David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008

I never read anything by DFW, but I have heard him lauded by people I admire and respect, so he is one of those authors whom I'm always meaning to pick up at some future point. He died in his home, on September 12th, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot. Very sad...

What not to read

Hilarious excerpt from Brit Richard Wilson's new book, Can’t Be Arsed: 101 Things Not to Do Before You Die and smack dead-on with some of them!

Being Laura Bush

This week, Curtis Sittenfeld's new novel entitled American Wife is being unveiled to the public - just in time for the Republican National Convention. The novel is an imagining of what it would be like to be inside the head and persona of the First Lady, in this case, a fictionalized Laura Bush called Alice Maxwell. It is a roman-a-clef in which are some are claiming people will confuse with the real thing. First of all, people -- it is F-I-C-T-I-O-N and even if some people do, would it be so wrong? The arguments claim that the oafish, incompetent President in the novel, Charlie Maxwell, might be too hard for some people to distinguish between him and the real President. Hmmm...

The New York Times Book Review here...
USA Today here...