http://marcydermansky.com Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:02:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://marcydermansky.com/badmarie/comment-page-1/#comment-51469 On Book Reviews and “Literary” and “Popular” Fiction : Lawyers, Guns & Money Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:02:40 +0000 http://marcydermansky.com/?page_id=46#comment-51469 [...] Is the Times book review unduly focused on male writers from Brooklyn?   Possibly!  It would require a much more systematic analysis than I’m willing to do.    I can say that coincidentally four of the five works of fiction I’ve read most recently — Marcy Dermansky’s very well-turned noir Bad Marie, Anne Lamont’s Imperfect Birds, Lorrie Moore’s typically exceptional A Gate at the Stairs, and Alice Munro’s Selected Stories — happen to have been written by women.   All but the first*, for what it’s worth, received positive notices in the Times. Munro is another good example of the fact that major work can appeal to a broad audience, and the first two blur lines betwen “literary” and “genre” fiction, but I if I had to guess I don’t think the attention paid by the Times to female “literary” novelists is especially low.    Scanning my shelves for other recent favorites, I would also say that other important authors such as Enright, Gaitskill, Zadie Smith have also gotten a reasonable level of engagement.    Whether it’s high enough is a matter of judgment, but at a minimum I don’t see the kind of easy prima facie case you would have against, say, the Washington Post op-ed page.  [*Dermansky, generously responding to my inquiry, notes that Bad Marie was discussed in this Times article and did receive a variety of other prominent notices.] [...] [...] Is the Times book review unduly focused on male writers from Brooklyn?   Possibly!  It would require a much more systematic analysis than I’m willing to do.    I can say that coincidentally four of the five works of fiction I’ve read most recently — Marcy Dermansky’s very well-turned noir Bad Marie, Anne Lamont’s Imperfect Birds, Lorrie Moore’s typically exceptional A Gate at the Stairs, and Alice Munro’s Selected Stories — happen to have been written by women.   All but the first*, for what it’s worth, received positive notices in the Times. Munro is another good example of the fact that major work can appeal to a broad audience, and the first two blur lines betwen “literary” and “genre” fiction, but I if I had to guess I don’t think the attention paid by the Times to female “literary” novelists is especially low.    Scanning my shelves for other recent favorites, I would also say that other important authors such as Enright, Gaitskill, Zadie Smith have also gotten a reasonable level of engagement.    Whether it’s high enough is a matter of judgment, but at a minimum I don’t see the kind of easy prima facie case you would have against, say, the Washington Post op-ed page.  [*Dermansky, generously responding to my inquiry, notes that Bad Marie was discussed in this Times article and did receive a variety of other prominent notices.] [...]

]]> http://marcydermansky.com/badmarie/comment-page-1/#comment-51331 Fictionaut Five: Marcy Dermansky - Fictionaut Blog Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:10:38 +0000 http://marcydermansky.com/?page_id=46#comment-51331 [...] Dermansky is the author of Bad Marie (just released) and Twins (2005). Her short stories have been published in numerous literary [...] [...] Dermansky is the author of Bad Marie (just released) and Twins (2005). Her short stories have been published in numerous literary [...]

]]> http://marcydermansky.com/events/comment-page-1/#comment-51171 Coming Soon: Bad Marie | jürgen fauth's muckworld Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:50:29 +0000 http://marcydermansky.com/?page_id=66#comment-51171 [...] if you can’t make it, there will be more events. June 29 at Bookcourt in Brooklyn with debut novelist Emily Gray Tedrowe, June 30 in Boston with [...] [...] if you can’t make it, there will be more events. June 29 at Bookcourt in Brooklyn with debut novelist Emily Gray Tedrowe, June 30 in Boston with [...]

]]> http://marcydermansky.com/2005/12/11/new-york-times-editors-choice-pick/comment-page-1/#comment-2 jürgen fauth’s muckworld » The Motel Fri, 24 Nov 2006 21:09:50 +0000 http://marcydermansky.com/wordpress/2006/12/11/new-york-times-editors-choice-pick/#comment-2 [...] In my experience, pitching anything as “coming of age” story is instant death. Somehow, it reeks of overly familiar stuff that everybody is supposed to have moved past long ago. Bildungsroman has a slightly better ring to it, especially if you can hyphenate it somehow, but the idea is the same: teenagers learning about responsibility and identity and love and sex and death–ugh, right? Well, no. As Frederick Barthelme once told me, semi-cryptically: “It’s a rug.” Categorizing something doesn’t fully describe it yet, and it certainly doesn’t imply a value judgment. Most stories owe a huge debt to the major arcana and Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, but that doesn’t make them bad rugs, dig? [...] [...] In my experience, pitching anything as “coming of age” story is instant death. Somehow, it reeks of overly familiar stuff that everybody is supposed to have moved past long ago. Bildungsroman has a slightly better ring to it, especially if you can hyphenate it somehow, but the idea is the same: teenagers learning about responsibility and identity and love and sex and death–ugh, right? Well, no. As Frederick Barthelme once told me, semi-cryptically: “It’s a rug.” Categorizing something doesn’t fully describe it yet, and it certainly doesn’t imply a value judgment. Most stories owe a huge debt to the major arcana and Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, but that doesn’t make them bad rugs, dig? [...]

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