Thursday, September 18, 2008

In Literary News....

This has me bummed...

"US authors have been paying tribute to writer David Foster Wallace, who was found dead at his home in Claremont, California, on Friday night.

The 46-year-old hanged himself at his home, police said.

Wallace, best known for 1996 novel Infinite Jest, first gained praise for his offbeat humour with 1987 debut The Broom of the System.

In 1987, the New York Times said the then-24-year-old's Broom of the System was "a portrait, through a combination of Joycean word games, literary parody and zany picaresque adventure, of a contemporary America run amok".

His biggest hit, Infinite Jest - set in an elite tennis academy and a drug rehabilitation centre - was praised by critics for its complex, dark wit and featured in many best-of lists.
Wallace, born in Ithaca, New York, also wrote short fiction, published in magazines including GQ, Esquire and Harper's.

Three collections of his short stories - Girl With Curious Hair, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men and Oblivion: Stories - were also published. "

===================

I was a big fan of his...even though at times some of his writing made me roll my eyes (sometimes he tried to hard to be different and his writing came off very mannered) I still appreciated his wit.

I find myself wondering if his suicide note had several pages of footnotes .

---------------

And this has me happy...

Children's author Eoin Colfer has been commissioned to write a sixth instalment of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series.

Mostly Harmless, the last Hitchhiker book, was written by its creator, the late Douglas Adams, 16 years ago.

Now Adams's widow, Jane Belson, has given her approval to bring back the hapless Arthur Dent in a new book entitled And Another Thing...

Eoin Colfer, 43, is best known for the best-selling Artemis Fowl novels.
He said he was "terrified" by the prospect of creating a new Hitchhiker book almost a quarter of a century after being introduced to what he described as a "slice of satirical genius" in his late teens.

1 comment:

syllista said...

i've toted a copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy around the world and back with me and i must say, i'm not sure anyone else should write another installment.....

If you're optimistic about it i'd have to reserve judgment but i take Aurthur Dent rather seriously and i don't look forward to the prospect of having to sound like one seriously morose robot when reviewing an attempt at bringing him to life written by any other than the original.