The November Boldtype is up. They are calling this month’s ‘The Kinship Issue’.

I liked this interview with John Banville. He makes a lot of sense:

“He’s a wonderful writer, and I think he made a mistake,” he said of Mr. McEwan. “I just felt he was offering a completely spurious and unbelievable version of life. His protagonist was still in love with his wife after all those years, can never have been unfaithful to her; both his children loved each other. It’s just not life as we know it. Many people would say: ‘Oh, well, that’s just Banville. You’re sick. What do you know about life?’ It’s possible. This is just a book review. I didn’t mean it to be a grand statement.”

I like the last bit about it just being a book review. We all make such big deals about them–the article itself even references Kakutani’s negative review of Banville from yesterday–but really they are just opinions in the end. Banville seemed to expect better from McEwan and was disappointed when the book failed to deliver for him.

And this is just ludicrous.