Dear Gossips,
JK Rowling’s A Casual Vacancy will be released on Thursday, September 27th which is also Gwyneth Paltrow’s birthday. I don’t know what to do with that coincidence. But I did read The New Yorker profile on Jo last night; was saving it all day like it was the last bite. And... mega disappointment. It doesn’t matter to me that the piece didn’t seem to be intended to flatter JKR but rather that, I dunno, this is the New Yorker, where everyone who writes wants to be published, and the article was... really unsatisfying. I kept wondering what it would look like if, say, someone else, someone like John Jeremiah Sullivan had written it. I loved his NYT article on Venus and Serena Williams almost as much I love David Foster Wallace’s now classic piece on Roger Federer. (It’s coincidence that both subjects are tennis athletes.)
Does Rowling suck? Does she not suck? Is she crazy? Is she a hypocrite? Is she nice? Kind? Clever? Funny? I don’t know! Nearly 10,000 words later and the writer is standing in the middle, and I’m not sure what I’ve learned or even if I should have learned anything at all. Did I miss something? Click here if you’ve not gotten to it yet and let me know. I haven’t yet gotten to The Guardian’s profile of JKR. It’s here if you’re interested. Am hoping to bring the liveblog back on Thursday (in honour of my G’s bday) and we can discuss then?
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
PS. New #asklainey videos are now up on the Vitamin Water tumblr. Thanks for your submissions! Keep sending!
