‘Damn, that fool can write’: how Martin Amis made everyone up their game

He exploded into the tweedy world of literature, a young, pouting and outrageously brash crusader for prose. Our writer remembers her encounters with the novelist, whose smarts and chutzpah confounded his peers‘You’ll be reading me every now and then at least until about 2080, weather permitting. And when you go, maybe my afterlife, too, will come to an end, my afterlife of words.” So wrote Martin Amis in his heavily autobiographical final novel Inside Story in 2020. With a body of work spanning 50 years, he leaves 15 novels, two short-story collections, one memoir and seven book-length works of journalism and history. Did posterity matter to him? Hell, yes. “There is only one value judgment in literature: time,” he insisted.Back in 2009, I called Amis – as editors all over the world would have been calling or emailing leading writers on Saturday night – to ask if he might write a tribute to the American novelist John Updike, who had just died. Time was tight and we were aiming high, but as with every major (and not so major) event at that time, Amis was the writer everyone was after. And on Updike, the last postwar American literary giant? It had to be him. Happily, he felt a duty to contribute to what Gore Vidal called “book chat”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-05-22 05:00:48 UTC ]

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The Abnormalizing of the World: A Conversation On Mental Illness

Two celebrated memoirists of mental illness—Marin Sardy, author of The Edge of Every Day: Sketches of Schizophrenia, and Sarah C. Townsend, author of Setting the Wire: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis—discuss writing, families, and the struggle to make meaning out of madness. * Sarah Townsend:... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-01 08:47:51 UTC ]
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Hachette Books Ireland wins pathologist's memoir in six-way auction

Hachette Books Ireland has acquired former state pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy's memoir in a six-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-01 00:07:05 UTC ]
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The Memoir in Essays: A Reading List

While the personal essay has enjoyed continued popularity, a book-length collection of linked essays, centered on an author’s self or life, is less common than a traditional memoir or novel. A truly successful essay collection can reveal the author processing experiences at many different points... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-29 08:47:44 UTC ]
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Ishmael Beah’s memoir revealed the realities of child soldiers. His fiction shows the humanity of homeless kids.

“Little Family” speaks to the plight of poor people in countries riddled with corruption and violence. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-28 16:54:34 UTC ]
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George M. Johnson's New Memoir Reminds Us That ‘All Boys Aren't Blue’

The journalist digs deep into the past in this touching debut book on sexuality, gender identity and the power of family. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2020-04-28 09:45:09 UTC ]
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Sheltering: Nina Renata Aron on Desperate Love and Codependency

On this episode of Sheltering, Nina Renata Aron speaks with Maris Kreizman about her new book, Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls, a memoir of codependency. They talk about the cultural history of love and its entanglement with suffering, particularly for women, and how hard it is to break... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-27 19:00:44 UTC ]
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Personal Space: Alia Volz’s Writing Helped Her Family Heal

This is Personal Space: The Memoir Show, with Sari Botton. On this episode, Sari talks with Alia Volz, the author of reported, historical memoir, Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco — about being raised by colorful hippie parents who ran an illegal pot-brownie... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-23 20:00:24 UTC ]
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Hodder wins record-breaking ex-Special Forces soldier's memoir

Hodder & Stoughton has won at auction the memoir of ex-Special Forces soldier and record-breaking mountaineer Nims Purja MBE. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-23 14:18:55 UTC ]
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No-prorogation justice Lady Hale to publish memoir and guide to the law

Judge famous for ruling against Boris Johnson will recount how ‘a little girl from North Yorkshire became the most senior judge in the UK’ Lady Hale, who presided over the momentous decision to rule Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament unlawful, is set to write her memoirs, of how “a little... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-04-23 14:06:04 UTC ]
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Bodley Head signs Lady Hale memoir in two-book deal

The Bodley Head has signed the memoir of former Supreme Court president Lady Hale in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-22 15:33:30 UTC ]
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‘It would be all right’: Novelist Susanna Moore finds solace in a sometimes troubling life story

In the memoir “Miss Aluminum,” the writer and former script reader for Jack Nicholson shares a #MeToo moment, and more. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-22 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Lenarduzzi wins 2020 Fitzcarraldo Editions, Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize

Thea Lenarduzzi has won this year's Fitzcarraldo Editions, Mahler and LeWitt Studios Essay Prize, for her "family memoir and social history" proposal Dandelions. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-22 06:21:34 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: April 21, 2020

“To me, nonfiction is an act of translation, and the task for the writer is to bring dead letters to life.” Jessica Pearce Rotondi on writing the family saga of her missing uncle. | Lit Hub Memoir Joshua Sperling on the decade John Berger became an art world revolutionary. | Lit Hub Criticism ON... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-21 10:30:09 UTC ]
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Five eye-catching graphic novels that define the genre

Some of the most exciting fiction and memoir is being done in the form of graphic novels. Here are some of the very best. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2020-04-20 11:08:17 UTC ]
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Sopan Deb on Approaching His Own Memoir as a Journalist

Sopan Deb, a culture reporter for The New York Times, has interviewed the cast of Arrested Development, reviewed theater on Broadway, and currently reports on professional basketball. Before joining the Times, he covered Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for CBS News. He is also—I love this—a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-20 08:48:57 UTC ]
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From house of horrors to family home

Erica Bauermeister’s latest book is a thoughtful, entertaining memoir of the time she and her family spent renovating the mother of all fixer-uppers. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-04-17 22:35:19 UTC ]
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From house of horrors to family home

Erica Bauermeister’s latest book is a thoughtful, entertaining memoir of the time she and her family spent renovating the mother of all fixer-uppers. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-04-17 22:35:19 UTC ]
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From house of horrors to family home

Erica Bauermeister’s latest book is a thoughtful, entertaining memoir of the time she and her family spent renovating the mother of all fixer-uppers. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-04-17 22:35:19 UTC ]
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What if the problem of racism has no solution?

Frank Wilderson weaves together memoir and theory to make the case for Afropessimism. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
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The Poet Laureate and Her Mother

Pulitzer Prize–winning poet and former poet laureate Natasha Trethewey’s memoir tells a tragic and inspiring story that shaped her life and work. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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