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	January 2007:: issue 39
	Books This Month 1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2. Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie 3. The Talented Mr. Ripley; Ripley Under Ground; Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith 4. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan 5. Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators by Riccardo Orizio 6. Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America by Tom Lutz 7. Phaidon Design Classics by Editors of Phaidon Press   Feature Book News Credits/About Us Deadly Sins If you look closely, you'll find wrath, lust, envy, gluttony, pride, sloth, or greed at the root of nearly every great story. To ring in 2007, we bring you a selection of seven tomes — one for each vice. Cormac McCarthy's latest blood-bath envisions survival after nuclear war, while comics auteur Alan Moore tests the limits of eroticism with Lost Girls. Michael Pollan asks you to think before you eat, Tom Lutz proposes a history of American slackers, and Phaidon offers a primer on graphic commodity fetishism. A book of interviews with infamous dictators showcases the heights of hubris, while the collected Mr. Ripley novels are a stylish introduction to the green-eyed monster. Speaking of envy, we close with a feature on recent outbreaks of plagiarism — that most literary sin. - Toby Warner, Managing Editor

Idolator: We're as obsessed with the music world as we are with the machinations behind it, and we cover the people who are manufacturing the latest band buzz — whether it's an old-guard standby (Rolling Stone), an absurdly powerful new-media turk (Pitchfork), or an agenda-pimping blogger (take your pick).

FICTION The Road by Cormac McCarthy   Published: 2006   Pages: 241   Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf   Links: Author site Guardian review Bookforum review   “Imagine a world where everything is gone and your chance of living depends on how fast you can outrun someone dead-set on eating you for dinner.” Review Throughout most of The Road, it's not certain what has occurred, but when a father sees a series of flashes on the horizon and hears sonic booms, he suspects something horrific is happening. McCarthy carefully weaves a tale of father and son roving the country after a nuclear war. Wandering among desolate cities — filled with tall buildings wilting from the heat of the blast, and highways jammed with rusted cars filled with rotting corpses — the duo go from one vacant town to the next, all to stay a step ahead of a pack of cannibals. At one point, the pair travel to an unnamed seaside destination and spot a wisp of smoke in the woods; what they stumble upon is nothing short of shocking. The duo's main motivation is food and survival — and the lack of it is painfully apparent. Imagine a world where everything is gone, nothing works, there's no electricity and no food, and potable water is sketchy, at best — where your chance of living depends on how fast you can outrun someone dead-set on eating you for dinner. An astonishing aspect of the novel is that much of it is told from the little boy's absorbingly honest and innocent perspective. Nights are as dark as the inside of a coffin, and days are met with an uncertain loathing; it's these feelings of fear that grip the reader. The Road is a story where evil prevails — not unlike other McCarthy novels — but this novel paints a particularly savage portrait of the human condition. - Jason Rice back to top

COMICS Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie   Published: 2005   Pages: 264   Publisher: Top Shelf Productions   Links: Neil Gaiman review Suicide Girls interviews Moore Suicide Girls interviews Gebbie   “Ten years in the making, Lost Girls is far more than just an X-rated League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” Review For a 264-page slash fiction comic epic, Lost Girls really holds its own. The premise is surprisingly simple, given that Alan Moore — creator of From Hell, The Watchmen, and V for Vendetta — has made his name with such dense scripts. Wendy of Neverland, Dorothy of Oz, and Alice of Wonderland meet by chance in an Austrian hotel, on the eve of World War I. Now adults, they bond over anecdotes from their childhoods — and screw each other's brains out. Their original stories are reinterpreted through the lens of pubescent sexuality and fantasy: Captain Hook becomes a pedophile; the Scarecrow, a willing farm boy; and the mad tea party, a lesbian orgy. Moore's storytelling is excellent, as always, but Melinda Gebbie's art is the glue that holds Lost Girls together. Gebbie, an alumna of the seminal Wimmen's Comix, establishes a distinct style for each character's story. She combines the aesthetics of picture books with the conventions of Victorian pornography, creating a dreamy world of soft colors and sexual perversion. Of course, sex in comics is not exactly new. The Tijuana Bibles of the early 19th century easily match Lost Girls in raunchiness. It's the scope of the book that's astonishing. The three girls, with a mind-boggling host of characters to help them, engage in almost every sexual act that can be conceived of. The libidinous frenzy reaches fever pitch as the entire hotel is involved in elaborate orgies fueled by stories of child prostitution and incest. The obvious de Sade parallel is not lost on Moore and Gebbie, but while Lost Girls makes reference to the Marquis, thankfully it's more an homage to an iconic libertine than a descent into coprophagia. Ten years in the making, Lost Girls is far more than just an X-rated League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Moore insists that it's pornography, but that proves a difficult label. While its drawings do titillate, Lost Girls comes off as ornate erotica, as much due to its affected narrative and visual style as its needlessly expensive packaging. In the end, with all the shock value stripped away, the novel is a huge, flawed, but ultimately brilliant meditation on the trauma and joy of sexual awakening. - Andy Warner back to top

FICTION The Talented Mr. Ripley; Ripley Under Ground; Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith   Published: 1999   Pages: 880   Publisher: Everyman's Library   Links: Author site Wired for Books audio interview BBC interview Author Swiss Literary Archives   “With Ripley as the protagonist, we always know whodunit; the mystery lies in how he'll get away with it.” Review It took Matt Damon's film portrayal for America to finally warm to the cold-blooded killer Tom Ripley. Tom's creator, Patricia Highsmith, on the other hand, died before American readers could do the same for her. The highbrow Ripley crime novels, which were bestsellers in Europe from the '50s onward, experienced only middling success in the US, and in the 1960s Highsmith left the States for the continent and never looked back. Her expatriation was about more than just American indifference to her books, however: Europe was a more hospitable place for a curmudgeonly, bibulous, misogynistic lesbian to live and work. Clearly, Highsmith was as complicated as Mr. Ripley. Five novels comprise the so-called "Ripliad," but only the first three have stood the test of time. The trilogy began in 1955 with The Talented Mr. Ripley, wherein Tom, an orphan of humble origins, is paid by a shipbuilding magnate to fetch his son, Dickie, from a life of leisure on the Italian coast. Tom envies Dickie's life and wants his affection — the novel's homoeroticism, which the eponymous movie only hints at, is palpable — and when it's ultimately unrequited, Tom kills Dickie and impersonates him, out of both criminal necessity and pathological creepiness. Ripley Under Ground catches up with our antihero five years later: Ripley's happily, sexlessly married and living on a French estate, when he turns again to murder and subterfuge after an art-world scam he helped devise threatens to unravel. Ripley's Game, published in 1974 and itself popular film fodder, gets started when Ripley receives an offer to serve as a hit man, and — surprisingly — demurs. The designation "crime writer" sells short Highsmith's considerable gifts of characterization — Tom fascinates because he's simultaneously likable and repulsive — and fails to account for her inattention to genre conventions: with Ripley as the protagonist, we always know whodunit; the mystery lies in how he'll get away with it. Highsmith's literary story has a happy ending, although she didn't live to see it. Anthony Minghella's film of the first novel was released in 1999. That same year, Knopf — the publisher that rejected her final book a year before her death in 1995 — released this Everyman's Library omnibus edition of the three Ripley novels that immortalized literature's most amiable psychopath, thereby canonizing Highsmith in one fell swoop. - Chris Parris-Lamb back to top

NONFICTION The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan   Published: 2006   Pages: 450   Publisher: Penguin Press   Links: Author site NY Times interview First chapter   “Pollan dissects four different meals, from one of McDonald's boxed burgers to one he wrangles with a rifle in hand.” Review With Taco Bell's recent green onion debacle following hot on the heels of spinach's fall from grace, there's plenty of stomach-churning news out there about what goes in our bellies. But even these health-scares fall off the front pages after a few days, so NY Times Magazine contributor Michael Pollan doggedly pursues an answer to the question: "what are we eating?” In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan dissects four different meals, from one of McDonald's boxed burgers to one he wrangles with a rifle in hand. The first thing Michael Pollan wants you to know is that about 1/4 of all the products in your local grocery store are made from corn. Forget the happy yellow cobs, most of these products are the work of corn alchemists, who concoct everything, from crackers to soda to the glue on the cardboard boxes, out of these humble kernels. Pollan traces the corn trail back to the root, explaining how we (as taxpayers) are paying for a system that guarantees we're gorging ourselves. Growing all that corn guzzles oil (for making fertilizer), bankrupts farmers (due to a corn surplus), fattens Americans (with high-fructose corn syrup), and creates a massive, oceanic "dead zone" in the Gulf, where ocean life suffocates (due to fertilizer run-off). Obviously, there's plenty of bad news to be dug up, and when it comes to the battle of local organics vs. corporate, industrial agriculture, you can bet where Pollan sides. But unlike the carnivore-converting tour de force that is Fast Food Nation, this book takes a less dogmatic approach in bringing everything back to your dinner plate. As more and more packages are labeled "organic," "natural," and "free range," Pollan shows that you may be surprised at what you find behind the branding. This actually prompted an online showdown between Pollan and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey over what "big organic" is really selling to consumers. Whether Sunday morning finds you in a farmer's market or in Dunkin' Donuts, The Omnivore's Dilemma is worth picking up. It will change the way you fill a grocery cart. - Lauren Sommer back to top

NONFICTION Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators by Riccardo Orizio   Published: 2004   Pages: 208   Publisher: Walker & Company   Links: Author site NPR audio interview CNN interview Orizio's Lost White Tribes   “In these kid-gloved interviews, what is most striking about these world dictators, other than their escape from punishment, is their stubborn pride.” Review Thomas Aquinas wrote, in his Summa Theologica, "pride is the root of all sin," meaning this emotion causes man to turn from God and seek glory elsewhere, to venture down dark and evil paths. So, although the seven deposed dictators tracked down and interviewed by Riccardo Orizio are guilty of nearly all of the cardinal sins — most of the venal ones and some so outrageous and rare that they defy classification — it is pride that both made and unmade them. Orizio chose these seven dictators precisely because they had been divested of all raiments of power. For example, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, whose 1977 coronation included 24,000 bottles of Moët et Chandon, and a 3.5-by-5-meter, gilded throne, was confined to a small house in Bangui until his death. Nexhmije Hoxha and her husband built a pyramid monument to themselves in Tirana, but she now lives an austere existence in her prison cell. Idi Amin, the "Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea," lived until his death, in 2003, a humble, albeit comfortable, existence in Saudi Arabia. In this series of kid-gloved interviews (one wishes Orizio had been more confrontational), what is most striking about these world dictators, other than their escapes from punishment, is their stubborn pride. Sixteen years after being ousted from power, Poland's Wojciech Jaruzelski obsessively asserts that his actions — the internment of thousands of dissidents, the declaration of war against his own country — were necessary and will prove commendable. Mira Markovic, wife of Slobadan Milosevic, still sees her husband as a hero and herself as an ideal wife and citizen. Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who ate his enemies, pitches his war crimes as a fight against imperial France. As they emerge from Talk of the Devil, these men and women come off as being a lot like ordinary people. In fact, many of them today are ordinary people, scrambling to justify their actions and avoid shame. This raises an interesting and uncomfortable dilemma for the reader. It challenges us to think about how such power comes about before vilifying these dictators. - Joshua David Stein back to top

NONFICTION Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America by Tom Lutz   Published: 2006   Pages: 363   Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux   Links: Powell's interview NY Times review Lutz's Crying: A Natural and Cultural History of Tears   “Lutz shows us patterns in how Americans perceive their employment — viewpoints that resonate, combine, and transform over time.” Review Despite a post-adolescent past that included a slew of odd jobs, some commune-style farm living, and plenty of Mary Jane, Tom Lutz was surprised, 30 years later, to find himself beet-red with anger at the sight of his own son, Cody, whiling away his time between high school and college by lolling on the couch. Of course, after Lutz's hippie, halcyon days, he managed to get his bachelor's degree, and also a master's and PhD from Stanford. The intensity of his fatherly frustrations got him thinking. In Doing Nothing, Lutz takes a look at some of the most famous good-for-nothings in popular culture, emblems of a lifestyle that we aspire to and also revile. The study starts early in American history with Benjamin Franklin, whose famously thrifty, regulated work ethic (the goal being to get, rather than spend) became stamped on the American psyche. The flip side of that coin was the early slacker ethos of Samuel Johnson and Henry Mackenzie (happiness comes from the spending, not the getting). Lutz shows us patterns in how Americans perceive their employment — viewpoints that resonate, combine, and transform over time. Lutz cites articles and ads from the 1920s (one, in particular, from Ladies' Home Journal), suggesting that the job of the modern woman was to shop wisely for the household — recasting spending as fulfilling and hard work. In the '90s, offices came to resemble lounge-friendly video arcades as much as places of business. So, too, does history change our understanding of joblessness: in the roaring '20s, popular attitudes toward slacking were, of course, very different than they soon became during the Great Depression. What we see, though, is an American love affair with rebellion, with figures as unalike as Henry David Thoreau, Jack Kerouac, and George W. Bush going (in the famous words of a young, inebriated Dubya to his father) mano a mano with the value system of their elders. If the American Dream is to do what we want, when we want, how we want, it is also, should we choose, to reject even that. And do nothing at all. - Stephen Dougherty back to top ART Phaidon Design Classics by Editors of Phaidon Press   Published: 2006   Pages: 2,808   Publisher: Phaidon Press   Links: Book site   “From cars and planes to ketchup bottles and trash pails, the best designs of the past and present are dynamically compiled here to inform, inspire, and incite desire.” Review The mother of all industrial-design books, this three-volume set is an addictive read from the very first object, a simple pair of bonsai scissors, from 1663, that are still manufactured in China, to the last, an innovative collection of bathroom accessories designed by Barber Osgerby in 2004. Presenting 999 classic design objects on more than 2,800 pages, the compilation is organized in a clear, concise, and stylish manner that stimulates both the mind and the eye. Practical products, including the safety pin and paper clip, and quirky ones, such as the yo-yo and disco ball, share space with home furnishings by modernist masters Josef Hoffmann, Eileen Gray, and Alvar Aalto, as well as contemporary stars Marc Newson, Jasper Morrison, and Philippe Starck. Each massive volume is organized chronologically and beautifully illustrated with old advertisements, patent diagrams, logos, and photographs of the designers and their enduring objects. Every design receives at least a two-page spread. Certain uber-recognizable objects, such as the Swiss Army Knife or the sleek Aston Martin DB5 (of Goldfinger fame), demand four pages of images and text. The volumes also contain comprehensive indices that include lists of the designers, products, and authors. Leaders in the industrial design field, such as Richard Sapper (who designed the Tizio Lamp and IBM ThinkPad) and George Nelson (responsible for the playful Marshmallow Sofa), have multiple entries. Even the occasional fine artist merits inclusion — Donald Judd makes the cut with one of his minimal, geometric chairs. From cars and planes to ketchup bottles and trash cans, the best designs of the past and present are dynamically compiled here to inform, inspire, and incite desire. - Paul Laster back to top

FEATURE A Plagiarism Primer   Plagiarism is the quintessential literary sin, and lately it's been breaking out in the book world like a bad rash. The low point of 2006 came early, when Harvard undergraduate Kaavya Viswanathan's career went from bright young star to supernova in one month flat. At the center of the latest scandal is Ian McEwan. The British press recently seethed with controversy surrounding his Booker-nominated 2001 novel, Atonement. McEwan had acknowledged in an author's note that his novel was inspired in places by Lucilla Andrews' 1977 memoir No Time for Romance. But when the Daily Mail set certain passages side-by-side, they turned out to be nearly identical. To McEwan's defense came the charge of the writer brigade. The Telegraph published letters of support from Martin Amis, John Updike, Colm Tóibín, Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, and Thomas Pynchon. All of them maintained that liberal methods of research are essential and healthy for the writing of historical fiction. Thomas Pynchon's intervention — just one type-written page — came at an odd time, considering his own work is at the center of the season's strangest copyright showdown. Gravity's Rainbow Illustrated, the collection of artist Zak Smith's drawings for every page of the massive novel, was set to be published by Tin House in late December, until word of the project reached Penguin, Pynchon's publisher. Penguin 'convinced' Tin House to slap stickers on the already-printed books bearing a new, cripplingly awkward title: Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow. So what makes an adaptation a violation of copyright? Does it depend on what one steals, or perhaps even on who's doing the stealing? We asked Circuit Court Judge Richard Posner — author of the forthcoming Little Book of Plagiarism — to help us make sense of the charges flying around. Boldtype: What is the difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism? Judge Richard Posner: If there is actual copying, conscious or unconscious, of a copyrighted work, that is (with minor exceptions) infringement unless the copier has a license from the copyright holder. Plagiarism, however, is not a legal concept. If you copy a non-copyrighted work (maybe the copyright had expired) then you have not violated a law. But if you fail to acknowledge the copying, you may be branded a plagiarist, which will injure your reputation, perhaps irrevocably. BT: What does copyright law protect when it comes to literature? JRP: Generally, it protects only the form of expression, particular wordings, and unique characters. It does not protect familiar themes, plots, or genres. BT: Looking at the evidence, did Ian McEwan violate copyright? JRP: The issue in his case isn't copyright, but rather plagiarism. The question is whether he took so much from the earlier work that he could be said to have copied and therefore must acknowledge it. If so, was his acknowledgment adequate? It seems like this one is between McEwan and his conscience, not the law. While copyright violation could land you in court, plagiarism is more likely to earn you infamy, or just dirty stares at parties. - Toby Warner back to top BOOK NEWS A few notable bits of recent book news. Random House plan to repackage classics (Guardian) Random House UK will pit Vintage head-to-head with Penguins Classics, causing mild concern for those who like to impress others on the tube with their traditional book covers. Literary smackdown? (Maud Newton) In a spirited award ceremony, writers Tobias Wolff and Adam Haslett read from new work, impressing a blogger enough to rue the popular decline of the short story. Is the literary pound worth more than the dollar? (Guardian) From Graham Greene to J.K. Rowling, English novels have long been bestsellers in America. Yet one blogger asserts that the English still feel their literature pales next to the canon from across the pond. What gives? Did a woman write The Iliad? (Slate) Rediscovering Homer poses some interesting questions about ancient Greek literature. How many Dunces does it take? (Slate) Beloved, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Confederacy of Dunces' screen adaptation has a cast, a director, and a studio. So where's the movie? Judge a reader by her book (Psychcentral via The Elegant Variation) Recent studies show how your self-esteem determines what you read. Not yet (Mail & Guardian via The Elegant Variation) The Mail & Guardian re-opens J.M. Coetzee's debate on whether white South Africans are Africans. Done and done (Reuters) After pulling the plug on O.J. Simpson's If I Did It, News Corp. showed Judith Regan the door. Much gloating ensued. Got change? (CNN) An ATM-like machine that prints, binds, and dispenses 2.5 million books is set to shake up the industry. back to top

	CREDITS Editors Toby Warner Mark Mangan Paul Laster Jocelyn K. Glei McKay McFadden Nick Merritt Chris Gage Chris Parris-Lamb Editors-at-Large Larry Weissman Sean McDonald Contributors Stephen Dougherty Lauren McKee Jason Rice Lauren Sommer Joshua David Stein Andy Warner Production & Design Anjuli Ayer Jessica Bauer-Greene Morgan Croney Sascha Lewis Cover Art Tim Noble and Sue Webster Toxic Schizophrenia (detail), 1997 Colored UFO reflector caps, lamps, holders, foamex, vinyl, aerosol paint, and electric light sequencer 78 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 102 1/2 in./ 200 x 7 x 260 cm © Wasted Youth by Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Rizzoli New York, 2006 All Rights Reserved   ABOUT US Boldtype is a monthly, email-based review of books published by Flavorpill Productions. Our mission is to cover five to seven books each month that are worth reading. No money is accepted from any publishers, writers, reviewers, or marketing or PR companies. In addition to this monthly review of books, Flavorpill also publishes ten other email magazines, covering ART, FASHION, NEWS, MUSIC, and cultural events in six cities — NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO, CHICAGO, MIAMI, and LONDON. MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS Every month, Boldtype presents one exclusive media partner. Click for more information about advertising opportunities on Boldtype and across all Flavorpill publications. FEEDBACK We welcome any and all feedback — comments, criticism, and even effusive praise. To reach the staff at Boldtype, please email us at editor. SUBMISSIONS If you have a book that you would like us to consider for review, please send an email to books or mail a copy here: Boldtype c/o Flavorpill Productions 594 Broadway, Suite 1212 New York, NY 10012
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