Vladimir Nabokov

Lecture on Literature

When Gish Jen delivered the Massey lectures in American history at Harvard in 2012—now published as Tiger Writing—the daughter of Chinese immigrants examined the East-West divide, not only in child-rearing but in fiction writing. Almost every novelist has had to contend with the question of “what is fiction,” and Jen picks her favorite lectures on writing, from Nabokov’s attention to detail, to a meditation on Edwidge Danticat’s immigrant experience, to Toni Morrison’s own Massey lecture.

Literary Feuds

American Psycho and Less Than Zero author Bret Easton Ellis has taken to Twitter to go off on the late novelist David Foster Wallace, prompted by a late-night reading of D.T. Max's biography Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace. To put the smack-talk into perspective, click on the gallery below for the greatest literary feuds in history, from Mailer punching Vidal to Dickens vs. Thackeray.

As summer’s end draws near and students start packing, eight novels that capture the absurdity, drama, and pitfalls of university life. Sam Munson salutes Kingsley Amis, Richard Russo, and other classic collegiate novels. Plus, the best colleges in America.

CANNES REVIEW

Michael Haneke’s Amour may have won the Palme d’Or, but David Cronenberg’s competition entry provided plenty of intrigue: an appearance by seldom seen author Don DeLillo, a reinvented star in Robert Pattinson—and a surprisingly topical subject. Richard Porton reports from Cannes.