Articles by Colin Marshall
September 12, 2011
Nobody Hearts L.A.: A Personal Los Angeles Canon 10
I asked all the readers I could for their recommendations of “alternative,” “adventurous,” “unusual,” “non-canonical,” or just “weird” Los Angeles novels.
April 22, 2011
Smirking Obsessives: a Primer on the Novels of Lynne Tillman 4
The more detailed your map of the Tillmanverse, the richer you’ll find your own wanderings through it.
January 20, 2011
Darts and Philosophy, Bowling and Metaphysics: A Primer on the Novels of Jean-Philippe Toussaint 3
Toussaint deals with both the little irritations and the Big Questions, usually in as close a proximity as possible, and he respects no boundary between fiction and nonfiction.
November 19, 2010
Consciousness on the Page: A Primer on the Novels of Nicholson Baker 2
Nicholson Baker understands how often people think about sex, but he also understands that, often times, they just think about shoelaces — and he understands those thoughts of sex and shoelaces aren’t as far apart, in form or in content, as they might at first seem.
October 5, 2010
The Un-Ironist: A Primer on Douglas Coupland’s Novels 8
How ironic that Douglas Coupland, the man who popularized the term “Generation X”, turns out to be one of the least ironic novelists of his generation. His novels may, on the whole, be loaded with typographical trickery, brand names of the nanosecond, slacking youngsters, and Simpsons references, but he’s also deep into a suite of timelessly, radically un-hip novelistic themes.
August 19, 2010
The Ballad of David Markson: A Primer 15
What might you have already read that suggests you’ll like David Markson? Tough call, since, for good or ill, nothing’s like David Markson.