NPR Goes to Europe! Sort of . . .

It may be irrational, but this Three Books . . . column about doing the “Grand Tour” of Europe via literature just bugs me. Not the idea that “literature takes you places!” but the fact that the three books featured are Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and A Room with a View.

This is the most “European” you can get? Two American authors and a fairly conventional Brit? Christ. Marc Acito—I’m more than willing to send you personal copies of European fiction if you really want to go on an “adventure.” And to think I was praising NPR’s book coverage not so very long ago . . . Thankfully Jessa Crispin has a review this week of Christopher Priest’s Inverted World to help redeem the section. (A book that sounds fantastic, by the way.)