Open Letters Monthly - November 2008
November 2008
Raging Bull
In this tensely-charged election year, all eyes fix on the blogosphere – of 1787. Jeffrey Eaton signs us in to Library of America’s 2-volume Debate on the Constitution and fills the comments field.
| Young Bull and Old Jack Before Mexico, Tangier, or even rehab, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were deeply involved in a real-life murder plot. Now the book they wrote about it finally gets its day in court and Andrew Martin delivers his literary verdict on And the Hippos Were Boiled in their Tanks. |
 |
 |
Laughter in the Darkness What is it about Booker and Nobel judges that make one reach for Chambers Biographical Dictionary only to hurl it across the room in despair? Sam Sacks seeks the source of prize-winner Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger. |
The two airheads you meet in heaven
A poem by Kate Schapira
 |
Kaor! Three new books trek the red rocks of Mars, and although they don’t exactly admit it, they’re in search of one thing: signs of life. Astrid Van Sarisgaard tells us what they discover, or don’t. |
Six Heads a Day
Before the pestiferous little Corsican conquered Europe, he tried his hand at Egypt – Steve Donoghue exposes how the general disposes in his review of Paul Strathern’s Napoleon in Egypt.
| It’s a Mystery: All Hail the Queen With this cheery account of the reigning royalty of murder mysteries, P.D. James, Irma Heldman inaugurates her monthly mystery column in these webpages. Irma once delighted fans of her “On the Docket” column under the pen-name O.L. Bailey, and Open Letters proudly welcomes her back to the beat she made her own! |
 |
 |
I Can Haz Qwalitee Kontrol Millions of people all over the world feed their pets food manufactured under circumstances that would make Upton Sinclair spin in his grave. Sara Shaffer sifts through the ingredients of Marion Nestle’s Pet Food Politics. |
The Same Indifference
In The Same Man, David Lebedoff maintains that Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell were Doppelgängers, both in their art and their ethics; John G. Rodwan Jr. begs to differ.
| Tomb Sweet Tomb Heaven help the author who becomes a cult figure in his own lifetime – Sharon Fulton reads the latest from fan favorite Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book, to see what all the fuss is about. |
 |
Soft by Nature and Quick to Tears
Euripides’ Medea has been explained, performed, and debated for the last 2000 years. Panagiotis Polichronakis looks at Robin Robertson’s new translation and ponders whether it’s fit for scholars, dramaturgs, or the all-elusive common reader.
 |
All the Sad Old Men In Vivian Gornick’s The Men in My Life, a committed feminist writes a collection of essays about literary men; Laura Tanenbaum monitors these latest dispatches from the gender conflict. |
A Woman Walks Into Her Therapist’s Office…
Fans of Sylvia Brownrigg’s fiction admire the hidden complexity beneath its surface simplicity; we plumb the depths of The Delivery Room and Morality Tale with Karen Vanuska.
| They Were Almost Tudors In the penultimate installment of his “Year with the Tudors,” Steve Donoghue pauses to consider some of the young men and women who didn’t quite make it onto the roster of Tudor monarchs. |
 |
Our cover art comes to us from Michela Emeson, a painter originally from New Hampshire. More of her work can be found at http://michelaemeson.com. —read an interview with Michela on our blog!
