At The New Criterion, Joseph Epstein writes a brilliant overview of the last 25 years of American literary life. Brilliant — but deeply contradictory, New York-centric, and highbrow, to its detriment. (If I can just get my papers graded, I’ll try to respond in detail.)
More brilliance: Perhaps the only thing better than eating at Boiling Crab is reading Jonathan Gold’s review of it.
Christopher Barzak on the seduction of the stacks. Sadly, in some libraries you can’t wander them anymore. For me, getting lost in the stacks was like the internet: I read Sontag in the stacks, then went through her bibliography and found those books, and then the books those had cited, and ended up somewhere completely unexpected. Just like clicking on a link and another link and another. And another.
Maud Newton finds Joan Didion applies, yes.
Didion may always be relevant, but everything else changes. Echo Park Lake, for example, is getting an $84 million facelift. I’m not for gentrification, but I do love those oxygenating islands of seagrass. If anyone can strike a decent community balance, I believe it is Council President Eric Garcetti, who bought his home years ago in the scrappy Echo Park, instead of the more tony Silverlake.
New Pitt nonfictionista Emily Stone wrote Budget Travel’s cover story this month. Go, Emily!
Hooray for Gwenda and Christopher! The best thing about buying the house you already inhabit: no need to move your books.
A moment of noisiness: Marcel Marceau has died.
