Flannery O’Connor didn’t live a flashy life – “from Georgia, liked birds, died of lupus” – says Jamelah Earle, who might not recommend Brad Gooch’s biography to you, unless you want to know how somebody comes up with a story about a bible salesman who steals a girl’s prosthetic leg …
In his critique of a new book on the financial crisis, Judge Posner notes a misreading: “The passage in The General Theory is not about excesses, and it does not argue that “animal spirits” should be damped down. It is about the danger of paralysis in the face of uncertainty …”
Next month is Eudora Welty’s centennial; Eric Banks describes preliminary celebrations.
“If this book had gone through the normal publishing procedures,” said the author, “it wouldn’t be worth writing.” Have you noticed how frigging fast they’re publishing public affairs books nowadays?
“The middle style is clear, clear, clear:” one of many true facts to be found among D. G. Myers’ classroom notes from J. V. Cunningham’s history of criticism seminar at Washington University in 1976.
They “found him in his room, blue with fright, his door barricaded with a chest of drawers and other furniture:” Nigel Beale on the daemonic Cecil J. Rhodes and his epiphany.
