Wednesday, September 21, 2005

FOOTNOTES
Jane Smileys
13 Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005)

AN engaging must-read for those who love the grand adventure of reading and writing and believe in the transformative power of fiction in our lives. There’s no such thing as a perfect novel, says Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley. All novels are flawed in one way or another. And that’s what makes them all the more intriguing. From Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji (a thousand-year old classic) to Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote (1605) to George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1871) to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) to Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) to Junichiro Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters (1957) to Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) to Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (1999) and Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001), Smiley explores the art of the novel as a form and its affinity with the history of humanity. For avid lovers of literature, this provocative and at times irreverent history of the novel celebrates the wonders of literature and the reading life.

Bibliography
SMILEY Jane [1949-] Novelist. Born in Los Angeles, California, U.S. NOVELS Good Faith (2003); Horse Heaven (2000); The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (1998); Moo (1995); A Thousand Acres (1991: winner of the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction); The Greenlanders (1988); Duplicate Keys (1984); At Paradise Gate (1981); Barn Blind (1980) NOVELLAS Ordinary Love and Good Will (1989) STORIES The Age of Grief (1987) NONFICTION 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005); Catskill Crafts: Artisans of the Catskill Mountains (1988) BIOGRAPHY Charles Dickens (2002) MEMOIR A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money and Luck (2004)

Recommended Reads
13 Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005); A Thousand Acres (1991); Ordinary Love and Good Will (1989); The Age of Grief (1987)

3 Comments:

Blogger bibliobibuli said...

Oh Eric, I nearly bought this yesterday ... I picked up a copy in times and it was so nicely printed and bound and hand-worthy and about the things I love to read about ... but it just semed too much bookgreed and I haven't so much time at the moment ... Bought Zadie instead. Now you've got me thinking maybe I should go back for this ...

Thursday, September 22, 2005 8:14:00 AM  
Blogger Eric Forbes said...

Yes, Sharon, it's very addictive. And the good thing is, there's no cure for this wonderful addiction! Happy reading!

Thursday, September 22, 2005 4:26:00 PM  
Blogger bibliobibuli said...

Wonderful????

Sunday, September 25, 2005 4:48:00 PM  

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