Boldtype: Influence

Issue 19 of Boldtype is now available online, with reviews of the latest novels of Alicia Erian, Kazuo Ishiguro, H.T. Hamann, and Cintra Wilson, as well as an interview with Jonathan Lethem.

BT: Are there any other lost classics that you’d like to see reissued? Any authors in particular?

JL: Well, Malcolm Braly and few other exceptions aside, I think NYRB [New York Review of Books] is a little more focused on European and international stuff. For my money, there are a few great out of print American novelists of the last 50 years or so that could be very exciting discoveries for readers. Don Carpenter is a particular favorite of mine. His first novel, Hard Rain Falling, might be my candidate for the other best prison novel in American literature. I can think of a few others. McDonald Harris, as well. But really, NYRB has done an incredible thing and it’s so healthy. It’s a constant reminder of what riches there are just behind the canon, and just behind the list of what’s in print. I’ve been buying or snagging as many freebies as I can, but I haven’t even read a third of their shelf. I do feel, for the first time, that there are as many old books being pulled back into print as there should be. They’ve really willed that into being a part of the landscape.

By the way, earlier this week, Andrew Sean Greer recommended The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Wescott from the New York Review of Books collection for Moorishgirl’s underappreciated books series.