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From The Desk Of A.C. Newman: Leonard Michaels

carlnewmanpresscrop41“There are maybe 10 or 12 things I could teach you,” sings Carl “A.C.” Newman on his new solo album, Get Guilty (Matador). “After that, well, you’re on your own.” This week, MAGNET lets the New Pornographers frontman steer our website toward 10 or 12 of his own favorite things in music, film, literature and life.

Read our verdict on the orchestral-pop case of Get Guilty and a Q&A deposition with Newman here.

leonardmichaels350Newman: Leonard Michaels is a short story writer who started writing in the 50s. He didn’t put out that much. (Publishers) Farrar, Straus and Giroux just put out The Collected Stories, which is a massive chunk of everything he did. He’s kind of an angry Jewish writer. He’s darker and more experimental than Philip Roth. Portnoy’s Complaint (Roth’s 1969 novel) is warped but still kind of cute; Leonard Michaels was a lot darker. He kind of reminds me of Grace Paley, too. Leonard Michaels’ son, Jesse, actually was the singer in Operation Ivy. I learned that from Wikipedia, by the way.

Read an excerpt of Michaels’ short story “Murderers” here.

This concludes “A.C. Newman Week” here at magnetmagazine.com. Thanks to Carl for ruthlessly dictating our content. Go to the store and buy Get Guilty along with four copies of the latest issue of MAGNET. To read our 2005 cover story on Newman and the New Pornographers, click here.