The Morning News

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Currently: solving the world’s ills, over drinks
Today’s Feature: “Ladies First” by Eric Feezell
Digest: “Video Digest” by Meave Gallagher
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Letters for publication in The Morning News should be emailed to letters@themorningnews.org. Letters must be exclusive to The Morning News, and may be edited for length. Authors will not be contacted if their letter is published. All letters must be signed. No attachments, please. We value your correspondence.

Edited by Kate Schlegel

Reader Mail

March 23, 2008
Dear Mr. Warner,

I just wanted to thank you for your candid and insightful commentary on the second-round Tournament of Books matchup between Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke and Vendela Vida’s Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name.

I think Vida’s was the most critically overlooked novel of 2007. I worked at an independent bookstore last year (Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle) and spent a lot of time trying to convince coworkers and customers to read it. I must admit to feeling disappointment when I saw it matched up in the first round against The Savage Detectives (a book that no one needed much persuading to read, or at least purchase), and I resigned myself to clicking the “no way” button in response to the judge’s inevitable selection of Bolaño.

I knew it would be too much to expect Vida’s harrowingly lovely book to beat two of last year’s biggest, but I was comforted by your commentary and just wanted to pass along my appreciation.

I was especially interested in your comments about critical “certainty.” It helped me figure out why Sarvas’s decision irked me where McCracken’s, despite its bias, did not. It seems to have to do with tone, some kind of slippery difference between “this is my taste” vs. “this should be all our taste”… It’s probably got a lot more to do with that “wave of a hand,” but in any case, you’ve given me a lot to think about this morning. Thanks again for your astute commentary and for championing such fine books.

Appreciatively,
Elizabeth Ames Staudt

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MORE MAIL


TODAY’S FEATURE

Ladies First

Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week ERIC FEEZELL solves the origins of “Mrs.,” and presents a new nomenclature to fill the gender gap, once and for all.

PURE GIBBERISH

My Father Speaks Another Language

Sarah Hepola listens, her mother translates.

NEWSLETTER

Prize Lovers Apply Here

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DIGEST

Video Digest

May 16 | The government is watching you right now. Don’t believe it? Meave Gallagher has the video to p…

» Mp3 Digest, May 14
» Book Digest, May 12