He saw the world’s cruel absurdities through a comic lens, writes Boyd, who recalls his very first meeting with Amis – and explains why his unmistakable voice will never be forgotten• John Self on Amis: ‘He stamped his style over a generation’• Geoff Dyer on Amis: ‘Mick Jagger in literary form’The awful news of Martin Amis’s death prompts a rush of memories. I first met him in 1969, in Paris, when we both found ourselves staying in the same apartment on the Île Saint-Louis for a few days. I was 17, Martin was 20. I only realised who this Martin guy was four years later when his first novel, The Rachel Papers, appeared. In a strange but real sense, he was the first writer I had ever met. And thus began an acquaintance as an avid reader and later as a friend.The remarkable thing about that first novel was the utter confidence and distinctiveness of the narrative voice. Martin found his style at the very beginning of his career as a writer and it never changed. That voice he had defined and charged everything else he wrote – fiction, essays, journalism, memoirs. Very few writers can be instantly identified by a sentence or two of their prose – Laurence Sterne, Charles Dickens, James Joyce, DH Lawrence, Vladimir Nabokov – and Martin precociously joined that elite group and stayed there. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-22 07:00:49 UTC ]
In 'David Copperfield,' Mr. Micawber Wilkins saved young Copperfield from no small amount of embarrassment using quick thinking, graciousness, and a grill. Food historian Paula Marcoux explains how you can do the same. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Ingram, the legendary book buyer at Prairie Lights in Iowa City, Iowa, since 1989, is joining another elite group: booksellers who are published authors. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Finally, a way to browse the Kindle Lending Library in your browser. As an avid reader, and an especially big fan of ebooks, I thought subscribing to Amazon Prime seemed like a good idea. After all, the $79/year membership lets you check out one ebook per month from the Kindle Lending Library,... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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So you're an admirer of James Joyce's "Ulysses"? Well, thank Trieste for that book. So you're an admirer of James Joyce's "Ulysses"? Well, thank Trieste for that book. Why? Gordon Bowker's "James Joyce: A New Biography" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 608 pp., $35) shows readers how living in that... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The author's exuberant use of words in private is as vivid as in public.The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations have rocketed thanks to the BBC's lavish... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The sharpest review of Vladimir Nabokov’s memoir, “Speak, Memory,” was written by Nabokov himself. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 1998-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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