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.

Irène Némirovsky, Suite Française, and The Mirador 1

Notes on the French novelist Irène Némirovsky, her "violent masterpiece" Suite Française, and the imaginary memoir written by her daughter.

Dissecting the List: An Excursus 1

It's probably its hospitality to debate that makes the "Best Of" list so popular in the first place. One can agree - yes! great list! - or dissent - Where is x? Why no y? - or inveigh against list-making itself, but in any case, the list holds up a mirror to one's own preoccupations. As with any mirror, it is fearsomely hard to look away.

The Most Anticipated Books of the Rest of 2007 8