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 ]
A Quiet Author’s Written Rebellion: An Interview with Ananda Devi, by Dinah Assouline Stillman Interviews [email protected] Wed, 10/25/2023 - 09:46 Photo by Harrikrisna AnendenAnanda Devi is a noted francophone poet, writer, ethnologist,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-25 14:46:00 UTC ]
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Dann McDorman, the executive producer of “The Beat With Ari Melber,” gave up writing fiction in his 20s. Now, he’s publishing his first novel at age 47. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-10-24 09:02:04 UTC ]
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“Tremor,” his first novel in over a decade, is set in Massachusetts and Lagos, and came from a desire to capture the last moments of a pre-Covid world. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-10-16 09:00:22 UTC ]
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Since my first novel was published, at almost every interview and live event, I get asked a version of the same question. Usually people seem just curious, but occasionally there are notes of hostility or amazement. They want to know why, and often how, I write my female protagonists. The answer... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-16 08:50:29 UTC ]
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Tim O'Brien, author of the great novel 'The Things They Carried,' explains how COVID and Trump spawned 'America Fantastica,' his first novel in 20 years. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-10-13 10:00:10 UTC ]
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Oksana Vasyakina’s first novel is a family history and a reflection on womanhood. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-09-05 09:00:20 UTC ]
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The road to publication for my first novel was not only long and winding, but also booby-trapped, and in places there was no road, just long empty gaps that could only be filled by time. I started L.A. Breakdown as a junior at UC Santa Cruz, in 1972. I was old for a junior at […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-23 09:40:00 UTC ]
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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... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-08-21 20:04:48 UTC ]
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I was deep in the throes of a slow-moving depression, feeling frustrated with a job I had held for seven years, and reeling from the disappointment of a first novel that debuted without the critical and commercial acclaim I was afraid to admit I desired. So I called my mother. “I think I need a […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-09 09:10:27 UTC ]
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Bestselling YA novelist Elizabeth Acevedo explains why 'Family Lore,' her first novel for adults, features sex, magic and an 'alpha vagina' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-07-31 13:00:02 UTC ]
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Sixty-nine (nice, but in Elvish) years ago this week, the godfather of high fantasy, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, published the first novel in a proposed thee-volume epic “largely concerned with hobbits.” The Fellowship of the Ring has, in the decades since publication, shifted over 150 million... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-28 16:55:39 UTC ]
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The pseudonymous South Korean author’s first novel to be translated into English pits a multinational conglomerate against life on earth. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-07-09 09:00:12 UTC ]
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Billed as ‘a therapeutic novel’, the publisher’s first foray into fiction follows 29-year-old Anna’s mental health journey – with a view to helping the reader. But how useful can such clunky writing be?At 29 years old, Anna is full of self-loathing. She hates her job, her boyfriend is having an... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-07 15:45:50 UTC ]
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Author of a series of comic novels that focused on the tragi-comic nature of relationships and the general absurdities of lifeMavis Cheek, who has died aged 75, was the author of a series of comic novels that cast an acute eye on middle-class marriage and relationships and marked her out as one... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-04 16:07:50 UTC ]
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First edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone bought by UK book collector goes up for auction next weekIt is a book that has certainly lived up to its name: a rare edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone bought for 30p could fetch up to £5,000 at auction.The first novel... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-30 09:29:28 UTC ]
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The Braschian Wave: All the Solitude of an Empire in a Bottle Thrown into the Sea, by Carlos Labbé Essay [email protected] Wed, 06/28/2023 - 14:55 Photo by Javardh / UnsplashCarlos Labbé wonders whether it is “still possible to speak of... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-06-28 19:55:41 UTC ]
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Lorrie Moore's fourth novel, 'I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home,' follows a grieving man through the chaos of 2016 and some wondrous metaphysical byways. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-06-14 13:00:25 UTC ]
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One of my moments of greatest relief as a writer—equal, perhaps, to the swell and crest of learning that my first novel would be published—was when, decades ago, my Intro to Creative Writing professor assigned Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” and I arrived at this passage: “Very few... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-06 08:53:36 UTC ]
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With a first novel that chronicles a love affair between two young men, 23-year-old Ani Kayode Somtochukwu asserts a commitment to “queer resistance.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-06-05 16:02:45 UTC ]
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TIL … that the Rutshire chronicles is not euphemism for government incompetence but a blockbuster romance series by UK author Jilly Cooper OBE, and long a favorite of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Writes Politico: U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed Thursday that he’s an avid reader of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-25 13:27:20 UTC ]
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