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HOW TO READ A NOVELIST

Name: HOW TO READ A NOVELIST
Author: John Freeman
ISBN: 978-0-374-17326-5

by John Freeman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2013

A box of literary bonbons: addictive in spurts, but after a while, they all taste the same.

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Flattering profiles of modern novelists by an astute, occasionally fawning reader.

Despite the idle boast of the title, this collection by Granta editor in chief Freeman (The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox, 2009) doesn’t really cut it as literary criticism, but it is definitely literary appreciation. Over the past 15 years, the author has gotten the book-chat interview down to a science. He plays the perfect host to each of these 55 novelists, doing his homework, asking questions his subjects like hearing and, despite one chilly encounter with John Updike, neither alienating his subjects nor requiring them to think too deeply. Occasionally, he’ll strike silver, if not gold, such as when Haruki Murakami announces that the imagination feeds on a repetitious life. Generally, though, it’s Freeman who does the heavy lifting. Having gleaned a lot of precise assessments from reading his subjects in depth, he tends to be more interesting in describing his subject than they are about themselves. E.L. Doctorow has “the folksy charm of an afternoon radio host.” Aleksandar Hemon’s fiction “beats like a heart with two ventricles, one of them Chicago, one of them Sarajevo.” John Updike’s hands “are pink and somewhat gnarled, as if he has spent a lifetime vulcanizing words, rather than twisting them into shape on the page.” At times, Freeman slips into hyperbole (David Foster Wallace); at others, he is entirely too impressed by a writer’s commercial value (John Irving). Admittedly, he does an impressive amount in a tight space, but the articles don’t leave much behind. As typical Sunday magazine fodder, they are pleasant enough to read. Stacked together, they only underscore his formulaic approach to his subjects.

A box of literary bonbons: addictive in spurts, but after a while, they all taste the same.

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-374-17326-5

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
FREEMAN'S
edited by John Freeman

- BOOK REVIEW
THERE'S A REVOLUTION OUTSIDE, MY LOVE
edited by Tracy K. Smith & John Freeman

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PENGUIN BOOK OF THE MODERN AMERICAN SHORT STORY
edited by John Freeman

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.