Fiction ChronicleNovember 2006 Severe manners by Max Watman Reviews of "The View from Castle Rock: Stories," by Alice Munro; "Talk Talk," by T.C. Boyle; and "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," by Marisha Pessl. The Royal 10 typewriter was introduced in 1914 and was one of the last real advances in typewriter design. It had side panels of bevelled glass because the levers, gears, couplings, and pins which converted the downward thrust of your finger to the tight thwap of letter on paper were intricate and fascinating enough to warrant display. One could imagine sitting sideways to the Royal 10, typing out nonsense, satisfied with simply watching it work. It wouldn’t really matter if the letters were forming words, the words sentences, the sentences a cohesive paragraph contributing rhetorically to the sense of the whole. It wouldn’t matter a whit, because the graceful movements of the steel and gun oil were more than just a technological wonder. Watching the Royal 10 was like watching a ballet. The Royal 10 reminds me of Alice Munro. It doesn’t matter what Alice Munro is writing about—it’s fun jus ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 25 November 2006, on page 59 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Severe-manners-2512
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by Stefan Beck On The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco & Cain by José Saramago. by Stefan Beck On The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Slim by Jonathan Coe, Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell & The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. by Stefan Beck On Freedom, 03, A Visit from the Goon Squad & Dogfight, A Love Story.
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