I'm betting you don't recognize these 20th century female authors. Each has faded into obscurity for different reasons, but now have renewed and much deserved attention. One wrote a bestseller, one wrote for The New Yorker, and one just couldn't get the critics to love her work. I'm under their spell. Here's what's captivating me.
Tag: New York Review of Books Classics
Books I’m recommending
I've captured here the novels I mentioned on NPR member station WOSU All Sides Weekend Books that aired November 8, 2019.
“Let her tell it as she sees it.”
Françoise Gilot’s memoir of her 10 years with Pablo Picasso, published in 1964, was met with praise and controversy. The best-seller is now back in print. Here’s what “Life With Picasso” is about and why critics praised and criticized it.
To wish the world into otherness
"Ostend: Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth, and the Summer Before the Dark" by Volker Weidermann and translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway tells the story of one summer when Austrian authors Zweig and Roth took refuge at the seaside resort. Wonderful history captured in a small, gem of a book.
A retreat into the Yorkshire countryside
J. L. Carr's "A Month in the Country" is the story of a WWI veteran who escapes to the English countryside to restore his broken spirit. A gentle narrative big in meaning first published in 1980 and one of the New York Review Books/Classics. Also in this blog post, a YouTube video from the 1987 movie starring Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh.
Choose your page number
Book selection is not always about finding a good book to read. It's about finding a good book to read that fits your mood. Here's the solution an indie bookseller gave me, and it worked.
The Longest Chapter 