The Family Mashber (called "a Yiddish masterpiece" by Cynthia Ozick) is the book of the month at Ready Steady Book, which is run by the editor of The Book Depository (an on-line bookseller that offers free international shipping).
Macy Halford at The New Yorker blog Bookbench, roots for "a movie version of [The Dud] Avocado: in addition to being entertaining, it’s a smart read."
Philip Roth's never-sent response to Diana Trilling's review of Portnoy's complaint—which we mentioned last week in connection to Ackerley's My Father and Myself—is posted on the Harper's blog. Wyatt Mason claims that the letter, "with clarity and rigor, succeeds at dismantling the credibility of Trilling’s case."
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson will be the the August 7 and 20 book club selection at Edmonds Bookshop in Edmonds, Washington.
There's now a Library Thing NYRB group—and we didn't even start it ourselves, the enterprising "Marensr" did.
Read Roth's response, seemed like a childish, illogical tantrum to me. The whole "Mr. Roth" schtick is conveniently distancing, as is his insistence on countering Trilling's arguments by talking about books other than "Portnoy's Complaint". Frankly, I thought it was a little embarrassing.
Posted by: Bingham Bryant | June 19, 2008 at 05:05 PM