Paul Beatty became the first American to win the Man Booker Prize yesterday. His novel, The Sellout, was chosen unanimously by the judges, who lauded the book for its “inventive comic approach to the thorny issues of racial identity and injustice.”
Philip Roth’s book collection will be arriving tomorrow at the Newark Public Library, the setting of his novella Goodbye, Columbus. Nearly four thousand books will be sent to the library from Roth’s home in Connecticut, where the collection “has more or less taken over the premises.” Roth says his decision to donate his books comes from his advanced age and lack of heirs. “I’m glad that my books are all going to be together.” Roth said. “I don’t know why. I’m not going to be together, but let them be together.”
Bernard-Henri Lévy’s The Genius of Judaism, will be published in translation by Random House. The book will be available next January.
Earlier this week, a video deposition from “Jackie,” the main subject of the discredited Rolling Stone story, “A Rape on Campus,” was played for jurors in the trial between University of Virginia administrator Nicole Eramo and journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdley. In the video testimony, “Jackie” said she felt pushed by the reporter to be quoted in the story, and that when she and a friend expressed their concerns about the way Eramo was portrayed, Erdely replied, “There’s no pulling the plug at this point—the article is moving forward.” In her deposition, “Jackie” said that although she has trouble remembering the details of her attack, she stands by what she told the magazine: “I believed it to be true at the time.”
A. G. Sulzberger, the newly-appointed deputy publisher of the New York Times, talks to Poynter about the changing pace of journalism, impending layoffs, and the Times’s competitors. Although the Washington Post has been gaining on the Gray Lady after ample investment from owner Jeff Bezos, Sulzberger says they’re still nowhere near the same level: “When journalists come to the newsroom from other news organizations—including The Post—they’re always amazed by the resources and manpower we put behind their journalism.”
Politico reports that Aaron Black, a former Occupy Wall Street organizer and liberal activist, coordinated with Breitbart during the Republican primaries as he disrupted candidates’ events. Black, who was known for dressing as Robot Rubio, allegedly alerted the Trump-supporting news site to which events he would be attending so they could coordinate coverage. Hadas Gold writes that Breitbart’s “willingness to work with a progressive activist perhaps goes to show how far they were willing to go to take down candidates” who weren’t Trump.
