“Six years after the publication of her blockbuster best-selling novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger has sold a new manuscript for close to $5 million… Scribner, a unit of Simon & Schuster, bought the rights to publish the new novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, in the United States this fall.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Critics Concur: Jane Fonda’s Return To Broadway Outshines Its Vehicle
Lisa Fung rounds up reviews, from New York and Los Angeles to London and Atlanta, of Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations. Typical is Peter Marks of The Washington Post: “She not only manages to transcend time, but also the material… [which is] little more than a handsomely annotated music lesson.”
Another Veteran Returns To The Stage: 92-Year-Old Kirk Douglas
In Before I Forget, “Douglas shares tales about his life, work and family, intertwined with video from his long career in Hollywood.” Charles McNulty finds the evening “genuinely touching and amusing by turns”; Bob Verini says that “Douglas’ insights may not be deep, but they’re pithy, witty and heartfelt.”
The Ten Foundational Pillars Of The John Leonard Lexicon
Andrew Leonard: “I recently completed a comprehensive computer analysis of my father’s collected works and confirmed what I have long only suspected: 97.4 percent of everything that ever emanated from his typewriter, keyboard or mouth can be safely ignored. All that verbiage is utilitarian scaffolding, employed to hold up 10 critical words.”
Time Out Chicago Averts Disaster For Grimaud and Chicago Symphony
When a writer for the magazine spoke to pianist Hélène Grimaud, “she was shocked to learn her reason for coming to Chicago. ‘I’m playing [Beethoven’s] Fourth [Concerto], aren’t I? Am I not playing the Fourth?!?’ she asked. As he double-checked the CSO website, Manning assured her she was to play ‘Emperor,’ Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto… Hours later, Ukranian pianist Valentine Lisitsa was subbed in for Grimaud.”
China’s Recently-Booming Art Market Suffers (Like Everywhere Else’s)
“Globally, the recent rise in Chinese artists’ fortunes was unparalleled… by 2007, 5 of the 10 best-selling living artists at auction were Chinese-born, led by Zhang Xiaogang, who trailed only Gerhard Richter and Damien Hirst.” But with the world financial crisis having wiped out many a fortune, “galleries are laying off staff members, and the collectors who patronized them now worry that their art investments may prove a colossal folly.”
How The Media Could (Have) Battled Al-Qaeda
Louise Richardson: “[After September 11,] I would have asked the media to make films of every Jordanian, every Egyptian, every Muslim family who had come to the US to live a peaceful and positive life, only to have it blown to smithereens by al-Qaeda. And I would have broadcast the films all over the Middle East.”
Tech Gremlins Return To Haunt L.A. Opera’s Rheingold
Three years ago, the company had to postpone the world premiere of Grendel when the computer controlling some elaborate and expensive stage machinery malfunctioned. Now the same problem is bedeviling L.A. Opera’s latest high-stakes production, the first installment in its Ring cycle: a “computer glitch” caused two different machinery problems during a performance last week.
Museum Of Funeral Customs May Be On Its Own Deathbed
“A stone’s throw from Lincoln’s tomb, this unusual cultural repository is an unmistakable reminder that everyone’s days are numbered. Now it seems the same might be true of the museum itself.”
Someday China Will Have Its Own Geraldo Rivera
Not so long ago, the People’s Republic had pretty much the staid, rigid, risk-averse media sector one would expect in a Communist nation. That conservatism, like the rest of country, is changing. The news media isn’t exactly free by Western standards, and there are taboo topics, but investigative journalism provides some of the most popular shows on television.