archive

The novelist is out of fashion

From the Asia-Pacific Journal, Tawada Yoko on The Letter as Literature's Political and Poetic Body. From n+1, perhaps Hamsun's Street in Norway should include a sign that says, "Knut Hamsun: Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1920. Traitor to his Nation, 1940-1945". From TLS, a review of The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction by John Sutherland; and was Arnold Bennett a modernist? The novelist is out of fashion — yet his interests and his late experiments belie his reputation. From The Nation, a review of Between Fire and Sleep: Essays on Modern Polish Poetry and Prose by Jaroslaw Anders. Tractatus Franco-Arabicus: Reading Sonallah Ibrahim's last two books, Youssef Rakha suggests an early Wittgenstein-style formulation of the kind of literary problem Bonaparte's Campaign to Egypt might present. A series of fables about Anastasia, a young beauty who dwells in the forest, has sold 11 million copies in Russia and has inspired thousands to live an eco-friendly life. From The Walrus, Jack Kerouac, Quebecois: The Americas Society divvies up a literary icon (and more on Kerouac by David Ulin at Bookforum). Germany's current bestseller list is dominated by international crime fiction, from Simon Beckett to Stieg Larsson; why do German readers love their thrillers so much?