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In Infinite Jest, Book Club Sees Finite Ending

Online group may help you finish Wallace's intimidating tome

(Newser) - As the first anniversary of David Foster Wallace’s death approaches, many would-be readers still see his Infinite Jest collecting dust on their bookshelves. Wallace’s 1,079-page tome “has become known equally for its sprawling attention to detail, its near impenetrability, and its effectiveness as a doorstop,”...

Playboy Wins Rights to Nabokov's Last Novella

(Newser) - The literary event of the year will be sandwiched between nudes in the pages of Playboy this fall, the Independent reports. The magazine won the rights to publish Vladimir Nabokov's final novella—which he ordered to be destroyed after his death—after its literary editor went to great lengths to...

Nora Roberts' Secret to Success: 'Ass in the Chair'

(Newser) - Nora Roberts is the most popular romance writer in America, but it’s not easy being on the top. “People go, ‘Oh, you work six or eight hours a day, oh my God,’” she tells the New Yorker. “‘Well, yeah, how many hours do...

Napoleon's Novella Reveals His Sappy Side

It's on the romantic life of an ambitious soldier

(Newser) - Before Napoleon the ruthless emperor came Napoleon the romance-writing softy—and his masterpiece is due out in English this fall. Clisson and Eugenie is a novella about a triumphant soldier who returns home to marry his lady—of the same name as Napoleon’s first love. The manuscript, penned when...

Fake Memoirist Frey Implies Dirt on Oprah

Excerpt from new book seems to be based on Frey's experience

(Newser) - Does James Frey—who achieved infamy when Oprah Winfrey denounced his fake addiction memoir A Million Little Pieces—have dirt on the talk-show queen? That’s what he seems to imply in new novel Bright Shiny Morning, the New York Post reports. The paperback edition, out May 12, includes an...

Mass. Principal Under Fire for Touting Her Racy Novel

She talked book up to schoolteacher, administrators

(Newser) - A Boston-area grade school principal is on indefinite leave following complaints that she peddled her steamy romance novel on school grounds and reassigned a teacher who criticized her self-promoting ways, the Globe reports. Beth Gannon's self-published book, which follows an engaged woman who reconnects with a past lover, is "...

'Cult' Writer JG Ballard Dead at 78

(Newser) - British author JG Ballard died this morning "with great sadness" after many years of poor health, his agent said today. The 78-year-old novelist and short story writer was most famous for his semi-autobiographical book Empire of the Sun, later made into a film by Steven Spielberg, and his controversial...

García Márquez Finished With Writing: Agent

Giant of Latin American literature's oeuvre is complete

(Newser) - The world has probably already seen the complete work of Gabriel García Márquez, the Guardian reports. Friend and fellow author Plinion Apuleyo Mendoza said last year that the creator of magical realism was working on a new novel, but his agent recently quashed that rumor. "I don't...

Mom's Spicy Book May Make Anderson Cooper Do a 360

(Newser) - Anderson Cooper’s mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, is a published author with a romantic novel to her credit, sure, but her new book could give the CNN anchor pause, the New York Daily News reports. Obsession, an erotic tale, hits stores in June. “Master, I whisper as you surrender to...

French Mock Sarkozy by Reading Book He Hates

La Princesse de Cleves gets a boost of unexpected popularity as a protest symbol

(Newser) - France is in the grip of a nationwide strike, but dissatisfaction with Nicolas Sarkozy’s reforms is also taking a more cultured form: the reading of a classic 17th-century book the president has said he hates. The book has become an odd symbol of dissent. Sales are climbing as Sarko’...

O'Reilly's Naughty Bedtime Story Sweeps Web

(Newser) - Bill O’Reilly’s 1998 crime novel Those Who Trespass has already caused him some embarrassment, given that one character is a ticked-off TV journalist who murders his rivals. But the Fox News host also recorded an audiobook version, which Village Voice blogger Alan Scherstuhl has mined for gems—namely...

WWII Nazi Opus Ignites Passions (Pro and Con)

Publishers roll dice on shocking French work by Yank Jonathan Littell

(Newser) - A novel about a Nazi officer with a taste for sodomy and incest might not scream “bestseller”—especially at nearly 1,000 pages long and translated from French. Yet Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones topped charts in France and precipitated a bidding war among US publishers. HarperCollins...

In Life and Last Novel, Wallace Sought 'Adult Sanity'

(Newser) - David Foster Wallace declared war on depression and addiction in writing his last, unfinished novel, D. T. Max writes in the New Yorker. The writer's suicide by hanging last year was the culmination of a struggle to live normally, to achieve what he called “adult sanity," without antidepressants...

New Yorker to Run Excerpt of Wallace's Last Book

In Pale King , deceased writer 'didn't want to do the old tricks'

(Newser) - David Foster Wallace fans can get a glimpse of the deceased writer’s unfinished novel tomorrow, when the New Yorker publishes an excerpt from The Pale King, the Washington Post reports. Wallace, who killed himself last fall, had been working on the book for years. The magazine will also run...

Stephen King to Pen Kindle Exclusive
Stephen King
to Pen Kindle Exclusive
UPDATED
Feb 9, 2009 11:51 AM CST

Stephen King to Pen Kindle Exclusive

Novel announced along with new version of e-reader today

(Newser) - Amazon.com may have written a new storyline into the publishing world: Along with today's announcement of a slimmer, faster (but still $359) Kindle reader, the online giant revealed that it has signed horror writer Stephen King to a deal for an exclusive e-book, reports the Wall Street Journal. King...

Updike: An Author 'Hoping to Talk to America'
 Updike: An Author 
 'Hoping to Talk to America' 
APPRECIATION
Jan 27, 2009 3:44 PM CST

Updike: An Author 'Hoping to Talk to America'

Superlatives hardly lacking in wake of writer's death at 76

(Newser) - John Updike, who died today at 76, was many things: Bob Ryan, in the Boston Globe, calls him the author of the “most spellbinding essay ever written about baseball.” For Carolyn Kellogg, in the Los Angeles Times, the first line of his story A&P displays a “...

Fake Holocaust Memoir May See Light as Novel

Henry Rosenblatt working to find outlet for disgraced story

(Newser) - Herman Rosenblat’s Holocaust memoir was exposed as fake, but that doesn’t mean no one can profit off it: A small New York press is considering publishing the work as fiction, Gawker reports. Rosenblat, who even fooled Oprah a la James Frey, spun a touching but debunked story about...

Web Novels Let Readers Drive the Plot

Weekly installments end with a choice

(Newser) - Fantasy fans who’d like a role in the action can turn to literature’s latest incarnation: the online Web-novel, or wovel, NPR reports. Readers can click and read a chapter each week. Then, “at the end of every installment, there's a binary plot branch point with a vote...

Japan Fetes Genji , World's First Novel, at 1,000
Japan Fetes Genji, World's
First Novel, at 1,000
Glossies
Dec 20, 2008 6:39 AM CST

Japan Fetes Genji, World's First Novel, at 1,000

Three very different English translations available to get you caught up

(Newser) - Japan is celebrating the 1,000th birthday of The Tale of Genji, a story penned by a woman in an imperial court that is widely regarded as the first modern novel, the Economist reports. The chronicle of an aristocratic aesthete’s sexual adventures is many things to many readers, including...

García Márquez Back at Work on New Novel

(Newser) - Two years after announcing that he had given up writing, Gabriel García Márquez is at work on a new novel, says a close friend. Fellow writer Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza confirmed rumors that the Nobel Prize-winning 82-year-old is working on a love story, the Guardian reports.

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