Two Paths for the Novel (from NY Review)
Netherland
by Joseph O’Neill
Pantheon, 256 pp., $23.95
Remainder
by Tom McCarthy
Vintage, 308 pp., $13.95 (paper)
1.
From two recent novels, a story emerges about the future for the Anglophone novel. Both are the result of long journeys. Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill, took seven years to write;Remainder, by Tom McCarthy, took seven years to find a mainstream publisher.
E.M. Forster, Middle Manager (from NYRB)
The BBC Talks of E.M. Forster, 1929–1960
edited by Mary Lago, Linda K. Hughes, and Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, with a foreword by P.N. Furbank
University of Missouri Press, 477 pp., $59.95
1.
In the taxonomy of English writing, E.M. Forster is not an exotic creature. We file him under Notable English Novelist, common or garden variety.
Read better
11. System readers, system writers
“A work of art,” said Nabokov, “has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me.”
A writer with such strong opinions would find it hard (more…)
Fail better
1. The tale of Clive
I want you to think of a young man called Clive. Clive is on a familiar literary mission: he wants to write the perfect novel. (more…)
