Booksquare

We admit it, we find The Guardian’s exploration of books and the things surrounding them to be so much for fascinating than that of our hometown paper (our new goal in life is to humiliate the Los Angeles Times out of its rather snobby approach to literature…this is a town where jeans and shorts are accepted in the finest restaurants, after all). Or maybe it’s all American papers — we can’t imagine anyone asking point blank if a huge advance makes for uncomfortable writing experiences (even as we rub our hands together with glee when an overhyped author/celebrity falls face first into disaster). Author Hari Kunzru also discusses racism and culture as he makes a case for his second novel becoming larger than the first.

• I’m the bloke who got the big advance