CHABON REVIEWS MCCARTHY'S THE ROAD
Monday, January 29, 2007, 1:40 PM ET
Source: The New York Review of Books

The New York Review of Books recently published an article by Michael Chabon analyzing Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road. Here's a sample (and possibly a sentence that rivals Melville in length):

All the elements of a science fiction novel of the post-apocalypse are present or at least hinted at, then, in The Road: the urgent naturalism of McCarthy's description of torched woodland, desiccated human remains, decaying structures, human and natural violence; the ambivalence toward technology embodied in the destructive-redemptive role of fire; the faint inventive echoes of works like Roger Zelazny's Damnation Alley and the Mad Max movies in McCarthy's "bloodcults," roving gangs of tattooed barbarian cannibals driven by lust and hunger and surviving bits of diesel-powered machinery; and the strong invitation to pardon the exercise as a fable extended by the namelessness of characters and locales, by the vague nature of the disaster that has befallen the world, by the presence of at least one semi-allegorical character and the usual, inevitable (in McCarthy's work generally and the genre as a whole) speculation on the presence or absence of God.

CHABON'S "GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD" DEBUTS SUNDAY
Wednesday, January 24, 2007, 12:25 PM ET
Source: Press Release

The first installment of Michael Chabon's 16-part fiction serial Gentlemen of the Road will debut in The New York Times Magazine this Sunday.

Previously known under the working title "Jews with Swords," the action serial takes place in the kingdom of Arran around 950 A.D., situated in the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian seas. The story is basted on historical research into a little known era in the Middle Ages, according to The New York Times Company.

At The New York Times' Web site, fans can also listen to a podcast of Chabon reading the first chapter. He will also participate in an online Q & A session.

The serial can be found in the "Funny Pages" section of the magazine.

LEAKED PITTSBURGH SCRIPT GETS BAD REVIEW
Tuesday, January 23, 2007, 1:55 AM ET
Source: film ick

Uh oh. Looks like the film adaptation of Mysteries of Pittsburgh may, well, not be all that good, according to a review by Mark Cardwell posted at film ick.

"Basically, this script may well end up as a decent enough movie," Cardwell writes. "At this point, with my ire up, I’m having problems telling. But that movie will only really take Chabon’s novel as a point of departure. As an exercise in adaptation, it strikes me as similarly irritating, baffling, as adapting The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by slashing out all the comic book stuff, and choosing to make it a war movie set in the Antarctic, or choosing to adapt Summerland by removing all the mythological references and making it into a movie about baseball."

Head over to film ick for the rest of the review.

WALDMAN ON NPR
Thursday, January 18, 2007, 3:40 AM ET
Source: NPR

Ayelet Waldman was featured Tuesday on NPR's "All Things Considered." In the 3 minute, 49 second clip, Waldman discusses child health issues.

U.S. COVER FOR YIDDISH POLICEMEN ONLINE
Friday, January 12, 2007, 6:20 PM ET
Source: Steven Barclay Agency

A small image of the cover for the U.S. edition of The Yiddish Policemen's Union has found its way online.

Steven Barclay Agency, which books Michael Chabon's speaking engagements, posted a thumbnail of the cover on its Web site. Asked if it had a larger version, the agency said it couldn't provide one since it didn't have the right to distribute it further.

The cover appears to feature Alaska Native art, fitting with the story's plotline of a Yiddish homeland in Alaska. The cover also features a city with tall buildings.

The U.S. edition differs significantly from the UK edition, which featured a police car.

JLO TO STAR IN WALDMAN ADAPTATION
Tuesday, January 9, 2007, 10:50 PM ET
Source: Studio 360

For all the news and drama surrounding film adaptations of Michael Chabon's Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Kavalier & Clay, it's easy sometimes to forget that Ayelet Waldman could have a movie of her own hitting theaters.

Waldman's Love and Other Impossible Pursuits was optioned by Walt Disney before it even hit bookstores. This site hasn't reported much on it, but it's been in the works and drawing in talent.

Don Roos, the writer and director of The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings, is writing and possibly directing the film adaptation. Waldman confirmed that Jennifer Lopez has been cast as the main actress.

"Yup, Jlo is in, and we've got preliminary financing!" Waldman said via e-mail.

Lopez is prepping for the part, according to Harper's Bazaar.

"I'm very excited," Lopez told Entertainment Weekly in September. "[Roos]'s fantastic. When he knew I was coming [to Toronto], he actually e-mailed me. He goes, 'How are you doing? Are you nervous?' I was like, 'Yeah!' He saw the film [El Cantante] because before we decided to work together I wanted him to see it. And he was like, 'It's the best female performance in five years — don't worry about it!' I was like, 'I love you!' [Laughs]"

In an interview with Zulkey last year, Waldman called Roos' screenplay "awesome." "It's so good - he took lots of my jokes and made them funnier," she said. "I loved it."

CHABON TALKS SUPERMAN
Monday, January 8, 2007, 6:25 PM ET
Source: Studio 360

NPR's Studio 360 broadcasted a fascinating radio piece about Superman and what he symbolizes Sunday. Among the many experts speaking in the show is Michael Chabon.

"I mean, you look and you pick up comic books of the 1940's, and it's very easy to see what's on peoples' minds, what's going on," Chabon says. "It's the war."

He also says Superman's logo is a reference to the Nazi swastika. "It's all right there. Big swastikas everywhere. And so, yeah, the swastika is a kind of Superman "S" or a Batman bat. It's sort of the mark, the imprint that strength makes on weaker material."

He continues: "Fascism is inherently appealing to people who have no power and are weak, and so is Superman. I mean, Superman was created by a couple of guys who had no power and were weak and wished they were strong and could do more than they could with their bodies. I mean, fascism is all about bodies and strength and power and the imposition of will. That's what Superman is all about."

The narrator notes that the name "Superman" comes from the writings of Friedrich Nietzche, a favorite writer of Adolf Hitler.

But he's also a reference to the New Deal thinking of the time, Chabon says.

"Superman was initially conceived very much as a champion of the meak and the oppressed against the powerful and strong. Somebody who was going to intercede on the side of the little guy against the big bosses," he says.