The Buzz Board
Picks from the Inner Circle
James Carroll
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James Carroll's recent book is Practicing Catholic, a story of American belief. He is a columnist for the Boston Globe and Distinguished-Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University. His other books include An American Requiem, which won the National Book Award, House of War, winner of the PEN-Galbraith Award, and Constantine's Sword, now an acclaimed documentary. Boston Globe columnist and Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University |
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I recommend A New Literary History of America, edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors. This doorstop of a book has the lightness of pure oxygen. It begins with an essay (by Toby Lester) about the first map on which the word “America” appears. More than a thousand pages later, the book concludes with prints (by Kara Walker) acknowledging Barack Obama’s election, one of which includes the line, “The new and revised edition of the American narrative.” This exquisite volume, offers something more—a revised edition of the American imagination. Hemingway, Bellow, and Louisa May Alcott are here, but so is bebop, the atom bomb, and Superman. Marcus and Sollors track the progression (not always progress) from the discovery of a place to the invention of an idea to a highly nuanced literature that keeps the place alive and the idea new. This book belongs on everybody’s best table. |
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My god, I haven't seen Bellow's name in print in ages, since a good doorstop of a bio on him came out a few years back. "Henderson and the Rain King" is absolutely the funniest, saddest, most mind-rending read. Bellow was blessed. And cursed. I'll look at this for his inclusion alone. BOKO
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