Sam Lipsyte has always been a funny, engrossing writer, but with this latest novel the author of Home Land, Venus Drive and The Subject Steve is staking his claim as the city's singular source for mordant laughter.
The Ask is the story of Milo Burke, a more-or-less employed development officer at a small university whose further solvency depends on his wooing of one major, mysterious donor. The book discusses, with varying levels of terror, "work, war, sex, class, child rearing, romantic comedies, Benjamin Franklin, cooking shows on death row, and the eroticization of chicken wire." Sam will be here to discuss the book with his celebrated editor at FSG, Lorin Stein.
News of Note
Staff Picks
Shah of Shahs
Written by David
By Ryszard Kapuscinski (Vintage, $13.95)
Those in the know know that Ryszard Kapuscinski's books of reportage are like no one else's. He's mastered an unique and utterly fascinating style of literary journalism that makes the events he depicts vivid with an incredible immediacy. I came to his books only recently, but have already read three, and so far, his Shah of Shahs is my favorite.
Finding a Form
Written by Dustin
By William Gass (Dalkey, $15.95)
I know, I recommend far too many books that are themselves about writing and books. Let's have done with that, shall we? The title piece of this book is one of the only essays about writing you will ever need. It's truly remarkable, full of insight for writers and readers (we are all both). The rest of the book is just as hilarious, insightful, endlessly quotable, and, if one is to pluck out all the names Gass mentions with admiration, could comfortably furnish a reading list for a lifetime.
Bird by Bird
Written by Adjua
By Anne Lamott (Penguin, $15.00)
Thanks, Anne Lamott. Thanks for being so funny and so human and making an guide for new writers that leaves them with the sense that anyone can do this--that the road through writing is circuitous and imperfect and fun and very difficult but also very manageable if you look at it just right and that it is above all beloved and peopled with a wide range of kinds of writers who cherish and applaud its complexity. Thanks for being for honest and generous and open about all this. Really nice of you. Cheers.
Those in the know know that Ryszard Kapuscinski's books of reportage are like no one else's. He's mastered an unique and utterly fascinating style of literary journalism that makes the events he depicts vivid with an incredible immediacy. I came to his books only recently, but have already read three, and so far, his Shah of Shahs is my favorite.
I know, I recommend far too many books that are themselves about writing and books. Let's have done with that, shall we? The title piece of this book is one of the only essays about writing you will ever need. It's truly remarkable, full of insight for writers and readers (we are all both). The rest of the book is just as hilarious, insightful, endlessly quotable, and, if one is to pluck out all the names Gass mentions with admiration, could comfortably furnish a reading list for a lifetime.
Thanks, Anne Lamott. Thanks for being so funny and so human and making an guide for new writers that leaves them with the sense that anyone can do this--that the road through writing is circuitous and imperfect and fun and very difficult but also very manageable if you look at it just right and that it is above all beloved and peopled with a wide range of kinds of writers who cherish and applaud its complexity. Thanks for being for honest and generous and open about all this. Really nice of you. Cheers.