This week is Fall Fiction Week at Slate, which includes Paradise Lost: Cees Nooteboom takes on our jet-fueled millennium; Is It a Chamber Pot? Nope! Joshua Green on a century-old literary mystery, solved; The Invisible Lesbian: Sarah Schulman on challenging the myth of merit-based publishing; "I was Gordon Lish's Editor: Not that he let me do any editing"; When Poetry Meets Politics: Nathan Heller on Robert Hass' poetic journey; and No Second Chances: Emily Johnston on the bracing vision of William Trevor. From TLS, a new term for French literature: Five recent novels show that contemporary French fiction is self-reflexive, steeped in Paris – and in good hands. Has Her Majesty read any good books lately? A review of The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. From Political Affairs, an essay on Marxism, language, and the Laureate who wasn't: Doris Lessing says "Communism debased language" (and more). From Eurozine, Zinovy Zinik traces the history of the shadow as metaphor for exile through Evgeni Shwartz's play "The Shadow" back to earlier fables by Hans Christian Andersen and Adelbert von Chamisso. From California Literary Review, a brief account of the decay of selfdom: The question of meaning has been asked, and the new millennium must abide its answer. An article on Edgar Allan Poe and the publicity hounds of Hell. X-X-excesses: A review of Harold Robbins: the Man Who Invented Sex by Andrew Wilson.
