Sex, Time, and Memory: Annie Ernaux’s Young Man, by Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee Book Reviews [email protected] Mon, 08/21/2023 - 15:04 The Young Man—forthcoming from Seven Stories in September 2023—is Annie Ernaux’s first novel in English translation after receiving the most coveted honor in literature, the Nobel Prize in Literature, in October 2022 (see WLT’s review of Le Jeune Homme, May 2023, 73). A slim book of autofiction, translated by Alison Strayer, it is a few pages shorter than Simple Passion (1991), her shortest book so far. With deft terseness, Ernaux recounts her short relationship with a student thirty years younger than her. The epigraph reiterates the raison d’être of her writing: living is incomplete without evaluating life’s experiences. Life is spontaneous facticity, spent in accordance with one’s desires and impulses. Writing throws new light on life. It unearths, as Ernaux puts it in The Girl’s Story (2016), something that is irreducible to any singular explanation. In a startling sentence at the beginning of The Young Man, Ernaux equates writing with the need and possibility of overcoming “the fatigue, the dereliction” of sex and the violence of orgasm. She feels writing brings “greater pleasure” than sex, because it doesn’t abandon you to a postcoital void. It is reminiscent of Roland Barthes’s idea of body-writing in The Pleasure of the Text (1973), of writing as a fragmented overcoming of... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2023-08-21 20:04:48 UTC ]
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Publishing is facing its severest set of challenges in a generation, experts noted at this year's AAP annual meeting: book bans, the lack of diversity, climate change, and “unrelenting” challenges to copyright. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A 57-year-old “self-styled poet” (aren’t they all?) has spent $116,000 of his own money to build a bookstore in a mountaintop village. Oh, and it’s shaped like the number 7 and contains 7,000 books. No, this is not a parable. As Jiang Libo told the South China Morning Post: Before my bookshop... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-08 15:04:22 UTC ]
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Respect and support to Wasilla, Alaska’s Black Birch Books, who’re getting a lot of online flack for announcing a drag story time in June. But despite a slew of negative, and sometimes threatening, comments and reviews, Black Birch owner Taylor Jordan is going on with the show. As she told... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-04 15:21:17 UTC ]
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What started last year with a group trying to get a few children's sexual education books pulled from the shelves of a southern Manitoba library has now turned into accusations that its staff are pedophiles and a campaign to defund it, the... Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2023-05-01 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Emergence Magazine is an online publication with annual print edition exploring the threads connecting ecology, culture, and spirituality. As we experience the desecration of our lands and waters, the extinguishing of species, and a loss of sacred connection to the Earth, we look to emerging... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-01 08:52:55 UTC ]
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The most influential manga of all time is the culmination of centuries of early Japanese art and emerged from the post-war era. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-04-26 10:32:00 UTC ]
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At an American Booksellers for Free Expression session, panelists discussed different approaches booksellers can take to fight book bans. Among the ideas floated were outreach to government officials, creating library-style “request for reconsideration of materials forms,” and improving Banned... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The 43nd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were awarded tonight at the University of Southern California's Bovard Auditorium. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-04-22 04:49:44 UTC ]
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In 2013, I was one of the chosen 20. Today, I still question the accolades and gimmickry around making the gradeIn 2013, the fourth Granta Best of Young British Novelists (BYBN) list was published, and I was among the 20 writers selected. I was 39 and had published four novels and received... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-16 10:00:08 UTC ]
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The latest celebration of emerging literary talent brings thrills, charm and emotional punch to the page. But this new generation have taken an inward turn compared with the more worldly themes of bygone yearsEvery decade since 1983, an editor of the literary quarterly Granta has tasked a panel... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-16 06:00:03 UTC ]
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From Kazuo Ishiguro to Zadie Smith, Granta’s list has been spotlighting future stars since 1983. Four decades on, what does its evolution says about our literary landscape?Last month, a reformed Glaswegian gang member, a former personal trainer and a Booker prize winner all glammed up for a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-15 08:00:36 UTC ]
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Join our community book club. Our mission is to get Southern California reading and talking. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-04-13 19:22:10 UTC ]
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Censorship is surging thanks to an organised rightwing minority targeting books on LGBTQ and Black characters and issues“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door,” warns a character in Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s dystopian vision of an America where books are considered so dangerous they... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-13 17:21:33 UTC ]
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Harmony Becker, author of “Himawari House,” shares her recommendations of manga that teens will enjoy. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-04-08 09:00:31 UTC ]
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A.L. Kennedy on being chosen for, and judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. The post On Judging <em>Granta</em>’s Best of Young British Novelists appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta
[ Granta | 2023-04-06 11:32:41 UTC ]
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La Verne Wimberly, whose Sunday morning selfies in her fabulous hats went viral, is promoting the newly released 'My Sunday Best' during Easter season. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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An early Easter and sales of more than 225,000 copies of the newest edition in Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series combined to increase unit sales of print books by 2.7% last week over the comparable week in 2022. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Sci-fi novelist Annalee Newitz will discuss "The Terraformers" March 28 at the L.A. Times Book Club. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-03-28 21:24:50 UTC ]
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At a long-awaited hearing last week, a federal judge sounded skeptical of the Internet Archive’s program to scan and lend library books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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In a writer-as-brand era, Taylor Koekkoek's obscurity is almost as refreshing as the hilarious, stealthily profound stories in his debut, 'Thrillville, USA.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-03-22 13:00:29 UTC ]
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