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	October 2005 :: issue 24
	Books This Month 1. Here Is Where We Meet by John Berger 2. The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll by Jean Nathan 3. Cash: The Autobiography by Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr 4. The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch 5. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein 6. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami 7. Malick Sidibé: Photographs by Malick Sidibé   Feature: The Self-Made Blog Book News Credits/About Us The Self-Made Issue Guest-edited by Maud Newton and Mark Sarvas We hate to say we told you so, but the future of book reviews is online. Besides our own efforts, the past few years have seen the rise of literary bloggers — passionate readers who cover the high and lows of book culture on their own websites. This new generation of digital literati have called out the flab in the major Sunday supplements, turned their favorite titles into successes, and even banded together to form a taller soapbox — a more viral model that's starting to challenge the power of the old-school press. So for our October issue, we asked Maud Newton and Mark Sarvas, two of the most prominent (and trafficked) lit-bloggers, to take the helm of our "self-made" theme and select some titles for all of you. See which books made the cut below. We've also created a blog for Maud, Mark, and myself to riff on the idea of starting from scratch. Check back in the next few days for the ongoing conversation. — TW

"The Biggest 'Little' Magazine in History." -Time

FICTION Here Is Where We Meet by John Berger Published: August 2005 Pages: 256 Publisher: Pantheon Links: Guardian profile Le Monde essay Ways of Seeing excerpt Ways of Seeing illustrations The Complete Review's Berger page Synopsis John Berger sees dead people. Traversing the cities and towns of Europe, the famed octogenarian novelist reflects on his life with the shades of departed loved ones. Review John Berger is probably best known to the world for his groundbreaking 1972 volume of art criticism Ways of Seeing, which changed the viewing habits of every generation of artists and critics that's followed. But he's also a novelist of distinction, whose politically tinged works include the Booker Prize-winning G. (Berger used the occasion of the award to excoriate Booker McConnell's exploitation of West Caribbeans and donated half his prize money to the Black Panthers.) In more recent years, Berger has moved into a warmer key, and with Here is Where We Meet, presents an elliptical, melancholy "fictional memoir," in which his protagonist — John Berger — traverses European cities from Lisbon to Geneva to London's Islington, conversing with spirits from his past. He encounters his dead mother on a Lisbon tram, a beloved mentor in a Krakow market. Along the way, we're treated to graceful, heart-rending glimpses of an extraordinary life, a Sebald-esque elegy to the 20th century from a man who — in his eighth decade — remains unswervingly committed to his beliefs (he's a staunch communist) and almost childlike in his openness to people, places and experiences. His field of view ranges from the broad (the fascism of the 1930s, the socialism of the 1950s and 1960s) to the narrow (memories of his departed mother who never read his work). As he tiptoes through the detritus of a European century left pockmarked by the clash of its destructive wars with its often stubbornly naïve political convictions, he finds pockets of grace in unlikely places. There's no conventional narrative here — much thought is given to the proper way to cook sorrel soup — and those seeking plot are advised to look elsewhere. But Here is Where We Meet presents a moving and poetic look back at the life of an artist from a novelist whose talent, energy and curiosity — whose ways of seeing — remain undimmed in his twilight years. (MS) back to top

NONFICTION The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright by Jean Nathan Published: 2004 Pages: 320 Publisher: Picador Links: Dare Wright Other books by Dare Wright: Edith and Mr. Bear A Gift from the Lonely Doll Synopsis A painstakingly detailed look at the life of Dare Wright, the enigmatic photographer and author of the controversial Lonely Doll series of children's books. Review At first glance, Dare Wright's classic children's book, The Lonely Doll, is as blithely innocent as the pink gingham that adorns its cover: it's the story of a doll named Edith, whose lonely day is brightened by the arrival of Mr. Bear and Little Bear. But an eerie sense of abandonment pervades the black and white photographs — who has left Edith all alone? The toys' expressionless faces convey a hauntingly stoic detachment, and by the time Mr. Bear spanks Edith over his knee for causing trouble with Little Bear, it's clear that The Lonely Doll is more than a bit disturbing — closer to Cindy Sherman than Beatrix Potter. Upon revisiting the book she'd treasured as a child, journalist Jean Nathan was unsettled and intrigued. What began as her straightforward attempt to find the book's author became an exhaustive journey through the life of Dare Wright. As a toddler, Dare was separated from her father and brother and raised by her mother, Edie, a portrait painter. While Edie courted commissions among the well-heeled, Dare was left to entertain herself in a fantasy world from which she would never fully emerge, despite her bombshell looks (she began her career as a model). She kept men at arm's length, preferring the constant company of her megalomaniacal mother and her dolls even in adulthood. Though prodigiously talented both as an artist and craftswoman, she was completely inept at navigating adult society: she shared a bed with her mother for her entire life, and sincerely professed a desire to marry her brother after they were reunited. Nathan's tack is appropriately Freudian as she moves through the psychosexual morass of Wright's life and work, but she never objectifies her subject. On the contrary, she allows Dare to tell her own story, through dozens of Dare's own photographs — including nudes taken by Edie — and the result is a book as illuminating as The Lonely Doll is troubling. (CL) back to top

MEMOIR Cash: The Autobiography by Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr Published: 1997 Pages: 448 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Links: Official site Discography Cash bio Synopsis An older, wiser Johnny Cash recounts how he transcended his humble beginnings as a country bumpkin picking cotton bolls in marshy rural Arkansas to become a quintessential American legend. Review The Man in Black was always an astounding storyteller. Indeed, it would be difficult to locate a single song in his vast repertoire that doesn't showcase his talents for plot, mystery, and perfect narrative timing. It should be no surprise then, that Cash's own autobiography is just as fascinating and suspenseful as his lyrics. What is unexpected, however, is that his adventures as a traveling musician pale in comparison to the dramas he dealt with at home, and, perhaps more importantly, to the hardships he endured long before he ever spoke into a microphone. His first encounter with death, for example, occurred when he was just twelve years old. Jack Cash, his older brother, accidentally slit himself from chest to groin on a table saw, and Johnny watched as he died. In the autobiography, he relates this traumatic event in vivid detail, as if it had happened only minutes before he sat down to write. It's a chilling introduction to mortality for Cash — and, for the reader, to the life-and-death stakes of this story. Further into the book, Cash sorts the tall tales from the truth: he never served time in prison, but he did have a destructive addiction to methamphetamines and painkillers. He also illuminates the strange manner in which he came to marry and regretfully overshadow June Carter, and how he forged close relationships with other musical icons such as Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley. Of course, none of the yarns Cash spins are denied his trademark wit. Even the most serious accounts are still humorous in his winking way. It is obvious, though, that he didn't have to look far to create a heart-string-plucking rags-to-riches story. The man in the mirror was inspiration enough. (RB) back to top

FICTION The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch Published: 1978 Pages: 528 Publisher: Penguin Classics Links: Bio Overview NY Review of Books Review Interview Synopsis An English dramatist retires to the coast to make a new life for himself and confronts his sordid past. Review When James Joyce was asked what he would do after the completion of his encyclopedic masterpiece Finnegans Wake, he replied that he intended to write a book about the sea. John Banville, another Irish writer, did just that with his most recent novel The Sea, which has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize; but if he wins, Banville will have been beaten to the punch by Iris Murdoch, who was born in Dublin and won the prize in 1978 for her sprawling psychological novel, The Sea, the Sea. The famous playwright Charles Arrowsby has given up the stage for an isolated manor house by the sea. Not since the novels of Wilkie Collins has the English coast been made to sound so perfectly awful. The house is damp, cold, and molding with rot. There's no electricity, and the hissing, foaming, gurgling seascape that surrounds this inhospitable home is by turns seductive and disturbing — particularly when Arrowsby falls prey to strange delusions, such as when he claims he witnessed a sea monster rise up out of the tide. Part memoir, part diary, Arrowsby's account alternates descriptions of his peculiar new life with reminiscences of his many affairs. It seems the old scoundrel never settled down because his first love, Hartley, rejected him for another. Arrowsby doesn't just dwell on his past, he picks at it like a junkie scratching a rash until he discovers he's made a raw and bleeding mess of his memories. When Arrowsby sees — or thinks he sees — his old flame Hartley, the shock sends him over edge. His slide into madness is a fascinating study of compulsion, making The Sea, the Sea the perfect beach book for people who hate beach books. (JR) back to top NONFICTION Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein Published: 2004 Pages: 352 Publisher: Back Bay Books Links: Official site Mediabistro interview NPR interview Forbes review Synopsis The high times and fast life of devil-may-care/man- about-Budapest Attila Ambrus, professional gangster, quasi-professional hockey goalie and perfect symbol of the post-Communist zeitgeist. Review In Attila Ambrus, Julian Rubinstein has found what every writer craves: a larger-than-life character whose adventures veer from rollicking to comical to heartbreaking. Attila's tale begins in Romania where, under the vicious and malevolent rule of Nicolae Ceausescu, ethnic Hungarians are regularly humiliated and persecuted. Posing as a church painter near the border, Ambrus makes a mad dash through the woods. Once in Hungary, he finds that most of his presumptive countrymen — at least the ones who don't regard him as a spy — are alternately amused and annoyed by the diminutive young man who is so desperate to please, he insists on addressing everyone as "comrade." Like an errant hockey puck, Ambrus spends the next decade drunkenly careening from job to job — lowly electrician's assistant, second-string hockey goalie, gravedigger, pelt smuggler, and finally, notorious bank robber. Studs Terkel, eat your heart out. In reaching for the transcendent, Rubinstein's prose occasionally goes over the top ("wisps of steam puffed from the thousand-year-old springs beneath the Széchenyi bathhouse like an eternal Chernobyl"). But such shades of purple are rare, and never enough to derail the galloping story. The real beauty of Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is the way in which Ambrus' arc and all of its attendant absurdity tends to parallel that of Eastern Europe itself: the desperation, the sense of opportunity after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Wild West euphoria, the deep-seated corruption, and finally, the brutal hangover after the long bender. (MA) back to top

FICTION Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami Published: October 2005 Pages: 208 Publisher: Algonquin Books Links: Interview Small Spiral Notebook review Synopsis This accomplished debut by literary blogger MoorishGirl explores love, pride, faith, and identity as four Moroccans seek a new existence in Spain. Review Laila Lalami is best-known for her erudite and high-profile blog MoorishGirl, which she dismisses as "a cheap hobby." Born in Rabat, Morocco, and now living in Portland, she studied at University College London, but considers English her third language — although her compelling prose argues otherwise. It's a brave woman who takes on the subject of immigration for a first work of fiction, but Lalami has no problem with controversy. All too often, it seems that publishers favor only sensual or downright exoticist fiction by women of Arab descent, but this unflinching collection of stories turns that convention on its head. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits boldly starts in the middle of the story, with a boatful of Moroccan emigrants crossing to Tarifa, Spain, knowing that many before them have drowned. This nail-biting episode introduces the four protagonists, whose lives are followed in a series of before-and-after vignettes. There is Murad, a young man disillusioned with his hustle of guiding tourists to Paul Bowles-related sites; Faten, a highly political and religious young woman, eluding a potential prison sentence. Aziz, a family man keen to make a better life for his wife; and Halima, a mother escaping an abusive husband to give her children a fresh start. These individual stories return to describe the dramas and slow desperation each of the emigrants left behind, before facing the fates that await them. With spare prose and superb characterization, these tales of determined struggle command fierce credibility and irresistible empathy. Though her subject matter beckons with the easy pitfalls of heavy-handed drama, Lalami skirts them with urgent plotting and frank realism, allowing the reader room to appreciate the nuances of irony, or beauty, in even the darkest scene. This is an unexpected and enthralling read from a promising new voice. (LCD) back to top

PHOTOGRAPHY Malick Sidibé: Photographs by Malick Sidibé Published: 2004 Pages: 108 Publisher: Steidl Publishing Links: Index interview Sidibé bio Synopsis Through black-and-white portraits, photographer Malick Sidibé captures the lively spirit of post-colonial Mali. Review Malick Sidibé had no intention of making art when he photographed the young men and women of Mali coming of age in the 1960s and '70s. At the time, photography was a profession like any other, and Sidibé's clients arrived in his portrait studio in their best attire — not in traditional dress, but in the bellbottoms, tight shirts, and over-sized sunglasses that were the international mode. Although he was never formally trained, Sidibé imbued his portraits with a dazzling originality that matched his subjects' eccentric clothing. Referencing the white backgrounds popularized by Richard Avedon and the full-length portraits of August Sander, Sidibé's arresting images were in step with the contemporary photography of the day, all the while acknowledging tradition. In these photos, men and women respond to the push and pull of the modern and the traditional by affecting highly inventive costumes and poses. In the era of decolonization, it seemed downright reactionary for Sidibé to photograph youths in Western fashions, but for young Malians in Bamako, it was an act of rebellion to style themselves after the Beatles and James Brown — and one that could result in a visit to a re-education camp. To get closer to this cultural moment, Sidibé subsequently left the studio to create his iconic images of partygoers doing the Twist and Mashed Potato at local dance clubs. Accompanied by an insightful essay by scholar Manthia Diawara and an interview with the artist conducted by André Magnin, Malick Sidibé is an endlessly rewarding document of a generation that threw imagination and optimism in the face of history. (CYL) back to top FEATURE: The Self-Made Blog Why did Mark Sarvas and Maud Newton pick these books?   READ THE SELF-MADE BLOG TO FIND OUT » back to top BOOK NEWS A few notable bits of recent book news. The return of the big O (New York Times) Oprah finally reopens her book club to living authors. The first selection is A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. For the Boldtype review of Frey's latest, My Friend Leonard, click here. Turkish censorship (Independent) Novelist Orhan Pamuk is facing prison time for speaking out on the Armenian genocide. Read this! (Litblog Co-op) The Litblog Co-op announces its Autumn 2005 Read This! selection. Zadie Smith's fightin' words (New York) The Booker-shortlisted novelist caused a stir with her purportedly anti-British comments. She insists her remarks were taken out of context. Lolita no longer a tween (Village Voice) On the 50th anniversary of Nobokov's classic novel, Leland de la Durantaye reflects on its origins. Brooklyn's newest genius (MacArthur Foundation) Jonathan Lethem is the latest writer to win the MacArthur Fellowship. Read the Boldtype interview with him here. back to top

	CREDITS Guest Editors Maud Newton Mark Sarvas Editors Toby Warner Mark Mangan Paul Laster Jocelyn K. Glei Kai Hsing Jamend A. Riley Editors-at-Large Larry Weissman Sean McDonald Contributors Misha Angrist Russell Brock Lucy C. Davies Chris Lamb Christopher Y. Lew Jim Ruland Production & Design Anjuli Ayer Morgan Croney William "Keats" Pierce Sascha Lewis Cover Image "Young man with bell bottoms, bag and watch," 1977 (detail) Malick Sidibé Courtesy D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc   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. 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 MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS Boldtype offers exclusive monthly media partnerships — an opportunity for like-minded brands to integrate their creative into the mailer. For more information, please email us at media-partner. Our other email magazines: A twice-monthly email magazine highlighting the latest in electronic music — including news, reviews, and original features An email magazine covering a handpicked selection of music, art, and cultural events — delivered each Tuesday afternoon A twice-monthly fashion report providing an insider's view on trends emerging from Paris, London, New York, and around the world A twice-monthly email magazine covering art, design, and architecture with profiles, news, and reviews of inter-national shows
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