Dave Cullen > Recent Status Updates

Pub date for my gay soldiers book, with new title, "Don't Fall in Love": June 2, 2026, from HarperCollins.

It will be 26 years in the making.

I have been shadowing these 2 soldiers since Feb 2000--now retired--for the Salon.com story that won the GLAAD Media Award for best online story of the year.

Hmmmm. So I started Missionaries by Phil Klay, and loved the writing, but the subject put me off a bit--so I stopped reading not just it, but stopped reading. Yow. Need to try again.

Prelim assessment of George Saunders after 8/10 stories in "Tenth Of December": actual genius at writing scenes and creating scenarios; weak storyteller.

Blasphemy? Awe-inspiring setups, conclusions leave me unsatisfied.

What am I missing?

Finally dipping into George Saunders’ short stories: Tenth Of December Oh. Getting what the fuss is about. Truly opens up new doors of what’s possible. And doors I want to open!
That’s the thing. He’s opening doors I was reaching for, but didn’t quite see. Same feeling I get from Denis Johnson, Lucia Berlin, Jonathan Lethem: Ahhhhhh. THAT’S what I wanted to do. Didn’t see it. Can incorporate that this afternoon.

Halfway through Nabokov's "The Defense," and it's suddenly gotten really good. The blurring has begun (I won't give away more, though any summary of the book does.) That's brilliantly done, at least so far.

The new Vanity Fair issue with Breonna Taylor on the cover, guest-edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Beautiful. So proud to write for them periodically.

I actually had a big piece bumped from this issue for this, could not have been happier to wait a month.

I'm loving the descriptions in Nabokov's "The Luzhin Defense," but the plot is kinda dull. Getting a little hard to keep me interested. (And interesting mix of brilliance and slightly amateurish bits--clear that it's a very early novel.)