Downtown Owl - Chuck Klosterman

Wanting to like this book, because I like his writing on music and pop culture (Sex, Death and Cocoa Puffs, IV) I tried to overlook the flaws in this book, but by the time the ending comes (slapped on) my patience had waned. Klosterman can write a good piece on a Guns'N'Roses cover band or Latinos who love Morrissey, but his journalistic/ironic detachment isn't suited to creating characters the reader needs to care about, or at least be mildly interested in, especially given the ending.  There are moments when the  divergences into pop culture and commentary achieve a level of near brilliance, but this novel would have worked better as a faux-memoir or having  Klosterman  embedded in a small North Dakota town an report from the ground.

Broadsides - Mordecai Richler

A collection of reviews, journal entries and what can only be called filler, released after what I consider to be his best book, Solomon Gursky Was Here. Even if it feels like a publishing obligation, it still works - the Richler style applied to sex manuals, vapid actresses and writing.  The last piece, a collection of journal entries, is the best piece, and for fans, you can see Richler's mind already focusing on his next (and final book) Barney's Version. At his most shallow he's still better than many others, as this collection proves, and he's been missed.

King, Queen, Knave - Nabokov

An early one from an old master, a too familiar plot (ambitious wife with a young lover plots to kill wealthy husband) is rendered with an expert's touch. Nabokov re-worked the translation of this novel in the 1960's, injecting the atmosphere with the spectre of Nazism and a curious sub-plot involving automatons. Moves between stream-of-consciousness, imagination, perception and drama and an ending that takes some time to get there but surprises in the end.

Famous Authors And Their Typewriters

 When I was teaching in Japan, I taught kids class that used a textbook from the early 90's that had picture cards showing a secretary (a woman) using a typewriter. When I asked the 8 and 9 year olds what this was (pointing to the typewriter) they gave me blank stares until one boy said "Computer?"
I explained what a typewriter was - you fed paper into the top and it printed the letters directly onto the paper and if you made a mistake you had to white it out - and they all looked at me as I were mad.

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