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6.11.07 & 6.18.07 Issue: Happy "Four," Miranda July!

Filed under: Pick of the Issue Tagged: Adrian Tomine, ads, books, covers, D.T. Max, design, fiction, GOAT, J.D. Salinger, Miranda July, photography

What to read in last week's issue before you let the recycling algore-ithm turn it to colorful pulp? Every Monday, we at Emdashes—archive maven Martin Schneider, intrepid intern John Bucher, and I—review the issue's high points.

GOAT has a fine Bruce Davidson sixties-era photograph of a sinuous black man leaning on a Chevrolet, his son clutching his leg—a captivating contrast of masculine and feminine.

My prurient thanks, also, to Adrian Tomine for his world-be-damned cover girl on a double-decker New York sightseeing bus, her nose in what can only be (given the paperback's telltale stripes on a clean white field) the classic Little, Brown edition of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Sigh. —JB

This has come up in the comments, but I really liked D. T. Max's piece on the Ransom Archive. If it whetted your appetite, check out Ted Bishop's Riding with Rilke, a travel book by a motorcycling literary scholar in which it serves as the destination—just don't go in expecting a lot of Rilke. I also enjoyed Miranda July's cunning tale "Roy Spivey." I notice that the New Yorker lists "armpits" as one of the few (seven) keywords associated with the piece—possibly a New Yorker first! —MCS

I think I knocked the wind out of myself with my panicky post about finishing the double summer fiction issue a week too soon. I've got a few more picks to round out my rant, but in the meantime, I'll quote an ad from the issue in question, to set the mood for this week: "Nothing relaxes like cocktail piano...nothing!" —EG

3 comments

Comments

John, I'm thinking the beautiful-anomie bus girl could even be reading Nine Stories, given the one line of type. Based on what you know about her personality so far, which do you think it is?

EmdashesJune 18, 2007

"Just Before the War with the Eskimos."

John the InternJune 22, 2007

I just googled that—I haven't the slightest idea. Which one is giving you a buzz, Emily?

John the InternJune 22, 2007

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Emdashes, founded December 2004, is a place where keen and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages. Learn more about us and our contributors.

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A few clips

Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)

More clips.

Tell me more

They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.

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Edited by Martin Schneider, designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

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