Book cover: Transparent Things, by Vladimir Nabokov
"She answered in fluent but artificial English that she detested surrealistic novels of the poetic sort. She demanded hard realistic stuff reflecting our age. She liked books about Violence and Oriental Wisdom. Did it get better farther on?"
24.01.2026 09:40
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βA routine would be too much like work, and I donβt really like to work, even though I work a great deal. All the things I do that might be considered work are really a form of play.β βJamaica Kincaid buff.ly/BQ4wuZY
29.01.2026 20:02
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Thomas Meaney, Law Man β Sidecar
Ramsey Clark (1927-2021).
Glad you enjoyed the piece, fellas, and Lance I greatly enjoyed your book.
Yes, the Clark analogy is a bit hyperbolic, but those were hardly his only clients. I had in mind Meaney's characterisation of him here. newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Glad the loggerheads brought some cheer.
29.01.2026 16:30
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I read it regularly between 2006 and 2009 when I was doing Readings at Harper's and would put poems from PN in. Haven't read it much since.
10.12.2025 02:05
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I hear you. I've been between apartments, so I'm psyched for a cycle of print re-upping next month.
04.11.2025 21:51
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Which ones?
04.11.2025 20:32
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Christian Lorentzen Β· Itβs for dorks: Michael Cluneβs βPanβ
When Michael Cluneβs character in Pan alights on Proust in the course of his daily writing practice, he learns a mode...
βThe two memoirs together with βPanβ β which is autobiographical, though there are some deviations from his life β form a trilogy about the derangements of youth.β
@xlo.bsky.social on the relationship between Michael Cluneβs debut novel and his memoirs of addiction.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
03.11.2025 20:50
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IN DEFENSE OF DIANE KEATON: QUALITY LIT GAME PODCAST EPISODE 3
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
31.10.2025 20:39
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Alice Spawls Β· On Nicholas Lanier
The Nicholas Lanier portrait that I came across so unexpectedly at Frieze Masters doesnβt have the prestige of the Van...
βLanierβs songs moved many of his contemporaries. Herrick called him βrare Laniereβ while John Donne said he βgave a life and harmony to all that he setβ.β
Alice Spawls on the rediscovery of a portrait of one of the most intriguing figures of the 17th century.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
31.10.2025 09:10
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Quality Lit Game Podcast Episode 2
christianlorentzen.substack.com/p/quality-li...
23.10.2025 22:28
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William Gaddis heads will recognize that Trump is engaged here in a frolic of his own
23.10.2025 02:07
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MY BOOK PRIZE BETTING ADDICTION
In anticipation of tomorrow's Nobel Prize in Literature
An old column about my gambling addiction from which I've finally recovered after years of intensive therapy. open.substack.com/pub/christia...
08.10.2025 19:36
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If the Gumshoe Fits
The Thomas Pynchon experience β Christian Lorentzen
βAlong with Don DeLillo, he survives as one of the granddaddies of the paranoid systems novel, and we are unlikely to read many or any more new novels from the pair.β
In @bookforum.bsky.socialβ¬β¬, Christian Lorentzen reviews Thomas Pynchonβs new novel βShadow Ticketβ www.bookforum.com/print/3202/i...
02.10.2025 14:10
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On the end of Oranginas and the perpetuation of auras! Spoiler alert: yes can be smarter than no!
16.07.2025 19:41
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we will miss glossy magazines when theyβre all gone
15.07.2025 23:42
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Once more for the weekend crowd.
28.06.2025 13:39
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Thank you for informing us that we have finally achieved a classic-noir-level murder rate. I expect the genre now to enter a new golden age.
26.06.2025 11:43
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βI have some new poems, a rash, and a lover. Iβll send them (the poems that is) to you in a couple of days.β
Letters from Jack Spicer. buff.ly/3XRcS00
25.06.2025 21:00
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