Off the Books
On Literature and Culture
J. Peder Zane
Head “off the books” in this collection of newspaper columns, where J. Peder Zane
uses classic and contemporary literature to explore American culture and politics. The
book review editor for the Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer from 1996 to 2009,
Zane demonstrates that good books are essential for understanding ourselves and the
world around us. The columns gathered in Off the Books find that sweet spot where
literature’s eternal values meet the day’s current events. Together they offer a literary overview of the ideas, issues, and events shaping our culture—from 9/11 and the
struggle for gay rights to the decline of high culture and the rise of sensationalism and
solipsism. As they plumb and draw from the work of leading writers—William Faulkner,
Knut Hamsun, Eudora Welty, Don DeLillo, Lydia Millet, and Philip Roth among others—
these columns make an argument not just about the pleasure of books, but about their
very necessity in our lives and culture.
J. Peder Zane was the book review editor and books columnist for the News & Observer
of Raleigh, North Carolina, for thirteen years. His writing has won numerous national
honors, including the Distinguished Writing Award for Commentary from the American
Society of Newspaper Editors. Before joining the News & Observer, Zane worked at the
New York Times. A former board member of the National Book Critics Circle and current
chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at St. Augustine’s
University in Raleigh, Zane is the editor of and has contributed to Remarkable Reads:
34 Writers and Their Adventures in Reading, and The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite
Books and is coauthor of Design in Nature.
May 2015, 256 pages
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