OK, kids. Monday is here. And today’s Body of Work lets fly that tantalizing warning of old: don’t try this at home. To be sure, what is dangerous, or unknown, spurs interesting literature. But sometimes it’s up to the foolhardy to demonstrate what is and what is not suitable for average adults. To wit: James Frey, chasing the dollar bills that dance across his brain, is writing young adult science fiction. An esteemed Creative Writing prof from the New School jumped ship and currently is spinning goat milk in Vermont. A Hemingway spawn republishes A Moveable Feast, the Examiner discusses the virtues of drinking while reading, music writer John Faber writes his swan song, the UFC brands its version of knock ‘em dead novels, and finally, in an effort to right what we may have wronged, we issue balance among the sexes, as the Times Higher Education analyzes a book about the modern woman. Happy reading. — Kevin Murphy
– Besides its tart portraits of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway’s posthumous memoir of his early days in Paris, “A Moveable Feast,” provides a heart-wrenching depiction of marital betrayal. The final chapter, “There Is Never Any End to Paris,” is a wistful paean to Hadley Richardson, Hemingway’s first wife, whom the writer left for her best friend. — Ernest Hemingway in the NY Times
– According to a stories in the Hollywood Reporter and the NY Times, on Friday Michael Bay bought the film rights to “I Am Number Four,” the first book in a sci-fi young adult series purportedly co-written by James Frey. That you haven’t yet heard of a book called “I Am Number Four” is no surprise — it’s only a manuscript, and an unbought one at that. — James Frey in Jacket Copy
– Brad Kessler was living in a rent-controlled apartment in New York’s East Village, writing fiction and teaching creative writing at the New School, when he decided to say goodbye to all that and move to rural Vermont. — Brad Kessler in Salon
– Reading the advertisements that will apparently transform women into entirely non-domestic goddesses, it is striking that much of the tone taken by the advertisers is that of a singularly paternalistic doctor or teacher. “Scientific” studies are widely invoked as are citations from various “laboratories” or “experts”; a tradition that continues to this day, even though the focus of much of today’s bogus science in cosmetic advertising is concerned with anti-ageing products. — The Modern Girl in Times Higher Learning
–This month, Faber – in partnership with the independent record label Domino – publishes the first installment of a twice-yearly music publication, Loops, an “exciting new journal dedicated to engaging, intelligent and diverse writing about music”. It looks elegantly off-kilter and perhaps a little too self-conscious – like the kind of publication you’d pick up at an art gallery. — John Faber in the Guardian
– After a long sabbatical, book and alcohol enthusiasts will be pleased to know that the Book Examiner’s course for lush literature aficionados, Book Lush 101: Drink Your Way Through English Literature, will be hitting the book stacks (and the bottle) with renewed commitment to all things readable and fermentable. — Book Lush in the Examiner
– The rise of the UFC has created a spinoff literature that is quirky, sentimental, ferocious, and not infrequently poetic. Generically speaking, it sits somewhere between True Crime and sporting reminiscence, and the fighters don’t so much write these books, truth be told, as sort of preside over them – the UFC memoir is typically produced “with” somebody. — UFC Literature in the Boston Globe
Video about the UFC 100
