Most so-called feminist critiques of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart reduce men to husbands, and women to wives. Even progressive movements like the struggles converging on marriage for same-sex couples, centralize this biblical relationship, and in a biblical way, there’s nothing progressive about that. If we sincerely count gender and gender relations, we should count correctly. It may be a Christian fixation that prioritizes the heteropatriarchal marriage over all other relationships as individuals and with kin and Klan. In addition, in the Things Fall Apart society, these other relations were contributors to individuals’ identities. Certainly, this is riddled with conflict, the same as any relationship faces conflict, and perhaps confrontation. One might even argue that the misogyny in the pre-colonial society was, too, an unresolved conflict—a narrative within a narrative of conflict resolution.

Over four books, Achebe demonstrates a spiral of conflict and resolution, layering these stories, and having them mirror one another. This means that the internal conflicts mirror the ones the characters face in the world, and brilliantly, Achebe breathes life and depth to his characters by demonstrating how their internal dialogue informs their views of themselves as well as their actions. So, fate is a clear matter of cause and effect in the Things Fall Apart cosmological world. 

—Diepiriye Kuku

The unsinkable Mike Edison — former High Times Publisher, Screw editor, Hustler correspondent, and professional wrestler of no small repute — is hitting the road to promote the new paperback of his outrageous memoir, I Have Fun Everywhere I Go: Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World.

He recently began his “I Have Fun in Brooklyn Tour”, a five-neighborhood odyssey that he promises will be “more fun than the circus”. He’ll be blogging his adventures here. (See below for dates.)

BROKEN BONES IN BROOKLYN… BUT STILL HAVING FUN!!
EDISON TO RECOVER—HULK HOGAN’S FUTURE REMAINS UNCERTAIN!!!

The broken toe referred to in my last blog post (Hulk Hogan RIP) was no joke. Since the last missive, I have been examined by more doctors than Piltdown Man and have looked at more X rays than the Department of Homeland Security. The verdict is now official — I am an idiot.

But what’s a fella to do? The show must go on. 

—Mike Edison

It’s that time of year again - time to take stock of what you’ve been waiting to read, the books you’ve been hearing about, that stockpile on your bookshelf, possibly a holdover from holiday gift giving (I won’t ask which year). Or perhaps your reading slate is clean and you’re looking for advice? 

I’m interested in where people get ideas for what to read next. So when it comes to summer reading lists - who do you get reading advice from?

Do you look to traditional newspaper sources? The Boston Globe has some recommendations.

Do you ask your local librarian for a little help? The New York public libraries website has lists for all ages.

People who’ve already demonstrated an ability for creating new literature might be a good source for titles new as well as old. So do you consult what your favorite author will be reading? The Philadelphia Examiner asked several local authors what they’ll be reading this summer.

In a similar feature, the magazine School Library Journal highlights authors of young adult and children’s literature, asking for their recommendations.

National Public Radio recently talked to Nancy Pearl, librarian and writer of the Book Lust series of reading recommendation books (not to mention the model for the Librarian Action Figure. I am not making this up). Pearl is something of a guru in the library world when it comes to reading recommendations. 

And people who listened to the NPR program left messages with their own recommendations. So are those random folk who call into a radio program about books a good source for new reads?

Perhaps when all else fails, you check out what Oprah has to say on the subject?

There’s no shortage of suggestions out there. Naturally they’re not created equal. Do you have a preferred source to share? 

—Lara Killian

On a recent drizzly Saturday morning I was browsing in a local newsagent’s shop, pondering whether my latest paycheck’s remains would cover some fresh reading materials. This particular newsagent’s shop possessing an outstanding selection, it took some time before I sifted through enough weekly news magazines, daily newspapers, and monthly hobby glossies to decide on a no-longer-so-impulsive purchase.

The spring 2009 issue of Granta, “Lost and Found”, grabbed my attention, even relegated as it was to a dusty bottom shelf. More than a few of my favorite fiction writers (Martin Amis, Jeanette Winterson and Salman Rushdie, for a start) received some early-career support from that venerated literary magazine, and I sprung for a copy.

Back at home with coffee in hand I put Granta down in favor of my RSS reader, and discovered in short order that the staff list on the second page was already out of date, a recent shakeup in the editorship of the magazine having recently taken place.

Alex Clark, the first female editor of the magazine in its 120 year history, stepped down recently after serving for only a year as the editor. John Freeman, previously the editor of the American edition, has stepped up to fill the shoes of the departing Clark as acting editor. Granta has had four editors in a year and a half.

The sense of drama I gained from looking at press releases made me wish I’d been a subscriber to Granta since I became aware of the magazine as an undergraduate English major some ten years ago. In an interview last week posted to the Granta’s website, Freeman comments,

The chance to do this now is also a great privilege. I don’t believe there’s a lack of good writing in our world, but rather a shrinking number of places where it can be published imaginatively, to a wide audience willing to submit themselves to the pleasures and guidance of serious literature, of what it can show them and where it can take them. As an international literary magazine,Granta is in a unique position to tell readers important stories, to make people think. It’s what our readers expect of us.

Another great thing about Granta is looking at the table of contents and wondering which of these currently unknown names will achieve continuing success tomorrow. I’ll enjoy my issue and you can think about picking up the even newer special summer fiction issue, with a preview available here. Do you make a habit of perusing literary magazines?

—Lara Killian

That’s my hundred-character introduction to what I hope will be a regular installation on Re:Print looking at the way books are changing in form and content. If art reflects zeitgeist what do we do when the zeitgeist seems totally unartistic and computerized? This question as it pertains to books is particularly pressing because the going attitude seems to be that we’re incapable making it through a thousand-word magazine article.

If that’s really true, who is going to read Middlemarch? Well, possibly you, says Jack Murnighan in his recently released Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature’s 50 Greatest Hits. Murnighan offers a reading guide to what he, a writing professor and doctor of English literature, believes to be the 50 greatest pieces of literature in the Western canon. He starts with the ancient Greeks and works his way to Toni Morrison. The concept calls to mind the description of a shelf filled with books so ubiquitous in our culture that we can pretend we’ve read them in Italio Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler.

Of course, this book will help the reader keep pretending. Each section begins with the buzz, a few pages that describe and summarizes the book, its greatest assets and pitfalls. Then he provides his opinions on “best line”, “what’s sexy”, and “what to skip”. In short, these aren’t your average Cliff’s notes. From example, he introduces Henry James by calling him the most constipated writer in history. Emily Bronte, on the other hand, is a “bushfire waiting to blaze”. And by the way, don’t feel bad about skipping the first few acts of , they’re kind of irrelevant. And the first ten chapters of Jane Eyre are skimmable.

One thing is clear from his writing style and content: his book is written for modern consumption. It’s funny, you don’t have to read it in order and you can walk away from it feeling and sounding smarter based on a minimal time investment. And it’s also a way for the writer to flex creative muscles. Murnighan is personable, crafty, and genuine. But I did wonder what his true intentions for the book were. In an email interview with the author, I was able to conclude that Murnighan genuinely believes there is an important task at hand. At the same time, in keeping with our intensely autonomous culture, it is the readers who ultimately determine the book’s value and meaning.

PM: Who is it written for?
JM: Mostly it’s written for anyone who still has a lingering interest in reading some highbrow lit—or feels guilty for not doing so. It’s actually a larger percentage of the population than you might think.

PM: Did you really intend for it to be reading guide, or does it (can it) stand alone?
JM: Both. I wanted to make sure you enjoyed reading each of my chapters, but I also really wanted it to be useful. What I didn’t want was to read like Harold Bloom: stuffy, and not particularly helpful for non-academics.

PM: You don’t seem to think the book is a substitute for reading the classics, but isn’t there a chance that your readers will?
JM: That’s okay, though of course Melville and Toni Morrison are much better writers than I am. But at least I’ll give you some of their great lines that you might otherwise never know.

PM: [In terms of the] section “what to skip?” There are people who argue that some of the experiences the brain has while reading are dependent on continuity. Your thoughts? Is this section just meant to be funny?
JM: No, I take it very seriously. It’s unrealistic to think that people will be able to read a lot of these works, so I tried extremely hard to isolate the parts that really are expendable. I don’t believe in condensing books, just in leaving out the weak and unnecessary stuff.

PM: How do you see this book fitting in with the zeitgeist—i.e. The whole world compressed in 140 characters. Why/when did you decide to write it?
JM: In 138 characters: Bloom wrote a book How to Read and Why that to me simply wasn’t good enough. This is my How to Read the Classics and Why. People need it.

—Rachel Balik

Starlog has reprinted a fascinating interview with late fantasy author David Eddings in its latest online edition. Eddings discusses his influences, his Cherokee background, and the fact that he doesn’t read within his own genre.

From the Starlog piece:

Considering the great success that Eddings enjoyed writing fantasy stories, one would have assumed that he was a big fantasy reader, but that wasn’t the case. “I don’t read in the field. I can’t,” he confessed. “I have an unconscious burglar living in my mind: If I read something, it’s mine. I can read Middle English stories, Geoffrey Chaucer or Sir Thomas Malory, but once I start moving in the direction of contemporary fantasy, my mind begins to take over.”

From Eddings’ obituary in Thursday’s Guardian:

Prolific and bestselling, Eddings was the author of more than 25 books, many of them written with his wife Leigh Eddings, who passed away in 2007. Best known for his Belgariad and Mallorean series, which follow the adventures of the orphaned farm boy Garion as he fulfils an ancient prophecy, Eddings turned to fantasy after he spotted a copy of The Lord of the Rings in a bookshop, and saw that it was in its 73rd printing.

—Nikki Tranter