longer-living ones I found:

Eudora Welty, 92 (1909-2001)
Upton Sinclair, 90 (1878-1968)
Saul Bellow, 89 (1915-2005)

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It Ain't Heavy, It's a Book Break!

(100) Comments | Posted February 2, 2012 | 1:59 PM

People who love novels almost never stop reading them. But some of us need to occasionally take a brief break from "heavier" novels, including cherished classics and the best of modern literature.

In other words, escapist fiction is a nice substitute once in a while!

At least four of every...

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A Factual History of Pulitzer-Winning Fiction

(70) Comments | Posted January 26, 2012 | 11:58 AM

Seeking some compelling mid-winter reading? Try perusing the list of books that won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction! The winners, as you'll see in the links below, range from classic novels to now-obscure books.

I'd like to hear your thoughts about which Pulitzer-winning titles deserved or didn't deserve that honor...

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The Gilded Arc of Mark Twain's 'Lesser' Books

(48) Comments | Posted January 19, 2012 | 2:48 PM

This year marks the 600th anniversary of Joan of Arc's birth and the whatever anniversary of when America's second Gilded Age began, so it's time for... an appreciation of Mark Twain's less-famous work!

Including his novels Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc and The Gilded Age.

Twain, of course, is...

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The Complexity of a Fantastic Four

(37) Comments | Posted January 19, 2012 | 11:27 AM

During a single year of the not-great Harding presidency, four great cartoonists came into the world.

Two of those 1922-born men died recently -- "The Family Circus" creator Bil Keane in November and the Joker creator (some say co-creator) Jerry Robinson in December. "Peanuts" legend Charles M. Schulz passed away...

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