Friday Finds for Writers: Modianomania

by Erika Dreifus on
4

Change in plans! Instead of a typical “Friday Finds” post, I’m going to share with you some of my favorite finds about the latest Nobel Prize winner in literature, Patrick Modiano.

A preface:

Monsieur Modiano’s work and I go back 25 years. As I commented on Twitter and Facebook yesterday, I discovered Modiano’s writing during my junior fall in college, in an independent study on literature and film relating to the World War II period in France.

Fall 1989 Syllabus
Fall 1989 Syllabus

Suffice to say that as I continued my studies–eventually, I earned a PhD in French history, focusing on the World War II period–I kept up with Modiano’s work. Studying French history meant that I had the great good fortune to make repeated trips to France, and my Modiano collection expanded.

It has been more than a decade since I’ve taught French history or literature, and a lot of other things have changed, too. I haven’t kept up as assiduously with Modiano’s books in recent times, though I had caught news of his latest work.

And then yesterday came. I’ve been enjoying all kinds of memories of reading Modiano and the pleasures of talking about his work with my teachers, students, and others I’ve encountered over the years. (As I drafted this post I recalled the student who reported in his end-of-semester evaluation that Modiano’s Voyage de noces, translated as Honeymoon, which my co-instructor and I had assigned, was the best book he’d read [that semester? that year? ever? I no longer recall].)

But I know that Modiano is very new to a lot of people. So here are some of the English-language links that I ran across yesterday that I think may help you get to know and admire Monsieur Modiano as much as I do. (more…)

Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

People have been asking me what I’m doing as Media Editor for Fig Tree Books. This week, one part of my job became public information: editing freelance reviews to be published on the Fig Tree Books website.

We announced this exciting project on the Fig Tree site yesterday:

We’re proud that the Fig Tree Books website is now home to content drawn from Joshua Lambert’s American Jewish Fiction: A JPS Guide, a compendium of 125 reviews of important literature that deals with the experiences of American Jews. By incorporating this book’s companion website into the Fig Tree website, we have been able to include many of the summary reviews that appeared in the Guide as well as a list of hundreds of other important works Lambert was not able to cover.

And that’s where you come in. We’re looking for smart, enthusiastic readers to write about the books that Lambert wasn’t able to include so that we may further enrich the conversation about fiction that evokes and engages with American Jewish experience.

Interested? Read the full announcement here. (And, yes–FTB will be paying its reviewers.)

Sunday Sentence

by Erika Dreifus on
1

9781590178140_jpg_200x450_q85

In which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, sharing the best sentence I’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

“No plucking!”

Runner-up:

If the stories dealt with crime, blood, stonings, and stabbings, they listened better, so he came up with more of those.

Source: Ruchama King Feuerman, In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist

Friday Finds for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Treasure Chest
Writing-related resources, news, and reflections to enjoy over the weekend.

  • Jane Friedman considers “How to Avoid the ‘Extra’ Work of Social Media.”
  • This New Yorker podcast like a real treat: “George Saunders Reads Grace Paley and Barry Hannah.”
  • Some sobering talk on “little magazines.” (via @Scratch_Mag)
  • “Unless they were dousing a fire or spilling coffee, they were ‘poring’ over the reports, not ‘pouring.'” This and other helpful reminders courtesy of After Deadline.
  • ICYMI: The October issue of The Practicing Writer went out to subscribers this week.

    • Have a great weekend, everyone!