Date: Sun, 20 May 2007 18:08:03 -0400
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: "WSFA List" <wsfalist at keithlynch.net>,
    "WSFA Forum" <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Seen in the Wash Post Book World
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

The monthly SF book reviews: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/a=
rticle/2007/05/17/AR2007051701836.html=20
"Turning to Robert J. Sawyer's Rollback, we move from the sublime to the =
ridiculous."

Michael Dirda on something sorta genre: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy=
n/content/article/2007/05/17/AR2007051701903.html=20
"Last year, Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore won the World Fantasy =
Award for best novel. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Ever since the =
Japanese writer began publishing in America -- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, =
A Wild Sheep Chase-- Murakami has been out front, riding the zeitgeist, =
investing his work with an aura of the surreal, uncanny and fantastic. =
Over the past 25 years, literary fiction has increasingly disdained the =
strict tenets of social realism. Our finest writers are now producing what =
is essentially science fiction (Cormac McCarthy's The Road), alternate =
history (Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union) and absurdist =
fantasy (the short stories of George Saunders). A hot author such as =
Jonathan Lethem proudly introduces the work of Philip K. Dick for the =
Library of America. Neil Gaiman, creator of the Sandman series, has =
achieved rock-star status. We are living in an age when genre fiction -- =
whether thrillers or graphic novels, children's books or sf -- seems far =
more exciting and relevant than well-wrought stories of adultery in =
Connecticut."

And in the Literary Calendar section, a listing for the Reiter's event and =
a "Special Notice" for Balticon.  Also, on Wednesday, Politics & Prose =
will be having, offsite,  Michael Chabon talking/signing about his new =
noirish alt-history novel. =20

mjw