From TLS, Henry James's magic touch: The letters of the young James reveal a man still finding his style; the blithely subversive Aidan Higgins: Austere and often difficult, Higgins is a remarkable writer who has received less attention than he deserves; and Keats, Woolf and Van Gogh in the province: A literary guide to the jewels of Provence.
From Sign and Sight, here are the most talked about books of the 2007 spring season; and the press and Europe's public sphere: Swedish newspaperman Arne Ruth explains the importance of cross-border journalism in creating a European public space. Form the Caribbean Review of Books, a review of University of Hunger: Collected Poems and Selected Prose by Martin Carter; a review of Horizons: The Life and Times of Edric Connor, 1913-1968: An Autobiography; and Trinidad is nice, Trinidad is a paradise - but the country has not been very lavish to its poets: An article on Eric Roach, Laureate of nowhere.
From The Nation, a review of Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee; The Imaginary Jew: A review of The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon and The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander; After Dark, Haruki Murakami's edgy new novel, describes how the lives of a group of strangers intersect over the course of one night; a review of Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years With Cage and Cunningham by Carolyn Brown; and a review of Four Novels of the 1960s: The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do by Philip K. Dick.
From The New York Observer, in FSG’s posthumous collection of essays by Susan Sontag, an alert reader finds unattributed borrowings from Roland Barthes, Laura Miller: Regarding the Writings of Others. More and more on Falling Man by Don DeLillo. A review of What's Your Freakin' Problem? by N.B. Piccirilli, and a review of Running Toward Home by Betty Jane Hegerat.
From Smithsonian, Epic Hero: How a self-taught British genius rediscovered the Mesopotamian saga of Gilgamesh—after 2,500 years; and welcome to Rawda: Iraqi artists find freedom of expression at this Syrian café. An interview with Thalassa Ali, author of A Singular Hostage, A Beggar at the Gate, and Companions of Paradise. 798—and out? What's worse for artists, communism or capitalism? Home is where writers often retreat to focus on work, not receive visitors. Pushing aside the barbed wire, Elizabeth Kiem tracks down the author of The Ginger Man at his Irish estate. Lock your doors, Salinger. More and more on Ralph Ellison: A Biography. Reverent Entertainment presents: Machine translation or Faulkner?
From Cabinet, an article on A Minor History of Miniature Writing; and on The Language of the Bees: An interview with Hugh Raffles on Karl von Frisch and his "little comrades". Adam's Apple: Adam Moss is America's most celebrated editor. So why is New York magazine such a bore? Robert W. McChesney on the largely untold story of Monthly Review for its first 35 years, 1949-1984. Last exit to book land: An ex-book critic finds hope in the current campaigns to save newspaper book reviews and restore reading to the heart of American life. And the corporate pressure on the successful user-generator news aggregator Digg highlights the flaws in the legal architecture governing next-generation media outlets
