Articles by Sam Allingham
February 13, 2012
Some Other, Better Bernhard, or the Rights and Wrongs of Readership 6
How did such an unpleasant author fashion such a stunning coup? Is it because he isn’t as unpleasant as everyone says he is?
November 25, 2011
My Mother is a Book: On Elisabeth Gille’s The Mirador 2
No matter how liberal we consider ourselves about the slippery line between memoir and autobiographical fiction – even if we are more Exley than Oprah on the matter – there is still something that seems suspicious about the enterprise of full-on fictional memoir. Is this allowable? Can one simply jump in and narrate the course of another person’s life. Perhaps – if you do it right.
November 11, 2011
The Disappointment Author: Lethem v. Wood 102
The critical takedown is well-known cultural corrective with a long and glorious history. The fellow critic providing cultural corrective to someone who has gotten too big for his or her britches — it’s practically a public service, if you do it right.