Sarah Larson interviews Douglas Rogers about his new book, which chronicles his parents’ extraordinary life in Zimbabwe. (“It was only in around 2005, when I found out about the brothel, the marijuana crop, the fact that their land had become a safe haven for all these white farmers, that it dawned on me that my parents were in fact the opposite of sad and tragic. I came to see them as heroic. And outrageously funny.”) . . . The PEN American Center is asking for support in bringing attention to the case of Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese critic and intellectual recently indicted for “inciting subversion of state power.” To learn more, go here. And to speak out, go here. . . . Martin Amis believes writers get worse in old age. Clive James disagrees. . . . Blake Butler’s list of the 25 “most important” books of the past decade leans heavily toward experimental and semi-experimental and experiment-influenced fiction, whatever those terms are worth. So, it’s limited, but still interesting. . . . Craig Finn, lead singer of The Hold Steady, talks about adapting Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City for the screen. . . . Lit Drift is giving away a novel by Pasha Malla. All you have to do to enter the competition for it is leave a comment (there, not here). . . . As so many others look back at the year in books that was, D. G. Myers looks ahead to the year that will be.
Wednesday December 16th, 2009