Bookworm

Ragtime (Plume)We look back on E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, its publication, its structure, its long-lasting surprises and its most recent transformation--as a work of musical theater.

Amy Bloom Love Invents Us (Random House)Amy Bloom, a therapist by profession, candidly discusses her popular short stories and the challenges of writing her first novel.

Kenward Elmslie Postcards on Parade (Bamberger Books) Elmslie is our singing poet. Here, the New York School icon rummages through his song book and comes up with everything from country western anthems to surreal dramatic playlets with musical backgrounds.

Bear and His Daughter (Houghton Mifflin) These collected stories by Robert Stone anticipated developments in American fiction by at least a decade...

The New Life (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk's imagination evokes the powerful lure of fairy tales. His books bring the magic of childhood reading into the sphere of adult disenchantment.

Vikram Chandra Love and Longing in Bombay (Little, Brown) The Gods, virtues and storytelling of traditional Hindu culture are at the heart of the stories in Vikram Chandra's new book--and are the focus of this conversation about Indian writing and its audience.

Mark Twain The Oxford Mark Twain (Oxford University Press) In honor of the publication of a twenty-nine volume set of Twain, Leslie Fiedler, Charles Johnson and the set's editor, Shelley Fisher Fishkin join in a roundtable celebration of the American Shakespeare.

On a luxury cruise or at a state fair, David Foster Wallace is an ideal reporter on the disintegration of the Actual.

Literary Presses Serious literature faces a double crisis: the disappearance of funding and the indifference of mainstream publishing. A coalition of literary presses springs to the rescue!

Alan Warner Morvern Caller (Anchor) A member of the New Scottish Renaissance talks about the literary nature of the movement, as opposed to the drugs, the raves and the trainspotting reported in the media.