Everyman

For no real reason...

Philip Roth on his novel Everyman, on religion in America, and more. Part 1 of 2.

Wheel of Fortune

New fiction from yours truly, the pages still warm from the typewriter. Let me know what you think.

Wheel of Fortune

Jim Carroll

Jim Carroll died yesterday. Heart attack. He was 59.



If you’ve never read The Basketball Diaries, do yourself a favor and put it on your list. “Ugh,” you might think, “not another drug-addiction story.” Yeah, I get that. But while journalists, novelists, reality-TV producers, etc., have surely beaten this topic to death, The Baskeball Diaries was one of the first views mainstream America got into heroin addiction. It came out in 1977, a memoir culled together from the diary entries Carroll kept as a boy in New York from ages 12 to 16 — from the moment he first experimented with heroin, through the teen years that followed when he struggled with hardcore addiction. When I first read this book, my eyes were cartoon-character-wide the entire time.

Here’s a clip from the movie version, which came out in 1995. Be warned: this scene is waaay melodramatic, and Lorraine Bracco absolutely mails it in (look for the stamp on her forehead). But DiCaprio is so believable it’s freaky. Keep in mind, if some version of this scene really happened, the real-life Carroll would've only been about 15 at the time. Wow.

Saturday

Ian McEwan is profiled on the South Bank Show. Particular attention is given here to Saturday, his much-lauded “post-9/11 novel.” Felt like the right week to post this.

Back to school

To all the guys heading back to school this week, be sure to remember Mike Damone's Five Point Plan for getting chicks:



“All right. Now, pay attention. First of all, you never let on how much you like a girl. ‘Oh, Debbie...hi.’ Two. You always call the shots. ‘Kiss me, you won’t regret it.’ Three. Act like wherever you are, that’s the place to be. ‘Isn’t this great?’ Four. When ordering food, find out what she wants, then order for the both of you. It’s a classy move. ‘The lady will have the linguine in a white clam sauce, and a coke with no ice.’ And five. Now, this is most important, Rat. When it comes down to makin’ out, whenever possible, put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV.”

Raymond Carver

A good, if older, documentary profile of one of the great ones: Raymond Carver. (Part one of several.)

Character literature

One of the Philly Book Geek readers, Carol, recently posted a message on the forum about compiling a list of great 21st century “character literature” (or “character fiction”).

I love the idea of this as a broad genre — a descriptor for a type of book where characters are thoroughly drawn and psychologically explored. We often think of this as being the realm of “literary fiction,” but LF is a little more specific than that. LF carries an academic air, and stories within this realm are almost always emotionally wrenching. But what about fiction that features well-rounded lead characters without that “literary” feel?

My eldest daughter has really gotten into some of Judy Blume’s work recently. Peter Hatcher, Andrew Marcus, Abigail Porter — these are all wonderfully well-developed characters, who drive narratives that are both intriguing and existentially exploratory. But I don’t know anyone who would call a book like Freckle Juice “literary.”

I’d like to see this term “character fiction” get some more play. And if it should become more universally recognized, we may consider LF a sub-genre within CF. Eh?