MetroPulse Stories: Books

Alan Greenberg Pays Tribute to Werner Herzog

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:30:00 -0000

This new, revised version of Alan Greenberg’s 1976 book collects fragmentary, dream-like scenes from the period—starting with his first meeting with Herzog at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975 and concluding with the final shoot for the film, in Ireland—plus Herzog’s screenplay and Greenberg’s photos from the production.

Hilary Mantel's 'Bring Up the Bodies' Mixes Political Terror and More Private Conspiracies

Wed, 09 May 2012 15:37:00 -0000

Bring Up the Bodies (Henry Holt), Hilary Mantel’s sequel to Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Wolf Hall (2009), arrives on the heels of the latest flare-up about women in literary publishing, kicked off by Meg Wolitzer’s New York Times essay “The Second Shelf.”

Be Prepared: Girl Scouts, Trailer Parks, and Growing Up in 'girlchild'

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:59:00 -0000

Tupelo Hassman’s girlchild is a tough read. It’s not because the book is dense and impenetrable, although Hassman does stray from a conventional narrative structure. No, girlchild is a tough read because the string of events that happen to the novel’s protagonist, Rory Dawn Hendrix, are so harrowing.

Sarah Manguso Mourns a Friend in 'The Guardians'

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:15:00 -0000

“My friend died—that isn’t a story,” Sarah Manguso writes near the beginning of The Guardians: An Elegy. But, of course, it is. We all have friends, and we love them, and we lose them.

Two New Books Wonder How Much Work a Marriage Should Take

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:17:00 -0000

Maybe you’ve said it, maybe someone has said it to you, maybe you learned it from Friday Night Lights, but most Americans know: Marriage takes work.

'Running the Rift' Hurdles Olympic Training and the Rwandan Genocide

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:25:00 -0000

Running the Rift is a much better novel than The Help, but it suffers from the same problematic issue—can an American white woman write authentically and realistically about the issues faced by blacks? Can someone who lives a life of comparable privilege really get at the heart of something so horrible, so unimaginable as genocide?

Best of 2011: Books

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:00:00 -0000

I wish I could say I liked more books than I did in 2011. I really do. There were so many books I was excited to read, and so few of those lived up to my expectations.

Holiday Book-Giving Guide: Books for (Most) Everyone on Your List

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:52:00 -0000

Christmas shopping season is upon is, but there’s no need to stress. Who doesn’t like books? The problem is finding the right one for everyone—books for the nonreader, books for the picky reader, books for the precocious young adult. We can’t help you pick out a book for everyone, but this gift-giving guide should help narrow down your list. (We suggest going to an actual physical bookstore for assistance.)

A Conversation About Jeffrey Eugenides' 'The Marriage Plot'

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:55:00 -0000

CG: I decided this morning that I think The Marriage Plot is not about deconstructing 19th-century novels so much as it is Eugenides’ anxiety about the 20th-century ones.

A Preview of 'The Obed: A Climber’s Guide to the Wild and Scenic'

kennedyr@metropulse.com (Rose Kennedy) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:36:00 -0000

A preview of 'The Obed: A Climber’s Guide to the Wild and Scenic' by local author Kelly Brown, with photos by Mark Andrew Large.

Alice Feiring Wants to Convince You That Naked Wine Is Better

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:52:00 -0000

Naked Wine is not merely an exhortation to embrace vin naturel. Veering between travelogue, history, and a how-to manual, Naked Wine jumps back and forth between Feiring’s attempt to make her own wine using the methods she endorses and her journeys in France and Spain in quest of others making wine, as she describes it, “without artifice.”

Fall A&E Preview: Books

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:00:00 -0000

Luckily for Knoxville lovers of literature, this fall provides ample opportunity to get out and mingle with each other. There are readings from locally renowned poets and nationally renowned poets. There are book signings by romance novelists, mystery novelists, and historians.

In Defense of Chick Lit: Jennifer Weiner, “Women’s Fiction,” and Franzenfreude a Year Later

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:05:00 -0000

Here we are, in 2011, 300 years after the novel emerged as a real, actual thing in the English language, and the romance is as derided as it was then.

'Tomatoland' Explores the Seedy Side of Florida's Tomato Industry

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:04:00 -0000

Right now, in the height of tomato season, it seems impossible to think that in just a few short weeks, all our gardens’ bounty will be gone and we will once more be forced to turn to tasteless grocery store tomatoes for our culinary needs. But that time will come. We’ll complain about it, but we’ll still buy them. And that—our country’s unquenchable demand for out-of-season tomatoes, no matter how lacking in flavor—is a huge problem, according to Barry Estabrook.

Ann Patchett's 'State of Wonder' Takes Readers Deep Into the Jungle

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:34:00 -0000

It is an overstatement because it seems to denigrate the magical quality of Patchett’s prose to say that it is full of symbols. If there is one thing above all else that makes State of Wonder worth reading, it is Patchett’s prose. Both lyrical and entrancing, her descriptions envelop you like the tropics envelop her protagonist, Dr. Marina Singh.

Meghan O'Rourke Researches Grief in Her Memoir 'The Long Goodbye'

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:17:00 -0000

Grieving is a universal process, but wading through that morass of grief is something everyone handles differently. Some try to numb the pain with alcohol; others throw themselves into their work. When Meghan O’Rourke’s mother died in 2008, she turned to Google.

Children, Dogs, and Sanity Come and Go at Will in Kate Atkinson’s 'Started Early, Took My Dog'

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:29:00 -0000

The weathered, harried British private detective Jackson Brodie is hardly traditional hardboiled heartthrob material. He’s adept with wisecracks, but the humor generally eludes whomever he’s speaking to. He likes his whiskey, but not too much of it. He’s divorced and frequently falls for the wrong women, but he genuinely loves his daughter, Marlee.

John Szwed's Biography of Alan Lomax Illuminates a Legend

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:54:00 -0000

It’s hard to imagine how music in the 20th century would have evolved in quite the same way if, as a sickly child, Alan Lomax had succumbed to one of his many illnesses, or if his chronic ear infections had left him deaf.

Karen Russell’s 'Swamplandia!' Takes Readers Deep Into the Heart of Florida

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:20:00 -0000

Now that the pre-release hype has subsided a bit, what remains is an assured and classic story of innocence lost—think Huck Finn with gators, casinos, and the occasional video game.

Kevin Brockmeier Muses on the Nature of Pain in 'The Illumination'

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:35:00 -0000

The Illumination is about just that: At 8:17 p.m. on a Friday evening, in the present era, light begins to radiate from anywhere there is pain on the human body. All of a sudden, all around the world, you can see the cancer glowing in someone’s lungs, the flickering of arthritic joints, the luminescence from blisters and ulcers and fresh scars.