My second read for the 1976 Club this week is the wacky and wonderful Lucinella by Lore Segal, which would also make a perfect read for Novellas in November. This slim book is a satire on the New York literary scene which utilises meta-fiction, magic-realism and a sense of dream-like whimsy to great effect. Depicting…
Claire Messud’s gracefully written novel The Emperor’s Children, is incredibly readable and entertaining but on a formidable scale. Set for the most part in New York City in 2000, it focuses on the social and personal lives of a group of young affluent New York professionals as they navigate a series of personal and political…
Like most of you I’m sure, I read different books for different reasons. Sometimes I read to be challenged, other times comforted. I like books that educate, books that question and books that move me. Often I will admire a book rather than liking it. And then there is a book like Rules of Civility…
As it’s title would suggest, the truth never fully comes to light in John Patrick Shanley’s 2004 play that won the Pulitzer Prize and eight Tony Awards before being turned into a film starring Amy Adams, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep. The play is set in 1964 in the offices and garden…
Tuesday Nights in 1980 encapsulates two things I love in a book – a New York setting and a story about the art world. Prentiss’s debut novel asks big questions about talent and purpose – what do we do, when we can no longer do the thing the we define ourselves by? The novel begins…
Read more Tuesday Nights in 1980 by Molly Prentiss Book 6 of #20booksofsummer20
In Open City, Teju Cole’s main character, Julius, visits an exhibition of work by John Brewster. One image in particular catches his attention, a painting of a child holding a bird on the end of a blue thread. He notes the striking use of colour in the painting and muses that The bird represents the…
I was about a third of the way through Ten Thousand Saints when I discovered that it is just about to be released as a movie starring Ethan Hawke and Hailee Steinfeld. This makes sense. This coming-of-age tale of teenage friendship, dysfunctional families and the ‘straight edge’ hardcore scene of New York in the ‘80s…
I don’t know a lot about Patti Smith and I haven’t listened to a lot of her music. Horses is fine, but I’m not a fan. I think it is important to say that at the start, because I imagine that your reaction to Just Kids will depend entirely on your position on Patti Smith.…
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