La Boheme
by Michael Norris November 13th, 2008 11:30pm
Diane Kurys has directed a film biography of rebellious French writer Francoise Sagan, titled simply
Sagan. Perhaps inspired by the success of
La Vie En Rose, a recent biopic of Edith Piaf, the new film stars Sylvie Testud (who played Piaf’s friend in
La Vie en Rose), and follows the story of Francoise Sagan from the publication of her first book to her final days in Normandy.
by Levi Asher October 12th, 2008 9:04pm
Every once in a while East Village poet Richard Hell gets invited to write for the
New York Times Book Review, and when he does he usually shows the other critics how it's done. His unenthusiastic review of Edmund White's biography
Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel is witty, lush and elegant, especially when he ignores White's book and spins his own appreciations:
I've just read a wild
tour de force of a comic book, set in 1907 Paris in the homes of Gertrude and Leo Stein, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Appollinaire and Paul Gauguin.
The Salon is a slim paperback by Nick Bertozzi, who tells an absolutely loopy but smart story drawn in a fast-moving straight action-comix style.
1. To be a good litblogger, you can't just sit back and think up good jokes about whatever is happening around you. You have to get out and
make stuff happen, and that's one reason why
Ed Champion is probably the best litblogger on the planet right now. I'm inspired to declare this after reading his
two (yes,
two) recent mash-ups with the esteemed and intellectually intimidating William T. Vollman, who many avid readers wouldn't even approach once.
If more writers could write like Richard Hell, I'd be a happier man.
Hell doesn't write very much, or very often. He'll give us one new book of poetry or a slim paperback novel every few years.
Godlike, his first novel since 1997's superb
Go Now, is an absolute pleasure and a perfect distillation of this unique author's talents.
One of the great tsunami disasters in recorded history took place on November 1, 1755 in Lisbon, Portugal. An earthquake hit the heart of the city, followed by a sweeping wave, five days of fires and looting, and a long aftermath of disease, chaos and fear.
This incident was a defining moment for the French philosopher and author Voltaire. Just as the shocking destruction of the city of Guernica inspired Picasso's most famous painting, the Lisbon tragedy enraged the middle-aged social critic, and formed the basis of his most important novel, Candide.
by Levi Asher November 19th, 2004 10:19pm
You know those internet quizzes where you find out what kind of Disney character you are, what root vegetable you are, which flag of the world you are? Well, I don't know if there's a quiz for which classic existentialist text you are, but if there were, I'm pretty sure I would be No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre.
by JetBlack January 29th, 2004 2:27pm
I read the entire 120 Days Of Sodom by de Sade in two days. I came across it in my cousin's attic, wiped off the dust and engrossed myself in the most despicable, most disgusting piece of literature I have ever seen, never for a moment tearing my eyes off the page, pausing only for cups of tea and cigarettes. I did not sleep all that weekend, surrounded by the dusky grime and darkness of the upstairs loft -- a fitting scene in which to read such a work.
