the sixth borough
New fiction on the op-ed page of the paper of record by none other than Mr. Jonathan Safran Foer. (registration required, but it's well worth it).
After reading Everything is Illuminated I became a strong supporter of JSF, and this new piece shows the further development of his much-remarked-upon promise. JSF has an innate ability to write fiction that is both startlingly fresh and yet comfortably familiar- this new story in particular has the feel of a well-worn fable. And once again JSF's work has an air of magical realism about it, but written in a way that is totally sure of itself. Definitely a nice surprise this morning.
Also, this is the first time I've heard a title for JSF's next novel. According to the Times, it is to be called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Although comparisons to Dave Eggers are pretty tired by this point in time, and though I did in fact enjoy DE's sophomore novel You Shall Know Our Velocity!, here's hoping that JSF doesn't hit a similar slump with his upcoming tome. Both Foer and Eggers's first novels were very personal and in different senses autobiographic in tone, so it will be interesting (to me, at least) to see how Foer handles taking on a more completely fictional tale. There's no good reason not to expect greatness- especially after his latest work.
After reading Everything is Illuminated I became a strong supporter of JSF, and this new piece shows the further development of his much-remarked-upon promise. JSF has an innate ability to write fiction that is both startlingly fresh and yet comfortably familiar- this new story in particular has the feel of a well-worn fable. And once again JSF's work has an air of magical realism about it, but written in a way that is totally sure of itself. Definitely a nice surprise this morning.
Also, this is the first time I've heard a title for JSF's next novel. According to the Times, it is to be called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Although comparisons to Dave Eggers are pretty tired by this point in time, and though I did in fact enjoy DE's sophomore novel You Shall Know Our Velocity!, here's hoping that JSF doesn't hit a similar slump with his upcoming tome. Both Foer and Eggers's first novels were very personal and in different senses autobiographic in tone, so it will be interesting (to me, at least) to see how Foer handles taking on a more completely fictional tale. There's no good reason not to expect greatness- especially after his latest work.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home