Southern Bookman

Rachel Kushner's "Creation Lake" raises literary firestorm

Rachel Kushner's"Creation Lake" is this season's literary lightning rod, drawing extreme critical reactions.

The 55-year-old Kushner's new novel, long-listed for the Booker Prize, received extravagant praise Sunday from The New York Times' Dwight Garner in the newspaper's Sunday Book Review, and condemnation from American novelist Brandon Taylor in the current London Review of Books.

While Taylor questioned why the novel was even written and joked in an X feed that the book "gave him Lyme Disease," Garner in his review said the book "consolidates Kushner's status as one of the finest novelists working in the English language. You know from this book's opening paragraphs that you are in the hands of a major writer, one who processes experience on a deep level. Kushner has a gift for almost effortless intellectual penetration."

Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles agreed with Garner, gushing that "Creation Lake" "bears all the hallmarks of her inquisitive mind and creative daring." In an expansive review in the Atlantic, Lily Meyer called the book a "swerve" that "suggests Kushner is ready for big change."

While the Guardian lauded the book, the Wall Street Journal reviewer Sam Sacks was lukewarm, relegating "Creation Lake" to his fiction roundup in the WSJ's Saturday Review.

Garner's review likely will do more than any other to boost the book's sales. Garner is the Times' most important book critic, now mainly writing for the Sunday newspaper rather than the daily Arts section, and the Sunday Book Review is the nation's leading literary arbiter.

Kushner's novels "The Flamethrowers," "Telex from Cuba" and "The Mars Room" also stirred heated critical debate, as did her essay collection "The Hard Crowd."

It'll be interesting to see if "Creation Lake" lands on the Times' best-seller list after garnering such media attention. These days, fantasy, horror and romance novels dominate the list, rarely crashed by "literary novels."

 

Remembering The Atlanta Journal's Sept. 11, 2001 coverage

On the anniversary of Sept. 11, I remember my Atlanta Journal-Constitution colleagues who've died since that momentous day.

I also honor the firefighters, police officers and workers lost when the World Trade Center towers collapsed in massive clouds of dust.

In one its last hurrahs, the afternoon Atlanta Journal put out a special edition reporting on the terrorist attack. The late Frank Hyland's on deadline account remains one of the most gripping in its urgency, factual details and dramatic writing. An old sportswriter, Frank was among the great rewrite men.

I recall seeing the late Bill Husted on the elevator that day, and how he gave me an encouraging smile. Bill wrote the pioneering "Tech Buddy" column, guiding many into their first forays into the new world of the Internet.

On the Journal copy desk, the late Frank White, the consummate jazz scholar, performed his duties. The Journal's desks heroically responded to the devastating event.

The newsroom was electric, with meetings and plans for wide-ranging coverage. The next morning's Constitution delivered a thorough package of stories and columns, but to me Hyland's piece for the dying Journal set the standard.

Many other newspaper colleagues have passed away in the 23 years since the terrorist attack shocked the nation. The rest of us have aged, fighting various ailments.

The Atlanta Journal soon ceased publication after more than 100 years of "covering Dixie like the dew."  The newspaper rose to a last moment of glory on Sept. 11, 2001.

 

Braves' Brian Snitker raises a glass to his 4,000th game

Brian Snitker might never make the Hall of Fame, but his career defines the essence of baseball.

Snitker in the Braves' 9-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins Monday night managed his 4,000th game, all with the Braves organization.

After years managing in the minor leagues, he's enjoyed a stellar reign in nearly a decade as the team's Major League skipper.

His players love him, giving him a signed bottle of wine Monday night in honor of his milestone and expressing their appreciation for his steady leadership, as noted in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

In his years running teams like the Anderson Braves and the Durham Bulls, Snitker endured a lot of bus rides, saw countless repetitive baseball plays and watched the major league dreams of many young men blossom or crash.

At last taking over the big club in 2018, Snitker has taken the Braves to a level of success not seen since the great Bobby Cox era, winning the World Series in 2021 and capturing several division titles.

Snitker's calm, impassive presence on the top step of the dugout rarely changes no matter what happens on the field. Unlike Cox, he doesn't cheer, and rarely gets into arguments with umpires.

His press conferences are a treat, packed with folksy baseball wisdom.

Braves fans hope Snitker wins another World Series before saying farewell.

Whatever happens, they'll always fondly remember the man who's risen much larger than his nickname, "Snit."

 

 

 

 

Louisiana newspaper covers Paris Olympics, while Atlanta Journal-Constitution stays on sidelines

Scott Rabalais, the Times Picayune-Advocate's ace sports columnist, is giving the Louisiana newspaper's readers compelling daily reports from the Paris Olympics.

In glaring contrast, our Atlanta Journal Constitution has no one in the City of Light, although the 1996 Olympics took place in Atlanta.

While the AJC runs generic Associated Press stories, Rabalais is producing pieces packed with local color for the Baton Rouge-New Orleans newspaper and its NOLA web site. 

The veteran Louisiana columnist, who also covers the Masters each year, is reporting on the many LSU athletes competing in Paris, led by women's 100-meter dash favorite Sha'Carri Richardson.

In recent years, the AJC has boosted coverage, adding correspondents in Savannah, Macon and Athens. But the newspaper recently announced layoffs, cutting back on local coverage.

Atlanta's a global city, with the world's busiest airport. Yet the city's daily newspaper is staying home from the Olympics. 

 

 

In Wall Street Journal essay, literary biographer Jeffrey Meyers examines Joseph Conrad's enduring importance

Joseph Conrad still illuminates the world's turmoil, noted biographer and literary critic Jeffrey Meyers asserts in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal.

Born in Kiev, then part of the Polish empire, Conrad turned to English to write "Heart of Darkness," "Lord Jim," "Nostromo," "The Secret Sharer," "Under Western Eyes" and other classics. He died on Aug. 3 100 years ago at age 66.

English was Conrad's third language, after Polish and French, Meyers notes. Conrad spent many years at sea, traveling to colonial outposts, before beginning his literary career at age 37.

While Conrad is one of the white male writers accused of racism, Meyers emphasizes the author's condemnation of the ravages of colonialism, which still shapes global events.

Meyers cities Conrad's influence over T.S. Eliot, Graham Greene, V.S. Naipaul and George Orwell. He's also a guiding spirit for the travel writings of contemporary authors Paul Theroux touring Mexico, Redmond O'Hanlon reporting in the Congo and Amy Wilentz exploring Haiti, Meyers says.

Unmentioned by Meyers, Conrad also provided a model for Vietnam era writers Tim O'Brien, Michael Herr and David Halberstam. "The Heart of Darkness" was the basis for Francis Ford Coppola's film "Apocalypse Now," which condemned America's war effort in Vietnam.

Meyer's essay is another jewel in the WSJ's rise as a serious intellectual publication. 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell Lewis Lapham, stylish writer and innovative Harper's editor

New journalism zealots castigated Lewis Lapham for replacing beloved Harper's editor Willie Morris.

The Mississippi native Morris thrilled the New Yorker literati by shaking up the venerable journal, running articles like Norman Mailer's 90,000-word report on the Vietnam protest in Washington.

But Harper's, founded in 1850, hemorrhaged money. Morris' innovative but expensive pieces dismayed the magazine's corporate owners, the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, which at last ousted Morris.

Lapham took over, restoring the magazine's editorial decorum and producing shorter, more economical articles. While the financial losses continued, Lapham kept Harper's going until a savior emerged

The patrician editor, who led Harper's from 1976 to 2006, with a hiatus from 1981 to 1983, died Tuesday at age 89 in Rome. He also served as the magazine's managing editor from 1971, when he replaced Morris, to 1975.

Descended from a wealthy family, Lapham wore stylish suits and enjoyed upper class amenities while lampooning the foibles of the elite. One of his grandfathers was a founder of Texaco and another served as mayor of San Francisco, where Lapham grew up.

After graduating from the Hotchkiss School, Yale and Cambridge University's Magdalene College, Lapham discovered a passion for journalism. He worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and New York Herald Tribune before finding success as a freelance magazine writer

Along with his insightful editing, Lapham was lauded for the progressive essays that skewered America's crass materialism and provincial outlook.

Satirizing his fellow members of the upper class, Lapham wrote with a haughty, Mandarin style that recalled 18th century British essayists. While he published writers like Tom Wolfe and Christopher Hitchens, Lapham as an author was a throwback to classic journalism.

While Lapham was seen as the corporate henchman who ousted Morris, he brought several innovations to Harper's that continue today, including an index of surprising facts and a compilation of  annotated writings titled "Readings."

After leaving Harper's, Lapham edited the Lapham Quarterly, which published selections from classical literature along with work by contemporary writers. Each issue was devoted to a particular theme.

I personally admired Lapham for a long, thoughtful response he made to a letter to the editor I sent to Harper's. He personally signed the typed reply.

Harper's financial difficulties persisted under Lapham, and the magazine hovered near death until 1980, when it was purchased by the John D. and Catherine T, MacArthur Foundation and the Atlantic Richfield oil company, which made the publication a nonprofit.

It continues on under the foundation's guidance, gamely competing against the well-endowed Atlantic,  also founded in the 19th century, and the New Yorker, whose corporate backer Conde Nast is under financial duress. Another intellectual journal, the New Republic, recently launched a revival.

While Morris is acclaimed for his ground-breaking editing at Harper's, Lapham saved the magazine, also giving it a new burst of energy.

 

Farewell Lewis Lapham, stylish writer and innovative Harper's editor

New journalism zealots castigated Lewis Lapham for replacing beloved Harper's editor Willie Morris.

The Mississippi native Morris thrilled the New Yorker literati by shaking up the venerable journal, running articles like Norman Mailer's 90,000-word report on the Vietnam protest in Washington.

But Harper's, founded in 1850, hemorrhaged money. Morris' innovative but expensive pieces dismayed the magazine's corporate owners, the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, which at last ousted Morris.

Lapham took over, restoring the magazine's editorial decorum and producing shorter, more economical articles. While the financial losses continued, Lapham kept Harper's going until a savior emerged

The patrician editor, who led Harper's from 1976 to 2006, with a hiatus from 1981 to 1983, died Tuesday at age 89 in Rome. He also served as the magazine's managing editor from 1971, when he replaced Morris, to 1975.

Descended from a wealthy family, Lapham wore stylish suits and enjoyed upper class amenities while lampooning the foibles of the elite. One of his grandfathers was a founder of Texaco and another served as mayor of San Francisco, where Lapham grew up.

After graduating from the Hotchkiss School, Yale and Cambridge University's Magdalene College, Lapham discovered a passion for journalism. He worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and New York Herald Tribune before finding success as a freelance magazine writer

Along with his insightful editing, Lapham was lauded for the progressive essaays that skewered America's crass materialism and provincial outlook.

Satirizing his fellow members of the upper class, Lapham wrote with a haughty, Mandarin style that recalled 18th century British essayists. While he published writers like Tom Wolfe and Christopher Hitchens, Lapham as an author was a throwback to classic journalism.

While Lapham was seen as the corporate henchman who ousted Morris, he brought several innovations to Harper's that continue today, including an index of surprising facts and a compilation of  annotated writings titled "Readings."

After leaving Harper's, Lapham edited the Lapham Quarterly, which published selections from classical literature along with work by contemporary writers. Each issue was devoted to a particular theme.

I personally admired Lapham for a long, thoughtful response he made to a letter to the editor I sent to Harper's. He personally signed the typed reply.

Harper's financial difficulties persisted under Lapham, and the magazine hovered near death until 1980, when it was purchased by the John D. and Catherine T, MacArthur Foundation and the Atlantic Richfield oil company, which made the publication a nonprofit.

It continues on under the foundation's guidance, gamely competing against the well-endowed Atlantic , also founded in the 19th century, and the New Yorker, whose corporate backer Conde Nast is under financial duress. Another intellectual journal, the New Republic, recently launched a revival.

While Morris is acclaimed for his ground-breaking editing at Harper's, Lapham saved the magazine, also giving it a new burst of energy.

 

Atlanta area's wildnerness imperiled by data centers

Waiting for my doctor to arrive in the examination room, I marveled at the view through the window.

Atlanta's tree canopy stretched for miles toward the South. I felt a rush of pride that we really are a city in a forest.

While the city of Atlanta strives to protect its trees with stringent laws, the metro area's explosive growth has led to much loss of wilderness.

Throughout the country, the destruction of habitat threatens a range of animal species with extinction.

In undeveloped areas of metro Atlanta and Georgia, the spread of data centers is disrupting communities.

Data centers, which house computer servers for corporations, occupy vast amounts of land, consuming massive amounts of power and groundwater. Along with storing online data, the computer warehouses power technologies like artificial intelligence.

A Microsoft data center in south Fulton County will sprawl over 2.1 million square feet with a capacity of 324 megawatts of energy, ranking among the largest such projects in the Southeast, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article Thursday.

The details of the project in Union City were outlined in a Development of Regional Impact filing on Tuesday, the AJC's incisive reporter Zachary Hansen disclosed.

Data center construction in metro Atlanta has increased by 211 percent since 2003, Hansen reported. That makes the Atlanta metro area the fastest growing data center market in the country, according to the real estate services firm CBRE.

Microsoft has targeted Atlanta's southside for data center development, Hansen said, with expenditures of at least $171 million this year to acquire more than 480 acres in the area, including the Union City site.

Joni Mitchell in a song lamented "they paved paradise, put up a parking lot."

Now paradise is disappearing to the constant hum of computers' electric brains.

 

 

Atlanta area's wildnerness imperiled by data centers

Waiting for my doctor to arrive in the examination room, I marveled at the view through the window.

Atlanta's tree canopy stretched for miles toward the South. I felt a rush of pride that we really are a city in a forest.

While the city of Atlanta strives to protect its trees with stringent laws, the metro area's explosive growth has led to much loss of wilderness.

Throughout the country, the loss of habitat threatens a range of animal species with extinction.

In undeveloped areas of metro Atlanta and Georgia, the spread of data centers is disrupting communities.

Data centers, which house computer servers for corporations, occupy vast amounts of land, consuming  massive amounts of power and groundwater. Along with storing online data, the computer warehouses power technologies like artificial intelligence.

A Microsoft data center in south Fulton County will sprawl over 2.1 million square feet with a capacity of 324 megawatts of energy, ranking among the largest such projects in the Southeast, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article Thursday.

The details of the project in Union City were outlined in a Development of Regional Impact filing on Tuesday, the AJC's incisive reporter Zachary Hansen disclosed.

Data center construction in metro Atlanta has increased by 211 percent since 2003, Hansen reported. That makes the Atlanta metro area the fastest growing data center market in the country, according to the real estate services firm CBRE.

Microsoft has targeted Atlanta's southside for data center development, Hansen said, with expenditures of at least $171 million this year to acquire more than 480 acres in the area, including the Union City site.

Joni Mitchell in a song lamented "they paved paradise, put up a parking lot."

Now paradise is disappearing to the constant hum of computers' electric brains.

 

 

Black Army officer Lemuel Penn's slaying 60 years ago shocked nation

Two shotgun blasts broke the early morning silence at the Broad River Bridge near Athens, Ga., on July 11, 1964, killing black Army officer Lemuel Penn, a Washington, D.C. educator and World War II veteran.

Penn and two fellow black officers were returning home after two weeks of Army Reserve training at Fort Benning, now Fort Moore, in Columbus, Ga.

The assistant superintendent of Washington's public schools, the 48-year-old Penn received a World War II Bronze Star, serving in New Guinea and the Philippines.

As Penn's Chevrolet Biscayne sedan approached the bridge on Georgia State Route 172 near Colbert in Madison County, three Klansmen in a station wagon pulled beside the soldiers' car.

The shots were fired into Penn's vehicle, killing him instantly as he sat at the steering wheel. His passengers, Maj. Charles F. Brown and Lt. Col John Howard, stopped the automobile from going into the river.

Penn's killing nine days after President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act shocked the nation with its brutal display of entrenched white Southern resistance to the black civil rights movement.

The three Klansman saw Penn and his companions stopped near the University of Georgia arch in downtown Athens, where Penn took over driving duties for the trip. 

Noting the car's Washington license plate, Athens Klan members James Lackey, Cecil Myers and Joseph Howard Sims decided to follow the officers. Sims reportedly said "that must be one of President Johnson's boys" and vowed "to kill me a nigger."

The Klansmen in their Chevy II station wagon at last caught up to Penn's car 22 miles north of Athens at the Broad River Bridge, marking the boundary between Madison and Elbert counties. Myers raised his shotgun and fired, and Sims did the same from the back seat, according to Wikipedia.

Penn's three assailants were charged in the highly publicized slaying. Myers and Sims, accused of firing the fatal shots, were acquitted of murder in a nationally publicized Madison County trial. Lackey was found innocent in a separate trial.

Sims, Myers, Lackey and three other Klansmen later were charged in a federal conspiracy case. While the other defendants were found innocent, Sims and Myers were convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to 10 years each.

A ceremony at the Madison County Senior Center Thursday marked the 60th anniversary of the slaying. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Fletcher Page in a front page article about the remembrance presented a detailed account of the slaying and Penn's life.

Legendary Atlanta Constitution political columnist Bill Shipp gave the definitive history of the slaying in his book "Murder at Broad River Bridge: The Slaying of Lemuel Penn by the Ku Klux Klan," published by the University of Georgia Press.

Acclaimed Atlanta broadcaster John Pruitt fictionally portrayed the slaying and its media coverage in his compelling 2022 novel "Tell It True."

Penn's slaying was one of the most appalling of the civil rights era. Sixty years later, racial violence burns with new intensity.