![]() The specificity Irby brings into her work is sometimes staggering. But for those of us who’ve been there-”well, yeah, I could spend more time cleaning my apartment, but….”-her thoughts on balance prove more refreshing. This can be a bit frustrating at times, like listening to a friend talk about what she could be doing-but isn’t-to turn her life around. But her writing is a master class in self-deprecation and occasional imposter syndrome, even when chronicling her greatest successes, both personal (settling into what sounds like a pretty happy marriage with the frequently mentioned “my lady”) and professional (becoming a published author and a staff writer for the Hulu series Shrill). To read Wow, No Thank You is to continue learning more about Irby’s bodily issues and personal hygiene choices (some of which, in this new era of Extreme Hand Washing, read like a time capsule from a hundred years ago). Fortunately, as much as Irby’s circumstances have changed since her breakout book Meaty, getting married and moving to Kalamazoo hasn’t changed the voice which broke out of blogging to become one of our funniest essayists. ![]() ![]() ![]() The genre lives or dies based on what’s happening in those inner lives. ![]() Personal essays like the ones Samantha Irby writes have a clear purpose: to inform the reader, in great detail, about the author’s inner life. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Though his marriage to Richardson was brief, it deeply influenced Hemingway, inspiring what many consider his best work: the early In Our Time (1925) and The Sun Also Rises, or Fiesta (1926), and the late A Moveable Feast itself, posthumously published in 1964. McLain retells Feast from Hadley's perspective, in the tradition of novels such as Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, giving voice to a pivotal and yet comparatively silent woman from a classic book. ![]() Feast was written some 30 years after Hemingway left Hadley for her friend Pauline Pfeiffer, who would become the second of his four wives. The story of The Paris Wife is familiar to anyone who knows A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's memoir of "how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy". In fact, The Paris Wife also shares in the current fashion for biographical fiction, including Jay Parini's The Passages of Herman Melville, David Lodge's A Man of Parts, about HG Wells, and David Miller's Today about the death of Joseph Conrad. And now comes McLain's The Paris Wife, the story of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage, to Hadley Richardson, and their heady days in jazz age Paris. T he 1920s is back in vogue: Baz Luhrmann is remaking The Great Gatsby, a staged reading of Fitzgerald's masterpiece proved a big success off-Broadway last year, and HBO's 1920-set Boardwalk Empire is the flagship programme of the new Sky Atlantic channel. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The story of Nakri and her family is symbolic of thousands of Cambodians, whose suffering didn't end with the leaving of their horrific past in Cambodia but who also had to face a whole new struggle while still dealing with the trauma no child should have to have witnessed in a new lifestyle-the lucky ones who by a miracle managed to survive the unconquerable yet still had to deal with the grief of those who didn't escape. Its' account triumphs through its' sheer beauty like the dancing apsaras through the churning sea that became the focal point of this book. While the full brutal horrors of the Khmer Rouge weren't fully exposed to give younger readers an intro slight glimpse of what the people of Cambodia suffered without destroying their innocence, this still had a lasting impact that will remain with me for many years after I finished the last page, a message of resounding hope through even the darkest years in our history. ![]() ![]() ![]() There have been no filmed adaptations of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. ![]() The book was dedicated Roald Dahl’s daughters: Tessa, Ophelia, and Lucy.Ĭharlie and the Great Glass Elevator was almost called Charlie and The Great Glass “Air Machine.” Dahl thought that the word “elevator” was too American but also thought that “lift” was too boring. ![]() Bucket, Grandpa Joe, Grandma Josephine, Grandpa George, and Grandma Georgina. This story also gives Charlie’s family a much larger part to play. Elevator continues the story of Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka. It was published in 1972, eight years after the original. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one of the most famous and beloved works of children’s literature. ![]() ![]() I wanted to draw on those sort of very classic fantasy, classic fairy tale inspirations, but also make it my own,” she says. ![]() “I really wanted to write something that felt old and new at the same time. The references to video games help put a modern twist on classic fantasy themes in “The Starless Sea.” The writing on the walls in this world is a reference to the video game Dungeon Crawl Classics, Morgenstern says. “I'm either blessed or cursed by having a lot of imaginary architecture that lives in my brain.” “This is a place in my head,” Morgenstern says of the book’s otherworldly setting. How did his story end up in a book? To find out, he tumbles into an underground world with stories written on flower petals and walls, and couches and pillows and lamps for reading. ![]() Then as a young man, he comes across a book that tells that story. As a child, he was tempted to open a mysterious door in a wall, but he didn’t. ![]() The story stars Zachary, a graduate student who studies video gaming but loves books. 1 bestseller, translated into 37 languages and adapted into an upcoming movie.Įight years later, Morgenstern is back with a new novel, “ The Starless Sea,” which is already on The New York Times bestseller list. Her readers fell in love with a dream-like big top that served as the playing field for a contest between rival magicians. (Allison Hagan/Here & Now) This article is more than 3 years old.Īuthor Erin Morgenstern made a huge splash in 2011 with her debut novel, “The Night Circus.” ![]() |