Dear readers, Spare a moment of appreciation for Stella Murphy, who created art for our review of the novel "To Smithereens." True, I've never sat ringside at a wrestling match, but if they all looked like her illustration (above), I might be tempted to become a regular. "To Smithereens," by Rosalyn Drexler, was first published in 1972 and became something of a cult classic. (The headline for our review back then was "Perils of a Lady Wrestler" — hilarious.) When a stranger places his hand on Rosa's thigh in a movie theater, she crushes his fingers and dumps her drink in his lap. Inevitably, they start dating — he's an art critic with a thing for large, strong women, in a way that reminds me of R. Crumb, and she's a savvy young woman who totes around the Egyptian Book of the Dead, rose-hip gum and drugs. When Rosa is introduced to his wrestling fetish, soon enough she's on the pro circuit, traveling around with female wrestlers with names like Jean Burly and the Beautiful Boomerang. I hadn't heard of Drexler, who is now nearly 100 years old, until this novel's reissue was underway. She is a prolific writer and artist, and drew on her own wrestling experience to write this book, including her time working out at a gym for oddballs mere blocks from The Times's office. A sampling of its clientele, as she told The Brooklyn Rail, included: "carnie people," "some old woman" with rice powder on her face wearing a tutu, "the man on a bicycle with his wife upside down on his head." Read the whole interview if you can. Loath as I am to end on a wistful note, I'll admit that I jump at any intimation of a bygone New York City, particularly one featuring a merry band of weirdos who would half Nelson any recent transplant who said she lived in "West Village." (Real ones know: It's "the West Village," thank you very much — don't drop the article!) Finally, on an upcoming episode of our podcast we're hoping to answer a stack of reader questions. Drop us a line at books@nytimes.com (bonus point if you mention the podcast in the email's subject line) and don't be shy: We're happy to take on questions about the publishing industry or the inner workings of the Book Review, for example, or even offer hyper-specific reading suggestions. See you on Friday. In other news
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