So Enid Blyton, author of those fabulous Famous Five books I so adored as a callow youth, wasn’t much of a mum (”Why Enid Blyton’s greatest creation was herself,” by Garry Jenkins (Telegraph):
The drama reveals how Enid exploited even her own family to bolster the Blyton brand. Her two daughters from her marriage to Pollock, Gillian and Imogen, were routinely wheeled out for publicity purposes as Blyton portrayed herself as a devoted mother. But when the photographers left, the reality was different.
And Sarah Palin, who has also been said to use her children as props–is also being accused of neglect: not her children, but Lynn Vincent, her cowriter on Going Rogue (”‘Going Rogue: An American Life,’ by Sarah Palin,” by Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times):
It’s customary for politicians and celebrities to collaborate with a professional writer on books like this . . . However, the name of Palin’s collaborator — the evangelical Christian writer and pro-life activist Lynn Vincent — doesn’t appear on the cover of “Going Rogue.”
Palin herself told Oprah that “I have a journalism degree, always have loved writing, have journaled all my life”–and, therefore, had plenty of primary-source documents on hand. Hardly needed a cowriter, did she?
Using the theme of secrets and suppression as an opportunistic way to link to the next item . . . James Jones’ From Here to Eternity, which so shocked the world with its use of the word fuck (even the Daily Beast still can’t quite bring itself to use the “F-word”) could have been still more shocking–if Scribner’s hadn’t been afraid to publish Jones’ depictions of soldiers supplementing their pay by working as male escorts! (”Was a WWII Classic Too Gay?” by Kaylie Jones, The Daily Beast).
And, since we’re already talking about sex, I may as well mention that my favorite literary award, the Bad Sex Award, has released its shortlist:
The Pulitzer prize-winning Roth makes the line-up for The Humbling, in which the ageing actor Simon converts Pegeen, a lesbian, to heterosexuality. The Literary Review singled out a scene in which Simon and Pegeen pick up a girl from a bar and convince her to take part in a threesome.
Hmm. Well, I hope Roth isn’t feeling too . . . inadequate . . . about being on the shortlist.
And, finally, feeling bad about not being nominated for any award this year? The remedy is in your hands, friend: buy one (”Vanity book awards,” by Laura Miller, Salon).
And I’ve got a bus to catch. Have a good weekend, everybody.
Jellicoe’s coronation is but the latest in Printz’s proud tradition of shucking the curve (let’s not forget other underdog champs likePostcards from No Man’s Land and Looking for Alaska). Marchetta comments upon this in her speech, mentioning a blogger’s reaction of “Melina Who? Jellicoe What?” as liberating. After 17 years of publishing, it was nice to feel new again.
Marchetta is well aware of the love it/hate it takes on Jellicoe; furthermore, she loves to read about it, even when it’s “not always good.” That’s the real gift of the Printz Award, she says: more readers will read her work and talk about it, and isn’t that all an author really wants?
And for those of you with a “30-page rule,” Marchetta hopes you will reconsider. “I’d like to think there’s so many wonderful surprises on page 31 of someone’s story,” she says. She’s right, of course, and Jellicoe Road is the perfect example of such a story. Whether or not the book is your cup of tea, you’ve gotta hand it to the Printz committee: they’re going to get a lot more readers to reach page 31 and beyond.
Friday, November 13, 2009 1:22 pm Weeklings: Chelsea, Commas, and Cormac Posted by: Keir
If a third instance makes a trend, then here’s a new trend: book titles that read like the T-shirts sold in spring-break hot-spots.
Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, by Chelsea Handler (2008) I Drink for a Reason, by David Cross (2009) You Can’t Drink All Day if You Don’t Start in the Morning, by Celia Rivenbark (2009)
Now, if someone will only publish Daddy Drinks Because You Cry. Perhaps we can assign at least part of the blame for this trend to Christie Mellor, whose Three-Martini Playdate (2004) has actually been quite helpful in my own parenting adventures. But, thanks to If You Give a Mom a Martini, by Lyss Stern and Julie Klappas (2009), we’re one book away from another trend.
While we’re having fun with book titles, here’s an instance where a comma makes all the difference. (Don’t click if you’re offended by sexual innuendo–or should I have made the disclaimer before the links?) At any rate, I like to think that particular boner occurred because of the publisher’s focus on more lofty, and less earthy, matters. Read the rest of this entry
Thursday, November 12, 2009 11:10 am Book Trailer Thursday: Under the Dome Posted by: Daniel
Watching TV last night, I was flabbergasted to see a book trailer. A book trailer! On TV! It was a 30-second spot for Stephen King’s Under the Dome, and though it hints at elements of martial law and mass casualties, there’s not much to grab hold of. Notable for its placement on network TV, but little more.
Verdict: Surprised! I don’t recall seeing a book trailer on TV since Dianetics.
But then I did a little searching and found an alternate trailer centered up on an interview with King. Mostly I’ve avoided these kind of trailers in my BTT posts because, guess what? They’re boring. On the other hand, we’re talking about Stephen Freaking King here. The guy has screen presence. What, don’t believe me? Then perhaps you missed his nuanced turn in Creepshow as a country hick turning into a giant weed.
The point is, he’s great in this interview. Under the Dome is his return to the large canvas he manipulated so enjoyably in books likeThe Stand, It, andNeedful Things. It’s also the third time he tried to write the darn thing; his first attempt in 1976 tanked, and another shot in 1979 under the title The Cannibals also self-destructed. King likens his third and final stab to “a baseball player saying, ‘I missed a really fat pitch and I’d really like to have another chance at that particular hanging curveball.”
Before you start thinking this is refreshing low-tech, I should mention that there’s three, possibly four, camera angles to this single interview and various computer-generated graphics. See, even with his a sit-down chat, King can’t help but go “big”.
Verdict: Engaging. I love watching King on camera. Even when he’s not turning into a weed.
Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:51 am Donald Harington, R.I.P. Posted by: Keir
Donald Harington has died. If you’re asking yourself “Who was Donald Harington?” you’re not alone–the man the New York Times calls the “Ozark Surrealist” never found a very wide readership during his long career (”Donald Harington, Ozark Surrealist, 73,” by William Grimes). But the readers he did have found him a wonderful writer.
“Don Harington is not an underappreciated novelist,” the poet Fred Chappell told The Democrat-Gazette. “He is an undiscovered continent.”
Booklist reviewers have more or less concurred with that assessment. In his review of Thirteen Albatrosses; (or, Falling off the Mountain), Thomas Gaughan wrote that “Harington’s delightful novels of life in Arkansas are far too little known.” And, in his starred review of With (2004), Frank Sennett wrote:
With his delightful twelfth novel, Harington might finally be destined to lose the ironic designation “America’s greatest unknown novelist.”
Alas, that was not to be. But it’s a remarkable for any writer to engage an audience so thoroughly, no matter what the audience’s size may be.
And it kind of makes you wonder what other authors you’ve missed, doesn’t it? I’d love to hear from any Harington fans out there.
In other news, the 2009 Roald Dahl Funny Prize went to Grubtown Tales: Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky, by Philip Ardagh and Mr. Pusskins Best in Show, by Sam Lloyd.
Monday, November 9, 2009 3:24 pm Margo Lanagan’s 2009 Printz Speech Posted by: Ian
Given some of the more intense scenes and themes in Margo Lanagan’s dark, boundary-pushing, and extravagantly written Tender Morsels, it wasn’t outrageous to expect something a little scandalous in her acceptance speech at the 2009 Michael L. Printz Awards (administered by ALA Young Adult Services Association and sponsored by Booklist). Instead, Lanagan went for the reverse shocker and offered a more personal, and rather disarming account of how the book came to be.
She talks about how after her previous book, Black Juice, won a Printz Honor in 2006, publishers started pushing her for a “proper novel,” and the spotlight started to seem a bit over-bright. She opens up not only about her apprehension over writing a full-sized novel but also the struggle to find something worthy to write that novel about. While she claims to have taken the advice “If you have no particular story to tell, borrow one from someone else,” and found the seed for Tender Morsels in the intersection of a Brothers Grimm fairytale and a documentary on a Pyrenees bear festival, I doubt anyone in the room believed for a second that Margo Lanagan ever has no particular story to tell.
I had to pretend to myself that there was no pressure on, that the whole thing was a kind of wonderful, fun exploration, that anything went, and that anything, once written, was open for deletion, renegotiation, rewriting for time or changing the point of view. For any plot issue that presented itself I had to choose the solution that seemed at the time the most fun to pursue, the one that would multiply my choices rather than reign them in, the one that would allow the story to progress in the weirdest, wildest, and most interesting way.
Once the novel was written and unleashed upon the world, she found that winning her first Printz Honor, if anything, made the process nearly unbearable the second time around. How often do we hear award-winners trot out the old “Oh, I had no idea that the award was even being announced that day—then the phone rang. Quelle surprise!” Lanagan admitting that she was expectantly perched next to her phone and checking for live-blogging updates is rather refreshing. She proves that having high expectations for a book you know is good isn’t mutually exclusive from having a natural sense of humility and grace, and not least, a terrific sense of humor, when that book is recognized.
[The Printz Award speeches appear on Booklist Online with the permission of YALSA.]
Thursday, November 5, 2009 4:07 pm Book Trailer Thursday: Nubs Posted by: Daniel
I’m gonna go ahead and tell you. Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine, & a Miracle holds the distinction of being the only book I’ve ever reviewed that made me cry. Now, I’m not talking the kind of cataclysmic sobbing that makes coworkers edge away, nor am I talking about the ever-disturbing weeping-quietly-into-your-hand variety. I just got a little misty-eyed, that’s all, but for this hardened punk, that’s saying something.
It’s one of my favorite books of 2009. With artful simplicity, it tells the tale of a earless Iraqi mutt whose bond with Major Brian Dennis, an American soldier, compels Nubs to walk 70 miles through unforgiving conditions to find his friend. With its multiple (and often appropriately low-res) shots of both the human and canine hero, the book acts as sort of an annotated album.
The trailer takes this concept literally, placing each still image within picture corners, as if you are browsing an actual photo album. It’s a cute concept, but for such a modern story it feels awkwardly old-fashioned; more likely Dennis would keep his pics on a USB drive rather than mounted scrapbook-style. The muddy sound (and weird volume jump near the end) also adds to the overall rushed feel.
Verdict: Bad Dog! Thankfully, there’s plentyofothervideos that bring home the powerful story. Oh, man. Here come the waterworks.
The NBAs managed to 
If a third instance makes a trend, then here’s a new trend: book titles that read like the T-shirts sold in spring-break hot-spots.
Donald Harington has died. If you’re asking yourself “Who was Donald Harington?” you’re not alone–the man the New York Times calls the “Ozark Surrealist” never found a very wide readership during his long career (”
Here are the highlights:
