In this week’s New York Times Book Review, David Shields (author most recently of Reality Hunger) discusses Ander Monson’s new book Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir. It’s hard to quote from the article–I really believe the Times leads seminars in how to write an unblurbable review for all its writers–so you’ll have to trust me that it’s good. The gist of it is that memoir is ripe for a rethinking, and that Ander Monson is very good at exploding the form. Or, as Shields not-so-succinctly puts it: “he turns the banality of nonfiction inside out and thereby makes nonfiction a staging area to investigate claims of fact and truth, an extremely rich theater for exploring the most serious ontological questions.”

Ander Monson brings his ontological roadshow to Magers & Quinn this summer. He’ll be here Tuesday, June 15, at 7:30pm. Details are here.–David E