Most days, The Wall Street Journal works with cool efficiency, telling us of business mergers, falling stock prices, and other things I don’t understand. But on Fridays, the WSJ trades its power suit for a Mister Rogers cardigan and tells us a little something about life. For example, the WSJ understands why we have thrown ourselves into list-making: we’re totally stressed out and looking for order.
That’s why we’re so grateful that The Wall Street Journal article name-drops Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeneys Book of Lists. I don’t know about you guys, but when I read a list of “Things This City Was Built On, Besides Rock ‘n’ Roll,” the world starts to make a little more sense. (more…)
Reviewed by Mark Woollams
Jonathan Franzen’s How to Be Alone is an exploration into one of the 21st Century’s most infamous writers. After gaining notoriety for rejecting the Oprah’s book club emblem for his novel The Corrections, Franzen would pause from writing fiction and instead focus on the essay as his artistic medium. Franzen’s How to Be Alone is a classic display of how powerful the essay can be and how entertaining such a collection is guaranteed to be. (more…)
by Jeff Lindsay
Meet Dexter Morgan, a polite wolf in sheep’s clothing. He’s handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He’s a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people. And his job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened — of himself or some other fiend. (more…)
A handful of reviews have come in for Kevin Macdonald’s film adaptation of Giles Foden’s The Last King of Scotland, and the consensus is that watching the film is a powerful, gut-wrenching experience. But, you know, in a good way. (more…)
Mark Z. Danielewski, the author House of Leaves is finally back with a new er, novel called ONLY REVOLUTIONS. As every reviewer has pointed out, this road-movie-epic poem is filled with flabbergasting new tricks and that “even more than in HOL, Danielewski’s typography fashions the book’s topography,” but as fans on MZD’s message boards point out, “we’re all going to read this book every which way…” anyway.
Watch Mark talk about the book in an interview posted on YouTube, and even though Bookslut thinks the website is “evil,” we think it’s an excellent place for any fan of monumental 21st century lit. to visit. (It’s also not a bad way to kill a 20 minutes before you start studying for your midterms.)
by Giles Foden
Shortly after his arrival in Uganda, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan is called to the scene of a bizarre accident: Idi Amin, careening down a dirt road in his red Maserati, has run over a cow. When Garrigan tends to Amin, the dictator, in his obsession for all things Scottish, appoints him as his personal physician. And so begins a fateful dalliance with the central African leader whose Emperor Jones-style autocracy would transform into a reign of terror. (more…)
Reviewed by Hailey Lofdahl
Unlike the vast majority of American college students, I chose to engage myself in the world of Chuck Palahniuk for reasons other than Fight Club, or more specifically, the movie version of said book. I mean, really, why waste time reading when there’s a Brad Pitt movie instead? Upon reading Choke by Palahniuk (a somewhat unexpected reccomendation from my “Amazon.com Gold Box”), I fell victim to a literary world I had no previous knowledge of. Like a drug, Palahniuk sucked me in and instantaneously became my favorite author. Haunted is a perfect example of Palahniuk’s amazing ability to be enticing, entertaining, engaging, and enveloping. (more…)
Reviewed by Mark Fitzpatrick
Epsilon Zeta, a 283-page debut novel from Jock Young, puts a new spin on an old theme–frat house living. What sets Epsilon Zeta apart from the myriad books and movies that have examined college fraternities over the years is Young’s attention to detail and his going further behind the scenes than anyone has ever gone before. (more…)
When I received a copy of Mary Gaitskill’s Veronica, I assumed that this book would fall under the category of “chick lit.” While I’m sure that chick lit has its own merits (millions of women on subways can’t be wrong), it’s not my style. However, once I started reading Veronica, I found myself being drawn into Alison’s heady experiences and complicated relationships. Gaitskill taps into the universal longing for exotic, dangerous sensations. Alison and Veronica are nothing like me; nevertheless, I empathized with them. While I stumbled over the sometimes inpenetrable shards of Gaitskill’s narrative style, I happily concede that Veronica is far from a frivolous read.
-Pam C. (Dartmouth)
In the title story (”Trouble and the Shadowy Deathblow”) of Patrick Somerville’s first collection of hillarious short stories, simply called TROUBLE, the main character learns a mysterious technique called “the shadowy deathblow.”
At 21st Century Lit, we were wondering what the this was, and after Googling it, found no satisfactory answer. What the heck is it? We’d like your input.
Please send your thoughts, best guesses, explanations, drawings, pictures, home movies, animations, or other descriptions of ”the shadowy deathblow” to contests@21stcenturylit.com.
We will post the best entries on the site and send those folks a free book, so include your mailing address!
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