“Not an easy laugher,” Sadie Stein’s celebration of the hilarity of Barbara Pym’s novel Excellent Women is especially high-praise. Hear what The Paris Review‘s Deputy Editor thinks Pym’s humor achieves as a literary vehicle, and why the author’s talents are no joke.
CLICK TO WATCH STEIN READ FROM EXCELLENT WOMEN.
Art by Canyon Castator
The real reason we Brits don’t laugh out loud is our teeth.
I wish the Paris review would run funnier and more philosophical fiction. The magazine’s European sensibility seems permanently lost, and it feels more Brooklyn than ever. It has been overtaken by Granta and (n+1) in terms of global perspective and depth.
It’s true they are lacking in global panorama, but that’s been happening for a while now, not entirely the Steins’ fault. They are trying hard to change things and open up, but remain sort of hermetically sealed off from the larger/global cultural zeitgeist. Unfair to fault Sadie Stein or Lorin Stein for the relative slip versus the other literary journals.