Things I learned from watching television: The Last Girlfriend on Earth

Here’s a post about a book that came out two years ago because a girl can’t always be on the cutting edge, you know? But how did I discover this? While laying around like a zombie watching television on a Sunday morning instead of contributing to society. The way I discover most great things.* Man Seeking Woman is a show on FXX starring Jay Baruchel based on the book The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich. It’s one of those frustrating shows that critics love but no one watches. Luckily, it’s on FXX instead of one of the sucky major networks so it has been picked up for a second season. The show, which is run and written by Rich, is filmed in Toronto so as a Canadian I’m obligated to watch it if I want to continue receiving health care.

Choosing a horse for the Amazon First Novel Award

In partnership with The Walrus, Amazon has announced the shortlist for the prestigious First Novel Award. The award has a history of predicting literary superstars so you’ll want to pay attention here. The shortlist is:

All True not a Lie in it by Alix Hawley

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

Us Conductors by Sean Michaels

New Tab by Guillaume Morissette

Pedal by Chelsea Rooney

Us Conductors is probably the bookie’s favourite as it was the winner of this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize but my money is on Emma Hooper’s excellent Etta and Otto and Russell and James. It stands the trope of ladies wandering for miles in order to find themselves on its head. To read more, check out my recent review of the book in the Fiction Advocate.

Elliot Ackerman’s ‘Green on Blue’ is a remedy for the “glory” of war

If you don’t like war stories but know that they must be told – in fiction as well as in fact – then perhaps Green on Blue is for you.

If you know that stories are an effective way to understand conflict but are worried that Clint Eastwood is the only one willing to tell conflict stories then perhaps Green on Blue is for you.

If you understand that to “the enemy” you are “the enemy” then perhaps Green on Blue is for you.

Kazuo Ishiguro calls out our buried giants

Last night at the Toronto Public Library’s Appel Salon, Kazuo Ishiguro stopped by to speak about his new novel The Buried Giant. To a sold out crowd, Ishiguro talked about his inspiration, the flack he’s getting for including pixies and ogres, and his long history of plagiarizing Charlotte Bronte.

Searching the globe for the real James Bond

New York Magazine’s The Vulture has a piece today about Ian Fleming’s post-war life in Jamaica. Fleming built a house called Goldeneye and it is believed that Fleming’s Jamaican life is the source of the James Bond character. At his Jamaican home Fleming wrote all of the Bond novels and rubbed elbows with artists who began to seek refuge on the island, including Noel Coward, Graham Greene and Truman Capote. But the James Bond character began to germinate before Fleming’s time in Jamaica, while he was serving as a British Naval Intelligence Officer for MI5 and was sent to stay at a luxurious hotel in Portugal.

‘Welcome to Braggsville’ was a welcome punch in the face

There is not much I can tell you about T. Geronimo Johnson’s Welcome to Braggsville without getting into what I consider spoiler territory. Other reviews and even the book jacket will tell you more than I will here, but I beg you to just go read the book with out seeking out any further information.

New Patrick DeWitt novel! New Patrick DeWitt novel!

 

If you haven’t yet read Patrick DeWitt’s marvelous The Sisters Brothers, you have until September to get on that, because the Oregon based writer has a new novel, and some exciting new cover art, coming our way.

What to do with ‘The Coldest Winter Ever’

 

This is something of a wayback playback, but I want to talk about Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever. The 1999 novel by the Brooklyn MC is about the daughter of a New York City drug lord. The daughter, Winter, loses her wealth and status when her father is arrested and their assets are seized by the FBI. Winter survives by moving in with another drug dealer, exchanging her body for the lifestyle to which she’s become accustomed. When that arrangement ends she lives briefly with family, flees child services, greases up her face and takes off her fake nails before a  girl-fight, and in a key scene, shaves her pubic hair into a cute shape to try and woo a famous rapper into sleeping with her. If this sounds crazy please keep in mind this was the nineties, so women still had pubic hair.

‘Six characters in search of an author’ (or the unexpected virtue of ignorance)

Luigi Pirandello’s Six characters in search of an author is the 1921 selection for the 100 year book club. The Italian play is about a family seeking a theatre company and a writer, so that the company might take the family’s drama and act it out, thus absolving them of it. Are you following? Through the play the family reveals its crimes; adultery, incest, abandonment, to the theatre manager and his actors until the full truth of their anger and sorrow is revealed.

First position: Ballet 422 and your Sunday reading list

If you’re someone who makes things, if you’re someone who loves beautiful things, or if you’re someone who needs to know how things are made, seek out the documentary Ballet 422. The film follows 25 year old corps de ballet member Justin Peck of the New York City Ballet as he choreographs the company’s 422nd ballet. As a corps member, Peck is a bottom-tier dancer with the company, but his work in a choreography workshop was promising enough that was been entrusted with the commission of an original ballet. And hilarity ensues.