Comic Novel

The Dead Do Not Improve A Novel Jay Caspian Kang Hogarth: 272 pp, $25 Jay Caspian Kang's debut novel, "The Dead Do Not Improve," demands to be accepted on its own terms. Moving past the era in which understanding Korean culture was accomplished through "a collection of Buddhas, zenny poems … [t]igers, weird pickles and creative spins on rice," Korean American journalist Kang (an editor at Grantland) has penned a darkly comic novel about Philip Kim, a late Gen-X MFA from Columbia who lives in modern-day San Francisco, where he's influenced as much by hip-hop culture and the Internet he regularly surfs as by Albert Camus' "L'Etranger," Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and John Fante's "Ask the Dust.

The Dead Do Not Improve A Novel Jay Caspian Kang Hogarth: 272 pp, $25 Jay Caspian Kang's debut novel, "The Dead Do Not Improve," demands to be accepted on its own terms. Moving past the era in which understanding Korean culture was accomplished through "a collection of Buddhas, zenny poems … [t]igers, weird pickles and creative spins on rice," Korean American journalist Kang (an editor at Grantland) has penned a darkly comic novel about Philip Kim, a late Gen-X MFA from Columbia who lives in modern-day San Francisco, where he's influenced as much by hip-hop culture and the Internet he regularly surfs as by Albert Camus' "L'Etranger," Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and John Fante's "Ask the Dust.

MUSIC Bang on a Can All-Stars The rowdy new music ensemble plays a program dedicated to Steve Reich, including Reich's fan favorite "Music for 18 Musicians" and the West Coast debut of his new piece, "2x5. " The composer will join the group for a take on his "Clapping Music. " Disney Hall, 111. S. Grand Ave., L.A. $43-$63.50. 8 p.m. laphil.com. Jeffertiti's Nile The 8-track sounds of the '60s hit WeHo when the psych-rock band takes the stage. Incan Abraham and Gothic Tropic open.

England's most coveted literary prize for new fiction, the Man Booker, announced its longlist Wednesday. A dozen books are in the running for the 2012 prize; in September those will be be whittled down to a shortlist of six. One will win the prize, worth more than $77,000, at a gala celebration in October. Between now and then there will be much speculation about who will ultimately take the prize. Many will look first to Hilary Mantel, the only previous Booker prize winner on the longlist.

England's most coveted literary prize for new fiction, the Man Booker, announced its longlist Wednesday. A dozen books are in the running for the 2012 prize; in September those will be be whittled down to a shortlist of six. One will win the prize, worth more than $77,000, at a gala celebration in October. Between now and then there will be much speculation about who will ultimately take the prize. Many will look first to Hilary Mantel, the only previous Booker prize winner on the longlist.

AUGUSTO ROA BASTOS' "I the Supreme" is the culmination of a long series of works about Latin American dictators which includes Joseph Conrad's "Nostromo" and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Autumn of the Patriarch." Roa Bastos achieves something that most of the other novelists never even attempt, however: the impersonation of the dictator, in this case Dr.

I-LAND: MANHATTAN IN MONOLOGUE by Sonia Pilcer (Ballantine Books: $6.95, paper; 224 pp.). A waiter in the theater district: "Look, it's not like I thought it would be a piece of cake. But I've paid my dues. I got rid of my accent, right? There isn't a trace . . . I do my scenes at Actor's Studio. I work out. I take voice, jazz at Luigi's . . . Do you think Joe Papp will even look at me? . . . Would you like some freshly ground pepper?"

Lisa Perlman, I love you. Barbara Brooker, I love you, too, for dreaming up this funny-sad, crazy-wise saga of Lisa's mid-life crisis called "So Long, Princess." Lisa, our unlikely heroine, is a klutzy 43-year-old ex-Jewish princess, who lives in San Francisco and spends most of her waking hours giving painful birth to her first novel in a darkened room while Mozart floods her Walkman earphones, blotting out a world cluttered with demanding relatives and disappointing relationships.

The Writing on the Wall Lynne Sharon Schwartz (Counterpoint) Plot: A language-obsessed librarian witnesses 9/11 on her way to work while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. The events force her to reflect on losses she has repressed in her life (the death of her twin sister and the loss of her niece). Schwartz's narrative is interwoven with news bites and comments by President Bush.

Nice Work by David Lodge (Viking: $18.95; 276 pp.) Though the title of this elegantly witty novel could be its review, you'd never know from those two words how Lodge manages to resolve the sticky town-gown divisions in the dreary English industrial city of Rummidge.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk A Novel Ben Fountain Ecco: 320 pp. $25.99 A casual observer might see in Billy Lynn a dutiful Iraq War soldier, a trash-talking 19-year-old popping a beer before noon, a muscled-up guy tussling with his buddy or a virgin falling for a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. He is, by turns, all of the above; what makes him special is what's inside his head. In Ben Fountain's first novel, "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk," Billy and the other surviving members of Bravo Squad are home from Iraq, mid-war, on a victory tour.

MUSIC Bang on a Can All-Stars The rowdy new music ensemble plays a program dedicated to Steve Reich, including Reich's fan favorite "Music for 18 Musicians" and the West Coast debut of his new piece, "2x5. " The composer will join the group for a take on his "Clapping Music. " Disney Hall, 111. S. Grand Ave., L.A. $43-$63.50. 8 p.m. laphil.com. Jeffertiti's Nile The 8-track sounds of the '60s hit WeHo when the psych-rock band takes the stage. Incan Abraham and Gothic Tropic open.

DC Comics' effort to expand digital distribution of its graphic novels has ignited a nasty battle between two bookselling giants. Barnes & Noble Inc. said Friday that its stores will not stock hard copies of 100 DC books that the Warner Bros.-owned unit is making available exclusively on Amazon.com's Kindle platform — a direct competitor of Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader. Beginning with the launch of the Kindle Fire tablet Nov. 15, Amazon will have exclusive digital distribution rights for four months to books that include "Watchmen" and graphic novels featuring Batman and Superman.

In a surprise win, Howard Jacobson was awarded the 2010 Man Booker Prize on Tuesday night in a ceremony in London for his novel "The Finkler Question. " Jacobson beat out Tom McCarthy, whose novel "C" had been a favorite among British oddsmakers, and four other books for the honor. "I am speechless," Jacobson, 68, said as he took the stage, joking, "Fortunately, I prepared one earlier. " Jacobson, a native of England who has written 15 books and has a weekly column in the British newspaper the Independent, has twice been long-listed for the Man Booker ?

The Writing on the Wall Lynne Sharon Schwartz (Counterpoint) Plot: A language-obsessed librarian witnesses 9/11 on her way to work while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. The events force her to reflect on losses she has repressed in her life (the death of her twin sister and the loss of her niece). Schwartz's narrative is interwoven with news bites and comments by President Bush.

An exercise in perception asks a person to add one plus one plus one on paper, until reaching 100. The point is to notice how each "one" feels different. It's an apt way of looking at suburbia, with all the similar houses, all the similarly dressed people -- the same, yet different. "Ice Haven," a new graphic novel by "Ghost World" author Daniel Clowes, exploits this mass of sameness. Clowes often draws the same image several times in a row, but, fine artist that he is, doesn't merely copy.

During the 2012 presidential election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney's openness about his Mormon faith brought to the surface many of the generalizations Americans maintain about what it means to be a Mormon. Ryan McIlvain's debut novel " Elders " might serve as a fascinating and lively fictional corrective  - a portrait of what it can mean to be a Mormon missionary - complete with all the doubts, hesitations and temptations that come with the territory. McIlvain, who was born in Salt Lake City and left the Mormon Church in his mid-20s, tells the story of Elder McLeod and Elder Passos, two young missionaries in Brazil, each struggling with specific aspects of their faith.

Laguna Beach author Sherwood Kiraly spent 16 years at a national newspaper syndicate, serving as comics editor and editor for Ann Landers, Erma Bombeck, Roger Ebert, Sylvia Porter, and Evans and Novak. But in 1988, when the ownership of the syndicate changed for the third time in a decade, he decided it was time to do something different: He would write a novel.

A bright, short science fiction novel, Joe Haldeman's quirky effort offers a unique solution to one of the enduring literary mysteries of our time: Just what DID happen to Ernest Hemingway's missing manuscripts, lost in 1922 at the Gare de Lyon in Paris? For Hemingway fans, Haldeman's answer is a hoot, and as different a theory as you can find. Historically, in 1922 Hadley Hemingway agreed to join Ernest skiing in Lausane.

Laguna Beach author Sherwood Kiraly spent 16 years at a national newspaper syndicate, serving as comics editor and editor for Ann Landers, Erma Bombeck, Roger Ebert, Sylvia Porter, and Evans and Novak. But in 1988, when the ownership of the syndicate changed for the third time in a decade, he decided it was time to do something different: He would write a novel.