"We still take pleasure in make-believe and in the telling of tales, even tall ones, if only because they tell us something true about ourselves, a truth that perhaps we can grasp through no other medium."- Eric Ormsby, in today's WSJ review of Gabriel Josipovici's What Ever Happened to Modernism?
I've always loved the Wall Street Journal's coverage of books (and the New York Times too, of course!), so when it first broke a few weeks ago that the WSJ would be launching a book section, I was very excited. When book sections of newspapers are folding all over the country - leaving the NYT Book Review as the only pull-out book section left - it is very surprising, and encouraging, to see a paper as powerful as the WSJ bucking the trend. Today's paper was the section's debut (as part of a larger Weekend section) and, so far, I really like the direction it is going in. It may not be as extensive as the NYTBR, but its variety of articles makes for good, wide-ranging coverage. There are shorter, straight book reviews alongside long book-inspired essays, like the one quoted above. Though a review of Josipovici's book, Ormsby's article becomes a longer look at Modernism and what it means in literature today. There is nothing like waking up on a Sunday morning to a late breakfast and coffee, with a long paper to read and, now, even more great book coverage.
