What Our Divided Nation Needs Is a Jonathan Franzen Novel About Race
From a Slate interview with Jonathan Franzen, America’s most indubitably Franzenish novelist:
Jonathan Franzen Is Just a Regular Dude But Also He Has a Lot of Money
“I don’t like to hire people to do work that I can do,” Jonathan Franzen told the Financial Times over lunch at the Gore Hotel, which is in London. This summer, he repainted a room in his “rather small” house in Santa Cruz. “The fourth coat was just sheer torture.”
Here Is a Good, Correct Reading of What's Bad About Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Franzen makes it deceptively easy to criticize Jonathan Franzen. Yes, he sounds like a boob when he talks about himself, but that’s not really what’s wrong with him, or not really what’s wrong with his writing, if you are one of the people who has the feeling that there is something wrong with his writing.…
Obama Diagnoses Nixon: 'He Was Crazy'
"Yeah, the only problem was he was crazy." — President Obama, responding to author Jonathan Franzen's contention that Nixon "was our last liberal president" during a meeting last year. [via @JennaSauers' Twitter account of Franzen at The New Yorker festival]
The Last Days of Regis Philbin
One of morningtime's most familiar faces will be gone in just a matter of weeks. Also today: a literary adaptation with some promise, Jay Mohr tries again, and the board game craze continues.
Worst Sex Scene of the Year: Pubes 'Like Desert Vegetation'
The Literary Review has awarded its annual Bad Sex in Fiction prize to Rowan Somerville, a British eroticist who wrote this: "like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her."
Jonathan Franzen Met With Barack Obama Today
Author Jonathan Franzen had what he claims was a "delightful" meeting with Barack Obama in the White House today, to talk about whatever. Hopefully Obama finished that copy of Freedom he illicitly accepted at a Martha's Vineyard bookstore beforehand.
Jonathan Franzen's Eyeglasses Stolen, Held for Ransom
In London promoting his new novel Freedom, Jodi Picoult's favorite author had his trademark spectacles stolen by party crashers, who left behind a $100,000 ransom note. They were apprehended soon after by a HarperCollins staffer who "gave chase."
Jonathan Franzen Is Finally Ready to Let Oprah Make Him Rich
Though he famously refused to join the Oprah Book Club for The Corrections, it seems Franzen's letting his newest tome, Freedom, get pimped by the Empress of Everything. Wonder what changed! Maybe he just wants to piss off Jodi Picoult.
Amazon Reportedly Leaks Franzen Book Online (Updated)
Freedom, the most groundbreaking book about white people since Jonathan Franzen's last book, isn't released until August 31. But Amazon.com reportedly put the whole thing online yesterday by accident. Anybody grab a copy? It's only newsworthy three more days. [Updated]
Book Snob Barack Obama Buys Hot New Jonathan Franzen Novel
Breaking news from Martha's Vineyard: Barack Obama went to a bookstore! And he bought novelist Jonathan Franzen's hotly anticipated greatest masterpiece ever, Freedom. It's not even in stores until August 31! He really does have magical time-defying powers. [Image: AP]
Happy Birthday
Robert De Niro turns 66 today. Sean Penn is turning 49. Controversial book publisher Judith Regan is 56. Yankees star Jorge Posada is turning 38. J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison are both turning 65 today. John McDonald, the restaurateur behind Lure Fishbar, Chinatown Brasserie, and the…
Happy Birthday
Top Chef's Tom Colicchio turns 46 today. Also celebrating: Marquee co-owner Noah Tepperberg is turning 33. Dealmaker (and Bill Clinton golf partner) Vernon Jordan is 73. Artist Andres Serrano is 58. Ben Affleck is 36. Times style editor Trip Gabriel is 53. And producer Linda Ellerbee is 64. Saturday is the big day for…
No Deal For 17-Year Old Literary Wunderkind — Yet
Alec Niedenthal is the 17-year-old Alabama novelist who became suddenly prominent thanks to a cheeky letter in the Times Book Review last month. The missive promised a new wave of fiction from a "MySpace-addled" generation, called out well-known older authors and included many large words. This attracted interest from…
Who Does Jonathan Franzen Think is the "Stupidest Person in NYC"?
Why, it's Michiko Kakutani, fiction critic at the New York Times, of course! As a general rule, authors do tend to think the "stupidest people in the city" are the ones who reviewed their books negatively. (It's just one of those things.) In Franzen's case, it was her review of his memoir The Discomfort Zone that…
Just Answer The Fucking Question, Jonathan Franzen
Here's a video clip in which the interviewer had two very simple and specific question for Corrections author Jonathan Franzen, who famously got himself disinvited from the Oprah Book Club for being too ungrateful: Do you regret your run-in with Oprah? And would you be part of the book club if you could do it over…
Jonathan Franzen
Franzen is known for his National Book Award-winning novel The Corrections, and his public spat with Oprah after she picked it for her book club.
Ads for the paperback of "The Discomfort Zone," Jonathan Franzen's collection of essays, include the really mean ones. "Odious!" says Michiko Kakutani. [Papercuts]
Tattoos And Gays Nearly Never Converge At David Kuhn Bash
Though the invite said "bring your swimsuit," the melange of authors and editors and overly friendly publicists who gathered at the Hotel QT for the release of Jesse Ball's novel "Samedi the Deafness" chose not to. Jonathan Franzen left early and it was probably a good thing anyway that we didn't catch his bare…
Divining the Truth: Who Knocked Michiko Kakutani?
So, surprise of surprises, this week's Time Out has a fairly interesting feature in which New York's professional critics are judged by a panel of experts. There aren't many shocks (The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones and Alex Ross are great music critics, Frank Bruni is inferior to his $25-and-Under colleague Peter…
