Sunday, December 18, 2016

Alex Beam

Alex Beam has been a columnist for The Boston Globe since 1987. He previously served as the Moscow bureau chief for Business Week. His books include three works of nonfiction: American Crucifixion, Gracefully Insane, and A Great Idea at the Time; the latter two were New York Times Notable Books.

Beam's new book is The Feud: Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson, and the End of a Beautiful Friendship.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Beam's reply:
I'm currently reading Maria Semple's Today Will be Different, hoping that it will be as flat-out fantastic as Where'd You Go, Bernadette? I'm about half way through, and I'm not quite sure yet. Semple is a delightfully sharp-tongued writer.

Each evening I read a tiny bit of the one-volume version of Robert Skidelsky's three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes. It's superb, and has none of the shortcomings you might expect: no economic jargon, no dull accounts of endless international conferences. Skidelsky has a wonderful subject, a cynosure of the British academic, social, literary and political elite, and he works brilliantly with his material. A real treat.
Visit Alex Beam's website and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: The Feud.

--Marshal Zeringue