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Booksy Stuff

Playing the Code: Word on the literary side of the street has Columbia negotiating with Tom Hanks to play Robert Langdon in the film version of the mawkish but depressingly successful Da Vinci Code, set to go into production next year.

Observes Variety: "Though the principals denied it at the time, it has been clear since March that Hanks would play the rôle. Though no deal has been completed with the star, it's expected he'll make room in his schedule to reteam with Ron Howard."

Not a convincing recipe for success, although I have to admit fading confidence in Hanks since viewing his spooky Polar Express.

Whither Desmond Hogan: Riveting piece by the Guardian's Robert McCrum about the disappearing Desmond Hogan.

Quoth he, "Nothing is more expressive of the marginal life of the committed writer than his story. For every one who wins the Booker or gets a six-figure advance, there's the one who goes missing." Good stuff.

Rollin' Oldies: the observant Boston Globe notes the plethora of ancient scribblers suddenly in the news - Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe, John Updike ... and now the erudite Cynthia Ozick (whose Secker editions in the UK I promoted in the 1970s, otherwise I'd never have tackled her).

It's Ozick in the spotlight, with her " ... touring the country for the first time, and with a new publisher ... [Ozick] may at last be reaching the broader audience many critics think she has long deserved."