Critical Notes

Roundup: Greatest Literary Takedowns, Jane Smiley on the recently retired Alice Munro, and much more

By Eric Liebetrau

Entertainment Weekly calls 2012 NBCC Fiction Award winner Ben Fountain's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk one of the 100 greatest books ever.

San Francisco Chronicle books editor John McMurtrie interviews NSA expert James Bamford.

“In Every Generation: A Response to Mark Edmundson,” by Stephen Burt in the Boston Review.

Marion Winik reviews Susan Choi's My Education in Newsday.

“The Collector: Rebecca Solnit on Textual Pleasure, Punk, and More”: Lauren Elkin interviews NBCC Criticism winner Solnit.

Fiona Sze-Lorrain reviews Milo De Angelis’ Theme of Farewell and After-Poems.

AUDIO: 2012 NBCC General Nonfiction Award winner Andrew Solomon on the Leonard Lopate Show.

Maureen Corrigan reviews Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway.

NBCC board member Colette Bancroft on Alissa Nutting's Tampa.

In SalonLaura Miller looks at the greatest literary takedowns of all time, starring Lord Byron, Mark Twain, Vladimir Nabokov, and Bertrand Russell, among many others.

“City, Comedy And Calamity In Cathleen Schine's New Novel”: Heller McAlpin on Fin & Lady.

An interview with 2012 NBCC Autobiography Award winner Leanne Shapton.

In the New York Times Sunday Book Review, former NBCC board member Kit Reed reviews Jincy Willett's Amy Falls Down.

“Today’s literature of death consists mainly of a subgenre, the literature of dying.” Also in the Sunday Book Review, Meghan O'Rourke examines death in literature.

Bill Williams reviews George Packer's The Unwinding in the Palm Beach Arts Paper.

NBCC board member David L. Ulin reviews Philipp Meyer's The Son.

In the Guardian, NBCC fiction winner Jane Smiley pays tribute to fellow fiction winner Alice Munro, who has retired at the age of 82.

 

Your reviews seed this roundup, please send items to NBCCCritics@gmail.com.