2013, not 2012.
Years get mixed up when you get old.

Anyway. Queen Esther is entertaining, as Irving usually is, but man, he's become a self-parody, blatantly repeating himself all the time. I don't know if it's because he's old, or he's running out of new ideas, or it's meant to be an inside joke, or fan service, or a combination of all four... (4/4)

I know the essay well because I loved it when I was in university -- it expressed exactly how I felt about Great Expectations, but also about the postmodern, minimalist fiction style that was trendy among literary elitists at the time (maybe still is?). It made me realize I wasn't crazy. (3/4)

The weirdest part: when one character, an English teacher, is explaining Dickens to his grandson, his dialogue quotes from "The King of the Novel", Irving's 1980s essay on Great Expectations.

I don't mean the character makes the same points: Irving literally rewrites passages from the essay! (2/4)

So: if you want to buy my new book, but you don't want to support Amazon, and you also don't want to interact with me personally for some reason... problem solved.

You've seen them play live?

The first one is definitely in the top three.
And probably the last great film they did (although there's a lot to love about Coco too).

(sorry, Turning Red fanatics)

(Apparently Timothy Carter is going to be a Carver. Which, I suppose, is totally appropriate for American Thanksgiving weekend.)

Hope you're okay too.