News
Over at the Lit Blog Co-Op site, editor Reagan Arthur talks about the selection of Case Histories for Read This!
So, no, CASE HISTORIES was not lurking shyly in the corner, waiting for someone to notice it but I can tell you that despite all that good news and good fortune, it has not hit the New York Times bestseller list, and its sales, while certainly respectable, are not so stratospheric that the Read This! recommendation is the blog equivalent of sending coals to Newcastle. I get the sense that some readers are disappointed enough in the book’s success and its corporate publisher that they’ll give it a miss on principle, and that old maternal stand-by comes to mind: don’t cut off your nose to spite your face! Borrow it from a friend, or the library — I’m not interested in boosting our sales figures, only, like the estimable folks behind the LitBlog Co-Op, in sharing the rare satisfaction to be found in reading a great book.
Agree? Disagree? Hit the thread with your comments.
BTW, while this doesn’t have the same weight as the hallowed NY Times bestseller list, the selection seems to have at least some impact on online sales. Over at Powells.com’s bestseller list, Case Histories is currently at #21.
Please take a moment to visit FreeThemNow.org, a new website that seeks to bring world attention to the plight of more than 408 Moroccan POWs–the world’s longest-held prisoners of war. Captured in the early days of the conflict in Western Sahara between Morocco and the Polisario Front, these people have been held for nearly 30 years. Senator McCain, a former POW, has recently joined the Free Them Now group.
Frequent Moorishgirl contributor Dan Olivas has joined La Bloga, a group of kick-ass Chicano bloggers posting on all things literary. Something to add to your bookmarks.
Random House editor Jillian Quint writes in to inform us of a contest for young writers called Twentysomething Essays By Twentysomething Writers. Says Jillian:
Basically we’re looking for cool, short nonfiction essays by good (but not super famous) writers in their twenties. The top essay wins $20,000 and up to 28 others get published in a book due out in September 2006.
Check out the website for more details.
“Emil Habibi’s The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist is classic satire and may also be one of the first examples of peculiarly Israeli Arab literature,” Jonathan says. “The Arab Israelis are ethnically Palestinian, but their experiences have been shaped by life in an Israeli society to which they simultaneously do and do not belong, and this has given rise to a distinct literary voice. Habibi – who was a communist member of the Israeli Knesset – experienced these contradictions in full, and the exploits of his absurd anti-hero illustrate how surreal they must have seemed to those living through them.
The term “pessoptimist” – the author’s coinage for a pessimistic optimist – is a good one to know for those who follow Middle Eastern politics, because the news from that region is often both hopeful and depressing. The continuing validity of Habibi’s satire a generation after it was written inspires the same mix of emotions.”
Jonathan Edelstein is a lawyer practicing in New York City and the author of The Head Heeb, which analyzes Middle East affairs and democratization in the developing world.