Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses by James Joyce, Long Island,1955 by Eve Arnold.
| Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo |
Writers and thinkers take on twenty questions from the TLS, revealing the books they most admire, nagging regrets and the occasional hidden talent
1If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, an what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all--I'm not saying that--but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy. I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. He's in Hollywood. That isn't too far from this crumby place, and he comes over and visits me practically every week end. He's going to drive me home when I go home next month maybe. He just got a Jaguar. One of those little English jobs that can do around two hundred miles an hour. It cost him damn near four thousand bucks. He's got a lot of dough, now. He didn't use to. He used to be just a regular writer, when he was home. He wrote this terrific book of short stories, The Secret Goldfish, in case you never heard of him. The best one in it was "The Secret Goldfish." It was about this little kid that wouldn't let anybody look at his goldfish because he'd bought it with his own money. It killed me. Now he's out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute. If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me.
Flannery O’Connor in the driveway at Andalusia, 1962. Photo: AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Joe McTyre
The writer Flannery O’Connor was known for her dark, funny and sassy stories about misfits, outsiders and the types of offbeat characters she encountered while living in the American South. O’Connor herself could be considered a sort of outsider. Plagued by symptoms of lupus in the latter part of her life and mostly bound to the farm where she lived with her mother and many peacocks, she often wrote about themes of isolation and created characters driven by desires to connect with each other, society at large, or with God. Her stories, which have inspired many writers and readers over the years, were also imbued with a kind of dark humor and exploration of faith and mortality that was often attributed to her illness.
| Ismail Kadare |
A GIRL IN EXILE
Requiem for Linda B.
By Ismail Kadare
Translated by John Hodgson 185 pp. Counterpoint. $25.
Ismail Kadare’s readers are astonished every year when the Nobel committee overlooks him. Albania’s first major author is already winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize, the Jerusalem Prize and other honors — the Swedish prize seems long overdue for the 82-year-old maestro. “A Girl in Exile,” published in Albanian in 2009, may rekindle the worldwide hopes.
Emotions run high on Goodreads. In fact, I tell every author navigating their first book launch to stay off it. They’re not going to listen to me, because who doesn’t want to know whether their manuscript – this precious thing they’ve toiled on in solitude for years – has found its readers? And because I’ve been there myself, I anticipate the spiral that follows. The elated high upon reading the first glowing review. The world-ending devastation of the first scathing review (or even the first lukewarm four-star review). The righteous indignation at the first three-star review. No one understands me. Are these people even literate? AmI even literate? It’s all too much; it doesn’t make you a better writer. Block the site and focus on your work.
| Rebecca F Kuang |
The bestselling author of Yellowface on prepping for Christopher Nolan films, a touring Mozart biopic and the swaggering young stars of Italian rock
This year, the singer-songwriter celebrates the 50th anniversary of ‘Horses’, the album that made her famous, and releases her memoir ‘Bread of Angels.’ Her voice, steadfast in its commitment to the world’s just causes, continues to resonate through her writing and performances
Celebrating 50 years of her first album ‘Horses,’ with which she revolutionized music and literature while remaining true to herself
New compilation ‘Before Easter After’ features portraits, many of them previously unpublished, taken of the singer in the 1970s
‘Will you pretend you’re my boyfriend?’ she asked the artist, hoping to escape another man. That night, they stopped pretending. They shared a dazzling love story, marked by excess and art
The pair maintain a powerful bond that speaks to a way of understanding both songs and life from a bygone era
Patti Smith and Bob Dylan have known each other since 1975 and it could be said that their friendship has transcended ordinary life and entered the realms of greatness. Greatness in its original sense and not as a cliché is always complex and, as we know, the complex is often reduced, ridiculed and even vilified in a world driven by capital, post-truth and social media noise. The complex is always the enemy of ignorance.