Books

Oliver Burkeman's Year in Literature

I've never heard of Oliver Burkeman, but after reading his year-end book review for The Guardian, I'm stalking him on Google. In our conflict-ravaged times, no such list could start with anything other than Bob Woodward's State of War of Denial of Plan of Attack, the third part of his insider analysis of how George Bush invaded Iraq. The first two books, based on weeks of one-to-one interviews with Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, exclusively revealed the inspired and decisive leadership of the ... (read more)

2006/12/11

Review: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

The Night Watch, a novel by Sarah Waters nominated for Britain's prestigious Man Booker Prize, has been written with an enthralling narrative gimmick. Divided into three sections, it tells the story of six characters in wartime London beginning in 1947, stepping back to 1944 and finishing in 1941. You learn where they ended up by page 150 and spend the next 300 pages finding out how they got there. This turns the events of the story on their head in interesting ways. When one of the characters ... (read more)

2006/11/17

A Letter from Robert Burrows

I recently contacted Robert Burrows, the author of the novel Great American Parade, to inquire about buying wholesale copies to sell online. At the price he's quoting, I'll probably order around 10-15 so that more of the world can experience this gloriously strange book, which Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post calls "the worst novel ever published in the English language." Burrows was kind enough to elaborate on his work, which he describes as a "satirical novel." Here's an excerpt from ... (read more)

2003/03/11

The Great American Parade

"It is, in my professional judgment, the worst novel ever published in the English language." -- Gene Weingarten, Washington Post From the back cover: The concentration of American wealth in private and corporate hands today far exceeds that of the Gilded Age. Believing that such concentrations are a threat to the health of our society and that the Bush tax cuts by baldly promoting such concentrations have struck a mortal blow to democracy, a group of college students embark on a crusade to ... (read more)

2003/02/23