Have “postmodern” and “postwar” have become outmoded as classifications for novels? Lorentzen suggests it’s more useful to look at trends in fiction relative to the administration they were released under. During Obama’s, he says, novelists looked to answer questions of authenticity. During Trump’s, he anticipates dystopian narratives.
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Posted inFiction, Nonfiction, Quotes
Obama by the Books
In Vulture, book critic Christian Lorentzen suggests we dispense with terms like “postmodern” and “postwar” when discussing novels, and instead analyze them relative to the presidential administrations under which they were released. What will we mean when someday we refer to Obama Lit? I think we’ll be discussing novels about authenticity, or about “problems of […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
How To Plot A Novel
In their “How to Plot a Novel” package this week, New York magazine explores the inner workings of fiction from every angle. Christian Lorentzen analyzes how story works and affects readers. Boris Kachka provides an encyclopedia of every possible kind of plot, a history of plot, and a piece about computer mapping of story plots. […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How Author Helen DeWitt Uses Language to Address the Problems In Her Life
In New York magazine, Christian Lorentzen has an interview with Helen DeWitt, author of The Last Samurai and Lightning Rods. Owing to a combination of misfortunes, misunderstandings and publishing-related snags, the critically acclaimed novelist has been perennially broke. But, despite a history of brushes with suicide, she has a secret weapon against letting life’s problems get […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our top stories of the week, as chosen by the editors at Longreads.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Longreads Guest Pick: Christian Lorentzen on ‘The Last White Election?’
Today’s guest pick comes from Christian Lorentzen, editor for the London Review of Books.
Posted inUncategorized
Longreads Guest Pick: Christian Lorentzen on 'The Last White Election?'
Today’s guest pick comes from Christian Lorentzen, editor for the London Review of Books, who recommends “The Last White Election?” by Mike Davis in the New Left Review: “Mike Davis’s essay is the most thorough analysis I’ve seen of the 2012 election and what it portends for the future. Written from outside the Washington consensusphere, […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle and Readmill users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. 1. Ghosts of the Tsunami Richard Lloyd Parry | London Review of Books | February 6, 2014 | 28 minutes (7,185 words) The writer […]
