Web Wanderings

Below, a few of the more intriguing finds I've collected through recent Web wanderings.

Since "Klezmer" is, in my view, one of Rick Chess's most powerful poems, I was more than just a little interested to read this essay explaining its genesis.

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I've had the good fortune to meet a number of talented and thoughtful writers since moving to New York this winter. Joshua Henkin is one of them (I'm also lucky to have already had the chance to read an advance copy of his new novel, Matrimony, which you can look forward to seeing in bookstores this fall). Meantime, if you're a fiction writer, and/or an MFA student, and/or a potential MFA student (and it wouldn't hurt MFA alums and/or faculty to pay attention, either), you must read Josh's posts here, here, and here.

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Remember when I told you that I had bought this novel? It turned out to be a decent enough read, but I must say the hype had made me expect something...more.

So I had to laugh when I read this not-so-rave review. I just I wish I'd found it earlier than last week.

Frankly, the novel's use of the first person plural, which evidently irritated the reviewer, bothered me less than did the "surprise" of discovering, a few pages from the end, that the story I'd just devoted so much time to following was--guess what?--the fictional creation of one of the characters. The first couple (of dozen) times I encountered that "trick" in other works of fiction it seemed very clever. I've even tried it myself once or twice. But at this point, it usually disappoints me.

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"Lost in Un-Translation" will guide you to a veritable wish list of books-to-be-translated.