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Synopsis
In a hilarious series of ordeals, a young woman grasps at fame and glimpses the seamy side of our celebrity-centric culture.
Review
With her usual acumen and vitriol, Salon.com columnist Cintra Wilson
chronicles the glitz-hungry travails of her aptly-named protagonist, Liza
Normal. Under the influence of her mother (and the film Ice Castles),
Liza views her life as a series of auditions, whether she's attending a high
school party, embarking on a relationship with a drug dealer, or mingling
with B-list celebrities. Inspired in her own right by the movie Fame,
Liza's mother, Peppy, relentlessly bullied her children into countless
auditions and salacious outfits, in the hopes of making stars out of them.
Once a small-time topless juggler, Peppy believed that celebrity was the
only worthwhile goal for her progeny.
Now all grown up, Liza is at heart a consummate outsider, vacillating
between rebellion and a need to conform — whether through punk rock,
LA chic, or even a brief attempt to become an elf during a drug-fueled binge
in San Francisco. Liza tries on style after style, so it's only fitting that
the one identity she wishes to shed — a slash-fiction alter ego known
as Venal De Milo — is the one that finally gives her a shot at her
dream.
Even as she skewers our naive belief in the magic of fame, Wilson winks at
the reader with lengthy asides and digressions that are surprisingly
inobtrusive and refreshing, considering that they're all set in bold. As
Liza cloaks herself in failure, selfishness, and one bad choice after
another, Wilson exposes her character's resiliency and unwillingness to
compromise. Ultimately, the novel celebrates emotional survival and whispers
warnings about the dangers of dreams fulfilled. (JM)
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Synopsis
An anthology of the past ten years of African art made in a variety of media by emerging and established artists.
Review
The catalog for a massive art exhibition, Africa Remix presents recent work in diverse media by some 80 contemporary artists who are working in cities in Africa and abroad. Four international art institutions collaborated with chief curator Simon Njami, the founding editor of the Paris-based journal Revue Noire, to produce this significant traveling survey. Taking the seminal but controversial 1989 Magiciens de la Terre exhibit as the point of departure, Africa Remix offers a less magical, more urbane look at African art being made today by artists who are directly engaged in international cultural discourse.
Njami organizes Africa Remix into three categories to discuss issues he finds most visible in the work. Identity & History offers works such as Samuel Fosso's photographic self-portraits in the glamorous roles of pirate and chief, Marlene Dumas' intimate drawings of blindfolded prisoners, Fatimah Tuggar's digital montages of global money matters, and William Kentridge's animated tales of brutality. Body & Soul breaks down representation with Ghada Amer's seductively embroidered canvases, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré's drawings conflating a turtle with a hat, and Joseph Francis Sumegné's characters assembled from junk. City & Land presents Romuald Hazoumé's water can towers, El Anatsui's huge blanket of flattened-and-wired drink cans, Julie Mehretu's explosive paintings, Zwelethu Mthethwa's photos of rugged field workers, Antonio Ole's colorfully-cobbled Townshipwall, and Chéri Samba's powerful visions of humanity.
An eclectic selection, Africa Remix is the first exhibition to encompass the whole continent. The French and English speaking artists, as well as the self-taught and highly educated ones, are grouped together under one metaphoric umbrella. Essays address colonial and liberated histories, with Lucy Duran discussing the relationship of art and music (there's a companion Ah-Freak Iya mix CD,) and the venerable Jean-Hubert Martin, curator of Magiciens de la Terre, describing the African art scene he first encountered and how it has changed. (PL)
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FEATURE
Interview with Jonathan Lethem
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In its "Classics" series, the New York Review of Books reissues brilliant but neglected works from forgotten writers. Each lost classic is published with an introduction by an accomplished contemporary author. But Jonathan Lethem got more than he bargained for when the NYRB asked him to write the introduction to Malcolm Braly's brilliant and searing prison novel On the Yard. The book's portrayal of prison life had a profound effect on Lethem's own novel-in-progress, The Fortress of Solitude. Boldtype editor Toby Warner talks with Lethem about how this influence took shape, how he uses his obsessions, and why he's not setting his next novel in Brooklyn. |
BT: How did you first encounter Malcolm Braly's work?
JL: Well, I hadn't read Malcolm Braly when the NYRB asked me to write the introduction to the reissue of On the Yard. I had seen his name a couple of times, but I didn't have a fix on the fact that he was an incarcerated novelist. I think they were groping for someone associated with crime fiction. They certainly had no way of knowing that I was two years into the writing of a book that culminated in a long prison sequence.
BT: So it was really just a happy coincidence for both of you.
JL: Yeah, I wasn't really looking for interruptions in my work at that point, but it was obvious that I needed to take the hint that someone was offering me. So I stopped work, took the assignment, and then the book just blew me away. I don't think there's anything to compare it with. Obviously there are great writers who've touched on this kind of material, but none of them had Braly's extended experience inside, on top of his novelistic gifts. He has a memoir that overlaps with some of the material in the novel, but it really doesn't account for how he was able to get into so many prisoners' heads. It's uncanny — you feel him distributing properties, inclinations, and parts of himself into different characters. That's typical of the greatest of novelists, but in this milieu, he's working with such a narrow set of human circumstances and yet he creates so many different types and absolutely persuasive responses to these situations.
BT: What kind of influence did the book have on your work?
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BOOK NEWS
A few notable bits of recent book news.
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Hollywood's favorite novelist (BBC)
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Hollywood bought the rights to Nick Hornby's newest novel, A Long Way Down, before it had even been published.
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Harrison Bergeron takes the stand (LJ World)
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Kurt Vonnegut takes exception to lawyers using his story, "Harrison Bergeron," in the debate over school finance in Kansas.
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The Iowa Writer's Workshop has a new director (UI)
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Fiction writer Lan Samantha Chang will replace Frank Conroy as full professor of creative writing in UI's prestigious English department.
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Free books! (BBC)
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The Venezuelan government gives out free copies of Don Quixote to celebrate the book's 400th anniversary.
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Lit-bloggers circle the wagons (Village Voice)
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Despite the decreasing media attention paid to books, the Litblog is alive and thriving.
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Holocaust Hoax? (Bookforum)
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Writer Michael Chabon is under fire for misleading listeners with a phony holocaust story. But does the accuser protest too much?
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