Book briefs: Take a literary road trip this summer
Welcome to your weekly roundup of book news and literary highlights from The Thread.
This week, reader can relive their favorite writers' road trips, and an Australian bookstore gets into hot water over copies of "American Psycho."
Take a literary road trip this summer
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Road trips have been a central part of literature since long before the age of automobiles. (What's "The Odyssey" other than a really, really long road trip?)
They play a particularly strong role in American literature, where the cross-country journey pops up again and again across genres.
A year ago, journalist Richard Kreitner decided to get out a map and pin down these storied paths. He meticulously traced the place references in 12 great works of American non-fiction, charting the journeys of writers like Jack Kerouac, Cheryl Strayed, Mark Twain and Bill Bryson.
The result is a stunning interactive map, designed by Steven Melendez and hosted on Atlas Obscura. You can follow Robert Pirsig's journey in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" or retrace the wild bus ride of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test."
Kreitner, who has crisscrossed the country seven or eight times himself, says he made the map "as self-medication for wanderlust." His next journey, he thinks, will be in the footsteps of Kerouac, retracing one of the writer's journeys back east from California.
Which writer will you follow?
"American Psycho" pulled off the shelves by police in Australia
The New York Times called Bret Easton Ellis' "American Psycho" "the most loathsome offering of the season" when it was first published in 1990. The hyper-violent novel found a fan base nonetheless, and it was later turned into an equally violent film starring Christian Bale.
In Australia, however, the government ruled that "American Psycho" had to be wrapped up. The country has a rating system for media, and the "American Psycho" novel falls under "Restricted Category 1," which means it "must only be sold to adults and in a plastic wrapping with the appropriate marking."
Even 15 years after publication, the Australian government takes this rating very seriously. A bookstore in Adelaide found that out the hard way last week.
Imprints Booksellers received a shipment of the latest edition of "American Psycho" without the wrapping, due to a manufacturing error. Imprints staff put the books out anyway, and it wasn't long before an upset customer called to complain. Then, the police arrived.
Imprints co-owner Jason Lake told The Sydney Morning Herald that the police politely requested the book be removed, and the store complied. But Lake finds the mandatory plastic wrap unnecessary: "In this liberal society, people should be free to read what they want."
Ellis himself finds the restriction funny. When the author first learned that his book was being wrapped up in Australia, he said to the Morning Herald, "I told my publisher I want all my books restricted and put in little bags. It's like a little sandwich!"
NPR book reviewer Alan Cheuse in coma after car accident
Alan Cheuse, a book reviewer, author and professor, was seriously injured in a car accident last week in California.
Book lovers and public radio listeners know Cheuse's voice well: He frequently reviews books on NPR's "All Things Considered."
The Los Angeles Times reports that Cheuse was driving from the Squaw Valley Writers Workshop at the time of the accident.
According to the last update from his family, which was shared Monday on a Caring Bridge site, Cheuse remains in a coma.