Thomas Beller

New Orleans

@Guggfellows 2024 @Tulane prof. Recent books: Lost In The Game: A Book About Basketball; J.D. Salinger: Escape Artist. Next--Degas At The Gas Station: Essays.

Articles

Searching For Michael Jordan in Wilmington

6 days ago | theassemblync.com | Thomas Beller

In the summer of 2022, I drove to Michael Jordan’s childhood home in Wilmington with my 11-year-old son. It was a balmy, sun-dappled afternoon. We arrived at an unassuming but comfortable two-story house flanked by a green lawn and some trees. The ground floor is pale-brown brick; the second story has white wood siding. The garage doors were open, and a couple of cars were parked in the driveway–nothing fancy. I checked the address to make sure we were in the right place. We were: 4647 Gordon Road.
A Rich Time: New York City in 1975

1 week ago | thomasbeller.substack.com | Thomas Beller

1. Not that long ago, I was chatting with someone who works at my old high school, and a phrase floated by: “It’s great that you were here at such a rich time.”The school’s name is not a secret, but I’d rather set it aside. The relevant details are that it’s located in New York City and I graduated in 1983. “A rich time for the school, or for the city?” I replied. She thought about it for a moment. “Both!”The tone of the exchange was sunny, but the remark felt ambiguous.
The Portal Era

3 weeks ago | thomasbeller.substack.com | Thomas Beller

A beautiful day in April. I go to Lincoln Center to use the library, but first spend some time sitting outside taking in a the view. I am not usually a person who sits still and takes in the view. So there is something effortful in this gesture of leisure. But it is made easier by the fact that I am sitting in one of my favorite places in the city. I gaze at the Henry Moore sculpture that sits in a shallow pool.
"The Catastrophe Hour," Meghan Daum's New Essay Collection, Reviewed

1 month ago | airmail.news | Thomas Beller

Over five first-rate essay collections and one very good, if underrated, novel, Meghan Daum has written a cohesive, almost novelistic narrative about a character named Meghan Daum. Her first book, My Misspent Youth, from 2001 (which, full disclosure, I published at Open City Books), measured the author’s dream of a Persian throw on a hardwood floor against the cost of a single martini in a New York City bar.
Hands Off/ Face Off

1 month ago | thomasbeller.substack.com | Thomas Beller

The Floating Armoire is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Before I left for the rally, I was drawn into an agitated conversation with my mother about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was outspoken against Hitler in 1933. But he was not outspoken enough, and would later write about how he should have done more. He was executed by the Nazis on April 9th,1945.
The Glory Days of Duke's Coach K (and College Basketball)

Dec 15, 2024 | theassemblync.com | Thomas Beller

Midway through John Feinstein’s Five Banners, I recalled an encounter I had with Ed O’Bannon’s calf muscle in the spring of 1995. O’Bannon was the star of a UCLA team that either had just won, or was about to win, the national championship. He and some teammates were in an ice cream shop in Venice Beach, California. They were all wearing their UCLA jerseys, as though they had just come from a game or, more likely, a photo shoot.
The Sky’s the Limit

Oct 1, 2024 | mrbellersneighborhood.com | Claude Barilleaux |Thomas Beller |Sarah Firisen |Alex Wolf

I was only thirteen years old when I decided that I must live in New York City. Fred Astaire made me do it. Watching his old films in the early 1960s on our local tv station while growing up in the Cajun Country of Southwest Louisiana, I saw a glamorous and sophisticated world far different than the folksy, rural one surrounding me.
Meet the Star of Sushi-Con: A 400-Pound Tuna

Sep 30, 2024 | savingseafood.org | Thomas Beller

September 30, 2024 — “It’s coming! It’s coming!” someone yelled. It was before dawn on a recent Sunday, and a dozen men in matching navy-blue T-shirts were waiting by a loading dock in Manhattan for the headliner of Sushi-Con, which bills itself as the largest expo of Japanese cuisine in the United States. A truck backed into the brightly lit bay. The rear doors opened and a white Styrofoam box appeared, roughly the shape of a coffin and nearly as wide as the truck itself.
Meet the Star of Sushi-Con: A 400-Pound Tuna - The New York Times

Sep 29, 2024 | nytimes.com | Thomas Beller

At an all-you-can-eat Japanese food expo in Manhattan, thousands lined up to witness the ceremonial carving of an enormous bluefin tuna — and try a sample.
Book Marks reviews of Negative Space by Gillian Linden

Apr 16, 2024 | bookmarks.reviews | Gillian Linden |Lynn Steger Strong |Sam Sacks |Thomas Beller

Publisher W. W. Norton & Company Date A novel about a young mother navigating the instabilities of teaching, parenting, and marriage in the wake of the pandemic. What is this?