Sunday, October 28, 2007
Money for Nothing review
A brief review in the Oregonian today, of Edward Ugel's Money for Nothing: One Man's Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions. Ugel will be back in Portland tomorrow evening for a 7:30 p.m. reading at Powell's, just down the street from where he first got hooked on gambling himself: the video poker machines at Claudia's, a sports bar on S.E. Hawthorne.
I first heard about this on "This American Life" last spring I think, and was struck by the story, elaborated upon here, of companies that basically buyout lottery winnings. In short, the result is a good book, very entertaining, though a little light at times on number details (which could owe to certain legalities that also necessitated the changing of most names).
The book title also reminds me of one of John Cusack's underappreciated works: Money for Nothing, which I had forgotten was based on a Mark Bowden article. This is a similar unemployed dockworker oeuvre that echoes throughout season two of HBO's "The Wire." Does Cusack come across as a more desperate loser than Pablo Schreiber, a.k.a. Nick Sobotka? Hard to say. Is Cusack girl Debi Mazar hotter than Nick's Aimee (Kristin Proctor)? I don't know...both were worth looking up the names on though.Cusack was recently quoted as saying that he'd made ten good movies, and everyone knows which ones they are. Was Money for Nothing? Probably. Is his new one, with the Martian? Uh....
Labels: books, Edward Ugel, John Cusack, Money for Nothing, Oregonian, Powell's, The Wire
Monday, May 07, 2007
Granta 97
New "Talk of the Book Town" posted today (and printed for that matter), here.
I'd figured there'd be a good-sized crowd at this event and I could go around and interview other writers in attendance who didn't make Granta's Best of Young American Novelists list.
Maile Meloy and Anthony Doerr made the list, and were good sports about talking to the few faces and empty chair backs. Doerr is an excellent reader, very animated.
My one question turned out to be an ignorant one (go figure): how did this best-of collection differ from other potential lists, and was there a Britishness to the lineup on account of it being a British magazine's line-up? Of the half-dozen or so judges, a majority were American (I suppose you could make the case that the judges were selected based on what a British magazine's expectation of an American judge would be, but why bother).
Somewhat surprisingly though, neither Doerr or Meloy seemed comfortable with the query, particularly as it gave a close shave to "what's wrong with this list" territory: both started hemming and hawing and backing away from each other and
twisting their hands and looking generally awkward (in contrast, they looked like BookTV interviewees when responding to "talk about your process" queries). The general response, however, was that the list reflected New York, big publishing houses, and didn't dig very deep. Not exactly usual suspects, but....
Doerr said he didn't expect to win, but then again he didn't know they were doing the list. "It's not like, 'ooh, now the decade has passed'" and an update was due. Not like Young Lions, which writers in the know evidently can expect to be awarded (or to be ignored) in March.
The piece that each submitted is new, and from what they read, worth tracking Granta 97 down for.
I'd figured there'd be a good-sized crowd at this event and I could go around and interview other writers in attendance who didn't make Granta's Best of Young American Novelists list.
Maile Meloy and Anthony Doerr made the list, and were good sports about talking to the few faces and empty chair backs. Doerr is an excellent reader, very animated.
My one question turned out to be an ignorant one (go figure): how did this best-of collection differ from other potential lists, and was there a Britishness to the lineup on account of it being a British magazine's line-up? Of the half-dozen or so judges, a majority were American (I suppose you could make the case that the judges were selected based on what a British magazine's expectation of an American judge would be, but why bother).Somewhat surprisingly though, neither Doerr or Meloy seemed comfortable with the query, particularly as it gave a close shave to "what's wrong with this list" territory: both started hemming and hawing and backing away from each other and
twisting their hands and looking generally awkward (in contrast, they looked like BookTV interviewees when responding to "talk about your process" queries). The general response, however, was that the list reflected New York, big publishing houses, and didn't dig very deep. Not exactly usual suspects, but....Doerr said he didn't expect to win, but then again he didn't know they were doing the list. "It's not like, 'ooh, now the decade has passed'" and an update was due. Not like Young Lions, which writers in the know evidently can expect to be awarded (or to be ignored) in March.
The piece that each submitted is new, and from what they read, worth tracking Granta 97 down for.
Labels: authors, books, fiction, Oregonian, Powell's, readings, Talk of the Book Town
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Kiss Your April Goodbye
Worth noting that I finally updated the links to the left to reflect those articles for which I wrote and later found links to online: William Vollmann at Powell's, Debby Applegate's exciting Pulitzer-grab, Robert Pinsky on the death of art, and more.Also, not a single post in April.
HOWEVER, Salvage Heart is thrilled to announce an exciting new feature, so big it'll be a DOUBLE-SCOOP. First post sometime in the next few days, so check back.
Good times are here again (tell it to the bees).
Labels: authors, Oregonian, Portland, Powell's, readings, Talk of the Book Town
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Book Town Roundup
A few published items since last post:
Talk of the Book Town misreads coordinates, and ends up at William T. Vollman's talk at Powell's on Thursday March 15. Apologies to Tim Flannery, whose event I had been scheduled to cover. This is obviously unrelated to a vast conspiracy to obfuscate the global warming crisis. NO ONE has written more extensively about the hidden islands of the arctic than me.
My review of Elizabeth Hickey's new novel The Wayward Muse runs. A thank-you note is unlikely.
Looking Glass Books makes its move to Sellwood, and no mention is made of the irony of a bookstore finding its fate conjoined with that of a caboose. (looking for an article link...)
Finally, from the annals of the unpublished: a rejection notice from the good folks at 33 1/3, who deigned not to pluck my proposal from the 400+ to be one of the series' next 20 to be issued. Disappointing but no surprise: the readership did not jump for joy at the prospect of a book about Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever. A competing proposal suggested Damn the Torpedoes. Four more people took the time to write up queries for (and I hesitate to even type this as I don't want to inadvertently draw any of her fan-traffic) Tori Amos' Boys for Pele (not linked). (UPDATE: New titles in the series announced, INCLUDING Tori Amos?!)
Talk of the Book Town misreads coordinates, and ends up at William T. Vollman's talk at Powell's on Thursday March 15. Apologies to Tim Flannery, whose event I had been scheduled to cover. This is obviously unrelated to a vast conspiracy to obfuscate the global warming crisis. NO ONE has written more extensively about the hidden islands of the arctic than me.
My review of Elizabeth Hickey's new novel The Wayward Muse runs. A thank-you note is unlikely.
Looking Glass Books makes its move to Sellwood, and no mention is made of the irony of a bookstore finding its fate conjoined with that of a caboose. (looking for an article link...)
Finally, from the annals of the unpublished: a rejection notice from the good folks at 33 1/3, who deigned not to pluck my proposal from the 400+ to be one of the series' next 20 to be issued. Disappointing but no surprise: the readership did not jump for joy at the prospect of a book about Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever. A competing proposal suggested Damn the Torpedoes. Four more people took the time to write up queries for (and I hesitate to even type this as I don't want to inadvertently draw any of her fan-traffic) Tori Amos' Boys for Pele (not linked). (UPDATE: New titles in the series announced, INCLUDING Tori Amos?!)
Labels: fiction, Looking Glass, Oregonian, Portland, Powell's, review, Talk of the Book Town, William T. Vollmann
