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Martin Amis

Books

10 Things Martin Amis Loves to Hate

By Alison Nastasi on

British writer and enfant terrible Martin Amis celebrates his 63rd birthday today. Perhaps phrasing it that way suggests the curmudgeonly scribe might actually be enjoying himself. Just a few years ago, Amis spoke about his 60th milestone to GQ magazine. “It is true. It all ends in dissolution and chaos and indignity and tears. I’m very conscious of that… there’s something about 60 that can’t be laughed off,” he gravely reflected. We imagine his outlook hasn’t changed a mere three years later, especially while the author is being greeted with negative press about his latest novel, Lionel Asbo.

While Amis is busy wrestling with the gross consumerism of greeting cards and cursing the deadly clichés of birthday cheers, we wanted to honor his pith and loathing by rounding up ten things the writer despises. It’s all in good fun — for us anyway. Amis would probably just scowl in our general direction. … Read More

Books

A Collection of Original Vintage Advertisements for Classic Books

By Emily Temple on

Recently, we stumbled across this great original advertisement for “Scott Fitzgerald’s new novel The Great Gatsby” that was discovered in a 1925 copy of the Princetonian. Though printed ads for books aren’t very common anymore — at least outside of paper book reviews — they used to be all the rage. In fact, the first-ever print ad was actually an ad for a book entitled Perfect Occurrences of Every Daie journall in Parliament, and Other Moderate Intelligence. Now that’s a mouthful. Charmed by the pencil sketch of Fitzgerald, and by the whole idea of book ads in general interest publications, we dug around for a few more vintage advertisements for classic books. Now if only we could see some of these on a Times Square billboard, that would really make our day. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we watched 135 space shuttles launch at the same moment. We wanted to eat this full-length evening gown homage to Alexander McQueen fashioned out of 50,000 gummy bears. We wished we could be best friends with Rachel Dratch, even after witnessing her try to French kiss… Read More

Books

The 10 Grumpiest Living Writers

By Emily Temple on

This week saw the release of Farther Away, Jonathan Franzen’s newest collection of essays and speeches, covering the last five years of his non-fiction output. Well, in those last five years, he has become increasingly grumpy, griping about things like Twitter and ebooks, and building a reputation as an unrepentantly prickly author with a constant bone to pick. To celebrate the release of another book filled with Franzen’s complaints, we’ve put together a list of the ten grumpiest, crankiest and most cantankerous authors still living today. Click through to read about the exploits of our favorite literary curmudgeons, and let us know — as un-crankily as you can, please — if we’ve missed anyone in the comments. … Read More

Books

March Misanthrope Madness: 10 Malicious Masterpieces

By Emily Temple on

We all feel a tad misanthropic from time to time — but not all of us are good at making it sound beautiful, or hilarious. Enter Ivyland, Miles Klee’s recently released debut novel, a dark satire of 21st-century America, where almost nothing in the surreal and violent New Jersey town of the title eludes Klee’s razorlike contempt. A handful of other authors excel at this same kind of comic ruthlessness, demolishing everything allegedly sacred, and creating the most deliciously nasty heroes, and we asked Mr. Klee to curate a list of his favorite authors and books that do exactly that. Click through to read his suggestions, and let us know your own favorite malicious reads in the comments. … Read More

Books

Famous Authors’ Unlikely Obsessions

By Emily Temple on

We tend to put our favorite authors on a pedestal, and in some ways when we do that, we turn them into characters themselves, figures whose every action, whim, and interest should fit into the tidy package of our understanding. However, authors are real people (thank goodness) and sometimes they can surprise us by being into something that seems a little off-kilter for them — or just in general. With all the recent hubbub on book blogs about Martin Amis’s resurfaced video game guide (so it’s okay to write about Space Invaders, but penning children’s books is totally lame?), we got to thinking about other authors and their obsessions, from the literary to the musical to the, um, extra-terrestrial. Click through to check out our list of famous authors’ unlikely obsessions, and try not to be alarmed at what you may find. … Read More

Books

Police Sketches of Famous Literary Criminals

By Caroline Stanley on

Bookworms, meet your new favorite Tumblr: The Composites, a brilliant new project dreamed up by Joyland co-founder Brian Joseph Davis, takes descriptions of famous literary characters and, using law enforcement composite sketch software, creates images of what they’d presumably look like in real life. “I recognized his decisive nose, more remarkable for character than beauty; his full nostrils, denoting, I thought, choler; his grim mouth, chin, and jaw — yes, all three were very grim, and no mistake,” Jane tells us in Chapter 13 of Jane Eyre. Is this Javier Bardem lookalike what you were picturing when you first read those words?

Click through to get a better look at Mr. Rochester, and an assortment of other famous faces — from Humbert Humbert to Madame Bovary — and submit your own suggestions for characters to feature here. … Read More

Books

10 Legendary Bad Boys of Literature

By Emily Temple on

Last week saw the publication in English of France’s resident literary bad boy Michel Houellebecq’s newest novel, The Map and the Territory, heralded by some as his magnum opus. The resurgence of the literary great got us to thinking about other literary bad boys who rocked the boat and won notoriety for it — most of them buoyed by endless talent, or just star power. After all, everyone loves to hate (or in some cases, loves to love) the literary rebels and the scandalous men of letters. Click through to check out our list of legendary literary bad boys — and if we’ve forgotten your favorite enfant terrible, be sure to let us know in the comments. … Read More

Books

The 30 Harshest Author-on-Author Insults In History

By Emily Temple on

[Editor's note: While your Flavorwire editors take a much-needed holiday break, we're revisiting some of our most popular features of the year. This post was originally published June 19, 2011.] Sigh. Authors just don’t insult each other like they used to. Sure, Martin Amis raised some eyebrows when he claimed he would need brain damage to write children’s books, and recent Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan made waves when she disparaged the work that someone had plagiarized, but those kinds of accidental, lukewarm zingers are nothing when compared to the sick burns of yore. It stands to reason, of course, that writers would be able to come up with some of the best insults around, given their natural affinity for a certain turn of phrase and all. And it also makes sense that the people they would choose to unleash their verbal battle-axes upon would be each other, since watching someone doing the same thing you’re doing — only badly — is one of the most frustrating feelings we know. So we forgive our dear authors for their spite. Plus, their insults are just so fun to read. Click through for our countdown of the thirty harshest author-on-author burns in history, and let us know if we’ve missed any of your favorites in the comments! … Read More

Books

Critically Acclaimed Authors Who Never Win Prizes

By Emily Temple on

This week marks the release of Anita Desai’s newest book, The Artist of Disappearance, a set of three beautiful novellas revolving around the shifting tides of Indian culture in past and present. We love Desai’s work, and we know critics love her too — but we noticed that, somehow, she is continually overlooked when it comes to major prizes. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride, as it were, she has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize without yet snapping up a win. Perplexed, we decided to take a look at other authors who have been robbed of prizes that we (and often, hordes of fans) think should be rightfully theirs. Click through to read our list of critically acclaimed authors who never win prizes — or never win that one particular prize — and let us know who else you think has been totally shafted in the comments. … Read More