From Obit, Robert Roper argues that John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra is about a time not unlike our own. The idyll memoir: Modern examples of the genre eschew light tales of grape-picking for suffering and adventure. God, living is enormous: How might the novelist reconcile fiction and faith — make-believe and must-believe? Benjamin Anastas investigates (and Bookforum hosts a panel on "Faith and Fiction" at the Brooklyn Book Festival this Sunday). Delia Falconer reviews Summertime by J.M. Coetzee. From Commentary, Algis Valiunas on The Naked Novelist and the Dead Reputation: Re-evaluating the storied career of Norman Mailer; and Terry Teachout on the crafty art of Alan Ayckbourn: Giving a remarkable comic playwright his due at long last. Sentences so good they sing: Robert Pinsky on the unexpected pleasures of George Herbert's sentences. From TLS, a review essay on Samuel Johnson at 300: Why it is time for Dr Johnson to be saved from cosy, clubby Johnsonianism (and more from Literary Review). Chick lit takes on the credit crunch: In hard times, sex-and-shopping sagas are being reinvented — welcome to the world of recessionista lit. A review of Novel Violence: A Narratography of Victorian Fiction by Garrett Stewart. Now we are 60: Andrew Johnson, Gemma Mcintosh and Russell Arkinstall find the literary world's former enfant terrible Martin Amis still dividing critical opinion (and more and more).
