Lit Hub Weekly: January 10 – 14, 2022

TODAY: In 1831, Victor Hugo finishes The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

• “I cannot imagine how I would have ever known to write my own poems had Claude McKay not written his.” Jericho Brown on Claude McKay’s subversive poems of love and protest. | Lit Hub Poetry

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• “Whenever I think of Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddhartha, I think of boys.” Andre Bagoo on his 100-year-old boyfriend. | Lit Hub Criticism

• Stories vs. Ideas? David Hollander on finding something deeply personal in the philosophical novel. | Lit Hub Criticism

• “You cannot make them do what you want because look, it’s a sword. A sword means no.” Gwen E. Kirby on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and her own literary “stabby period.” | Lit Hub

• New titles from Hanya Yanagihara, Jami Attenberg, and Carl Bernstein all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks

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• Molly Odintz with 16 horror novels to look out for in 2022. | CrimeReads

• Richard Joseph looks at the present state of the literary hatchet job, which is, he writes, “back with a vengeance.” | Los Angeles Review of Books

• A roundup of some of the great translated literature coming in 2022. | Words Without Borders

• Kate Harding considers the demise of critical reading. | Dame

• “It never occurred to me to write something people want to read.” Read a profile of Hanya Yanagihara. | The New Yorker

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• Niela Orr pays tribute to bell hooks: “To ask questions is to be an agent in one’s own destiny, a crucial step in any attempt to find meaning within that existential at-oddsness hooks evoked.” | The Paris Review

• Dan Falk on the remarkable work of Curious George author H.A. Rey, whose astronomy books recreated star maps with “wit, grace, and accuracy.” | Nautilus

• What’s the perfect first Wordle guess? Linguists, engineers, and puzzle obsessives are on the case. | The Ringer

• Well, this isn’t great: Americans are reading fewer books than they used to, according to a new poll. | Gallup

• “If I’d have seen [this photograph] on the landscape when I was 15, it would have changed everything for me.” Douglas Stewart and photographer Wolfgang Tillmans on the UK cover of Young Mungo. | The Face

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• Angie Chau on the under-translated biji wenxue genre—Chinese literature of daily life. | Public Books

• “There’s a kind of necessary amnesia that sets in after you finish writing a novel. Like childbirth, you must forget; the future requires it of you.” Sara Freeman on writing something new. | Granta

• Cara Blue Adams breaks down a linked story collection’s ability to “shine a light on specific moments in a character’s life without necessarily needing to create connective tissue between them.” | BOMB

• Marina Magloire considers Lucille Clifton’s memoir, which “encourages us to take seriously the revolutionary spirit of Clifton’s work.” | The Nation

• “Everyone deserves access to the books they seek for self-determination and growth.” Andy Chan and Michelle Dillon call on prisons to stop banning books by Black authors. | Washington Post

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• Andrea Long Chu considers Hanya Yanagihara’s novels and her relationship to her gay male characters. | Vulture

Also on Lit Hub:

Trying to define the “Great American Novel” • On Almanac of the Dead, a hallmark of Indigenous literature • “Like saying your first ‘I love you,’ you can’t exactly ignore your first Daddy” • Inside the world’s most beautiful libraries • Radhika Sanghani’s favorite self-help books • Is there a serial killer lurking in the Himalayas’ Parvati Valley? • How stolen cultural artifacts made their way to a major museum • Nikki May on dreaming of jam tarts in Lagos • How our emotions laid the foundation for functioning societies • On the hidden fight inside the Federal Reserve that reshaped the economy • Kerri Maher on the bookstores that comprise her “writing DNA” • How artists navigate the interplay of authority and freedom • 25 films from Oceania to add to your watch list • Edgar Gomez on sex, desire, and going on PrEP • Leigh Stein on reading Anne Frank in quarantine • Lewis R. Gordon on talking about Black consciousness • Hannah Lilith Assadi on the hauntings of our pasts • 59 years of book covers for The Bell Jar • Do our dogs really love us? • Jonathan Gleason on the roots of violence • Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore on writing on your own terms

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