‘Unfurling tension and menace’: how slow TV like Ripley makes for a truly gripping watch

Elegant, luxurious, catlike … Netflix’s Andrew Scott-starring series is devastatingly unhurried – although not all viewers agree• Don’t get the What’s On TV newsletter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe reviews for Netflix’s elegant new Patricia Highsmith adaptation, Ripley, have been mixed. While some critics have adored its moody black-and-white posturing and even labelled it a work of art, others have been less impressed. Is Andrew Scott a bit too old to be Tom Ripley, who is 25 in the first novel of the series? Does it compare unfavourably with the peerless Anthony Minghella version from 1999, or to 1960’s Plein Soleil, in which Alain Delon played the scheming sociopath? At eight episodes, with some pushing over the hour mark, is it stretching a relatively short novel beyond its limits?These are all questions of taste, of course, but it is hard to deny that Ripley is slow. It takes its time, it builds its case, and it luxuriates in the beauty and/or grubbiness of its surroundings. There are lingering shots of staircases – so many staircases – and statues, skies and scenery. This is a highly aestheticised world, and the noir-ish palette works surprisingly well, considering that much of its early action is set on the Amalfi Coast. You might think that such sun-kissed luxury would disappear in monochrome, but it only makes it all the more eerie, and the sinister threat all the more pronounced. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-04-09 11:00:06 UTC ]

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Here is the shortlist for the 2021 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

The Center for Fiction has just announced its shortlist for the 2021 First Novel Prize. The seven titles were selected from a longlist of twenty-seven debut novels, all published in the US between January 1 to December 21. The prize, first established in 2006, celebrates the best debut fiction... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-28 17:25:35 UTC ]
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Anthony Doerr’s ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ is a convoluted love letter to books

Doerr’s first novel since winning a Pulitzer Prize for “All the Light We Cannot See” is full of people thinking big thoughts. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-09-28 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land,’ by Anthony Doerr

“Cloud Cuckoo Land,” Doerr’s first novel since “All the Light We Cannot See,” unites five characters over a millennium in a tribute to books and those who love them. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-09-24 09:00:04 UTC ]
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'At long last, Idunit!' Wole Soyinka on his first novel in nearly 50 years

The Nigerian writer, the first sub-Saharan winner of the Nobel Prize, discusses 'Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-09-23 13:00:36 UTC ]
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S&S UK bags duo from Evanovich

Simon & Schuster UK has acquired the 28th instalment in American author Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum bounty hunter series, alongside the first novel in a brand new series. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-22 17:14:06 UTC ]
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After 22 Years, Gayl Jones Returns

“Palmares” — her first novel since 1999’s “Mosquito” — is an emancipation story set in 17th-century Brazil. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-09-14 09:00:08 UTC ]
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The Prophet of Nothingness

With Harrow, her first novel in two decades, Joy Williams stares into the abyss. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2021-09-12 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Mendelson returns with two-book Mantle deal

Mantle has landed The Exhibitionist, Charlotte Mendelson's first novel since her 2013 Booker-longlisted work Almost English (Mantle). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-07 21:02:28 UTC ]
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Review: Joy Williams' first novel in decades is an astonishing end-times parable

From the acclaimed author of novels and short stories, 'Harrow' is a magnificent, moving story about people picking up the pieces of apocalypse. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-09-07 13:00:01 UTC ]
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He fought in the Marines and MMA matches. A novel about his mother was the fight of his life

Atticus Lish was acclaimed for his first novel 'Preparation for the Next Life.' His second, 'The War for Gloria,' is more raw, painful and personal. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-09-02 13:00:39 UTC ]
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Of Roots and Reckonings: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois, by Adele Newson-Horst

Book Reviews   The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Photo by Steven Taylor / Flickr The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s first novel, is textually connected to the works of Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston,... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-08-18 20:12:10 UTC ]
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Dolly Parton to publish her first novel in 2022

The country music superstar has teamed up with the novelist James Patterson to write Run, Rose, Run, which will be published in MarchFirst globally successful entertainer, then heroic sponsor of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, and now novelist … Dolly Parton seems determined to prove that there... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-08-11 16:27:28 UTC ]
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Influx Press launches first novel prize for Black British women with Black Ballad

Independent publisher Influx Press is launching a new fiction prize for Black British women, in partnership with lifestyle platform Black Ballad. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-27 19:32:32 UTC ]
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Ruth Ozeki | 'As an artist I have relationships with fictional voices all the time'

"The notion of 'a book' is just a convenient fiction which we books go along with because it serves the needs of the bean counters in publishing, not to mention the ego of the writers. But the reality is far more complex.” So explains “the Book”, one of the narrators of Ruth Ozeki’s fourth novel... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-09 19:27:08 UTC ]
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Fifty Years Later, a New Novel Emerges

The winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature, Soyinka is coming out with his first novel in almost 50 years, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. The post Fifty Years Later, a New Novel Emerges appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2021-06-24 09:59:45 UTC ]
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Review: Spellbinding novelist Rivka Galchen's new book is a hysterical witch hunt

'Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch,' historical fiction about Kepler's mother, is Galchen's first novel since 2008's 'Atmospheric Disturbances.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-06-03 14:00:33 UTC ]
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Deborah Harkness’s Witches, from Page to Screen, by Camille Thompson

Book Reviews Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer in the TV adaptation of A Discovery of Witches (2018) / IMDB Deborah Harkness’s All Souls trilogy has taken a new life through the Sundance dramatic series, A Discovery of Witches. The novels... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-05-27 13:42:23 UTC ]
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Review: Rachel Cusk trades in a blank-slate narrator for a tall drink of vinegar

"Second Place," Rachel Cusk's first novel after the radical, brilliant "Outline" trilogy, follows a forceful woman who's had enough of difficult men. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-28 14:00:33 UTC ]
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Cover reveal: Wole Soyinka’s Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the US cover for Wole Soyinka’s new novel, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth, which will be published on September 28 by Pantheon Books. This will be Soyinka’s first novel to be published in 48 years, and also the first since he won the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-23 13:30:34 UTC ]
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Joy Williams’ first novel in 20 years is coming this fall.

While we don’t know what the state of the our pandemic society will be come September, we can at least be sure that we’ll all be getting a little Joy Williams, as a treat. Specifically, a new novel—her fifth, and her first since 2000’s The Quick and the Dead, which was a runner-up for the […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-03 21:01:23 UTC ]
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