E. L. Doctorow, The Art of Fiction No. 94 Novelist E.L. Doctorow, who died recently, participated in this interview with George Plimpton that was published in the winter 1986 issue of The Paris Review. Here’s a quotation from Doctorow that I particularly like: One of the things I had to learn as a writer was […]
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Related Posts: Review: “Go Set a Watchman” Compendium on “Go Set a Watchman” More on Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman” Lee, Harper. Go Set a Watchman New York: HarperCollins, 2015 ISBN 978–0–06–240985–0 Consensus is that Go Set a Watchman is the manuscript that Harper Lee originally submitted to publisher J. B. Lippincott Company in
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After the chaos of my June blogging, in July my main goal was simply to get back into the habit of writing and publishing a post every day. At that I succeeded. However, I did not work on my word for the year, story. And I anticipate a bit more chaos in the upcoming weeks
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It’s hard to resist a list. That’s probably why there are so many of them all over the internet. Another reason is that bloggers are encouraged to make use of the list format because it’s one of the most popular formats for blog posts. For some reason, I’ve come across more lists than usual in
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The ghostwriter, the secret plot and a ‘grave-robbing’ Stieg Larsson sequel You may remember that Swedish author Stieg Larsson dropped dead shortly after delivering the manuscript of the third novel in what has come to be called his Millennium trilogy. His long-time live-in companion, Eva Gabrielsson, said that his laptop contained a nearly completed manuscript
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Reactions to Harper Lee’s recently published aren’t going away any time soon. Here are some more that I’ve collected. Again, this list isn’t meant to be exhaustive, but here I’ve included only those pieces that add something new to the discussion rather than just echoing what has already been said. I offer very short summaries
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Lee, Harper. Go Set a Watchman New York: HarperCollins, 2015 ISBN 978–0–06–240985–0 You won’t envision Gregory Peck when you read what Atticus Finch has to say to his daughter late in this novel: “You realize that our Negro population is backward, don’t you?” (p. 242) “Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools
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I have finished reading Harper Lee’s newly released novel Go Set a Watchman and am collecting my thoughts. I read it slowly, taking copious notes. Probably like most people, I tried to read it in two mutually exclusive ways simultaneously: both with and without To Kill a Mockingbird as a touchstone. Figuring out how to
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John Fowles, The Art of Fiction No. 109 This article originally appeared in the Summer 1989 issue of The Paris Review. James R. Baker interviews John Fowles, author of, among others, The Collector (1963) and The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969). Fowles says that he was heavily influenced by the existentialists. When the interview asks if
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Way back in January 2010 Time magazine drew up a list of “the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923—the beginning of TIME”: All-TIME 100 Novels: The parameters: English language novels published anywhere in the world since 1923, the year that TIME Magazine began, which, before you ask, means that Ulysses (1922) doesn’t make the
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