{"id":385,"date":"2008-05-05T15:07:24","date_gmt":"2008-05-05T22:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/05\/mark-sarvas-most-elegant-variation\/"},"modified":"2008-05-05T14:14:44","modified_gmt":"2008-05-05T21:14:44","slug":"mark-sarvas-most-elegant-variation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/05\/mark-sarvas-most-elegant-variation\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Sarvas’ Next Elegant Variation"},"content":{"rendered":"

from the LA Times<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Q & A: blogger and first-time novelist Mark Sarvas<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The man behind the Elegant Variation blog<\/a> and author of ‘Harry, Revised<\/a>‘ is ready for the criticism he’s built a reputation on. Sarvas says he expects the ‘sharp knives will come out.’<\/p>\n

By Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark Sarvas<\/a>, who was raised in a Hungarian Jewish family in Queens, N.Y., has become notorious as the acid-fingered blogger at the Elegant Variation, a literary site he launched in 2003.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Harry,<\/a>Right out of the gate, he’s been a champion of authors he loves — John Banville<\/a>, J.M. Coetzee<\/a>, Zadie Smith<\/a> — and a harsh critic of those he doesn’t: the Los Angeles Times Book Review, British provocateur Christopher Hitchens<\/a>, literary “it” boy Keith Gessen<\/a>, and, going back to the site’s first week, writer Steve Almond<\/a>. (That vendetta provoked a 4,000-word retort on Salon’s website from the Boston-based journalist and author.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sarvas’ new novel, “Harry, Revised,” is about a disoriented nebbish who is so self-conscious he can barely act. But that doesn’t keep him from falling for a red-haired waitress named Molly while getting lunch at Cafe Retro on the day of his wife’s funeral. Complications ensue.<\/p>\n

We talked to Sarvas, who lives on the Westside and came across as a remarkably well-behaved lad. Could it be because of the book about to drop?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What came first for you, the desire to criticize and assess or the urge to create characters and narrative?<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The desire to write, to create, came first. Like a lot of others, I came out to Los Angeles originally to write screenplays, and when you spend any amount of time doing that, you quickly find that it’s not very satisfying. I would get feedback from my agent and producers that ‘There’s a novelist in you trying to get out.’<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>[ click to read full interview at LATimes.com<\/a> ]<\/p>\n

[ click to visit Mark Sarvas’ Elegant Variations blog<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the LA Times Q & A: blogger and first-time novelist Mark Sarvas The man behind the Elegant Variation blog and author of ‘Harry, Revised‘ is ready for the criticism he’s built a reputation on. Sarvas says he expects the ‘sharp knives will come out.’ By Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer \u00a0 Mark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-news","category-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}