During the long year that The Forever Marriage was circulating, I sought out portraits of imperfect but redeemable women.
Posted 04.24.2012
"Farther Away" by Jonathan Franzen Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26.00 Published on April 24, 2012 What is it about? "Farther Away" is the seven...
Susan Conley | Posted 04.07.2012
The sneaky thing that my Smartphones does is make me feel like every hour of every day is the absolutely most perfect time in the world to get my email. Except it's not.
Christina Patterson | Posted 05.12.2012
Lady Gaga and Jonathan Franzen have quite a lot in common. They're both famous. They're also both artists, the kind of artists other artists want to be. But there's one thing they don't have in common, and that's a love of Twitter.
Amanda Guinzburg | Posted 05.09.2012
The fact is the digital train has already long left the station and we, those of us who call ourselves writers and artists, have an obligation to get on board so we might impact the nature of the trip.
Posted 03.09.2012
Bret Easton Ellis has never been known as the most shy and retiring literary figure. Author most famously of "American Psycho", in the latest issue of...
Greg Archer | Posted 05.09.2012
Having discernment for the roles he takes on certainly helps, but the way McGregor fully embodies the characters he plays is not only enjoyable to watch but downright rare.
AP | By HILLEL ITALIE | Posted 03.09.2012
NEW YORK -- Michael Chabon credits his latest honor to the gray in his beard. "I knew that when the gray came in it was only a matter of time before ...
AP | By HILLEL ITALIE | Posted 05.09.2012
NEW YORK -- Michael Chabon credits his latest honor to the gray in his beard. "I knew that when the gray came in it was only a matter of time before ...
Dave Astor | Posted 04.24.2012
I recently read Freedom, and one thing that struck me was how unhappy the Patty Berglund character was for much of that excellent novel. And one couldn't always figure out why Patty was so glum.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson | Posted 04.20.2012
I thought after the Great Jonathan Franzen Debacle of 2001, no man would ever again dare to suggest publicly that there is an inferior class of books that only women read.
Pamela Redmond Satran | Posted 04.17.2012
It would be as comforting as it is infuriating to believe that, but I'm not so sure. It's not so much that Jonathan Franzen is eating my lunch, I'm afraid, as that he's eating the lunch I should be eating, could be eating, but, through my own damn fault, have not been freaking eating.
Sabina Murray | Posted 04.07.2012
Literary novels like The Marriage Plot and Freedom that reach a broad a readership are rare cultural opportunities to create dialogue about the societies represented within, the people represented within, and the women represented within.
Lev Raphael | Posted 04.05.2012
Roxane Gay recently pointed out in Salon that all our discussions about whether women writers like best selling Jennifer Weiner don't get enough press...
Dave Astor | Posted 04.03.2012
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.
Andrew Shaffer | Posted 04.01.2012
"When I read a book that's been painstakingly transcribed by hand, I'm handling an object that took a scribe six months to a year to copy," Johannes Franzen told booksellers at the 1564 Frankfurt Book Fair.
Posted 01.31.2012
Jonathan Franzen has spoken out against the rise of eBooks at a literary festival in Cartagena, Colombia. According to the Daily Telegraph, the aut...
Robert Schwab | Posted 03.04.2012
Finally having finished Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, I wanted to review it here, hoping to acknowledge the long-term pleasure one gets from reading even when the quality of the writing is less than you might have hoped.
Elana Estrin | Posted 12.19.2011
"Almost the definition of a mensch, a good person, is that in their heart of hearts they're rather hard on themselves. And yet, you can't get out of bed in the morning if you don't love yourself. I'm merciless towards myself, so being merciless towards my characters comes naturally."
Posted 12.03.2011
The New Yorker put cultural figures from across the spectrum in the hot seat this past weekend for their whirlwind festival, playing to intimate crowd...
The Huffington Post | Mallika Rao | Posted 12.02.2011
Great American novelist Jonathan Franzen told a packed house yesterday he's definitely adapting his sweeping third novel, "The Corrections" for HBO. T...
Posted 11.27.2011
With the 23rd season of The Simpsons premiering on Sunday, America's longest-running sitcom is still going strong. Despite the perennial complaints ab...
Dave Astor | Posted 10.29.2011
These aren't necessarily the best novels of the past 11 years, because there are acclaimed books I've yet to read.
Posted 10.25.2011
The New Yorker Festival has returned for its 12th year, and they've wrangled quite a lineup for this year's meeting of the minds. From the New Yor...
Lisa Bloom | Posted 09.13.2011
How do you find great books to read? Here's a reading list of books that will stir you, provoke you, keep you up at night and make you late for work, and get your grey matter sizzling.
Ann Bauer | Posted 05.04.2012