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Essays
The articles with which David Lodge entertained and enlightened readers of the Independent on Sunday and The Washington Post are now revised, expanded and collected together in book form.
The art of fiction is considered under a wide range of headings, such as the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Time-shift, Magical Realism and Symbolism, and each topic is illustrated by a passage or two taken from classic or modern fiction. Drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James and Martin Amis, Jane Austen and Fay Weldon and Henry Fielding and James Joyce, David Lodge makes accessible to the general reader the richness and variety of British and American fiction. Technical terms, such as Interior Monologue, Metafiction, Intertextuality and the Unreliable Narrator, are lucidly explained and their application demonstrated.
Bringing to criticism the verve and humour of his own novels, David Lodge has provided essential reading for students of literature, aspirant writers, and anyone who wishes to understand how literature works.
The provocative and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens takes the helm of the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this perennial favorite that is "reliable and yet still surprising--the best of the best" (Kirkus Reviews).
Chosen by the American Society of Magazine Editors, the stories in this anthology include National Magazine Award-winning works of public interest, reporting, feature writing, and fiction. This year's selections include Pamela Colloff (Texas Monthly) on the agonizing, decades-long struggle by a convicted murderer to prove his innocence; Dexter Filkins (The New Yorker) on the emotional effort by an Iraq War veteran to make amends for the role he played in the deaths of innocent Iraqis; Chris Jones (Esquire) on Robert A. Caro's epic, ongoing investigation into the life and work of Lyndon Johnson; Charles C. Mann (Orion) on the odds of human beings' survival as a species; and Roger Angell (The New Yorker) on aging, dying, and loss. The former infantryman Brian Mockenhaupt (Byliner) describes modern combat in Afghanistan and its ability both to forge and challenge friendships; Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic) reflects on the complex racial terrain traversed by Barack Obama; Frank Rich (New York) assesses Mitt Romney's ambiguous candidacy; and Dahlia Lithwick (Slate) looks at the current and future implications of an eventful year in Supreme Court history. The volume also includes an interview on the art of screenwriting with Terry Southern from The Paris Review and an award-winning short story by Stephen King published in Harper's magazine.
A teacher of writing and literature for 35 years, Donna DeLeo Bruno has loved books and relished reading for as far back as she can remember. Since retirement, she shares her immense enjoyment and keen appreciation of books and writing styles, with presentations at libraries, book clubs, and women's groups.
For almost 100 years, Coney Island was the most popular seaside destination in the United States. Eachyear, millions escaped the heat of New York City to savor the thrills of the Cyclone roller coaster and Wonder Wheel at the Astroland amusement park. They came to sample an original Nathan's Famous hot dog, witness the first demolition derby, or to take a chance at a game of three-card Monte on the legendary boardwalk. The advent of air-conditioning, concerns about Coney's "tawdry" entertainment, and faster transportation to other beaches hastened the demise of what had become a uniquely American icon of entertainment and a defining terminus of New York at the water's edge.
In an effort to revitalize the area, the Van Alen Institute, in concert with the Coney Island Development Corporation, held the Parachute Pavilion Competition, a contest to design a year-round pavilion in the shadow of the Parachute Jump, a landmark built for the 1939 World's Fair. Coney Island: The Parachute Pavilion Competition presents all 864 submissionsfrom the feasible to the fantasticreceived from around the world. The winning design by London-based Carmody Groarke Hardie is a mesmerizing attraction in its own right, composed of two provocative trapezoids illuminated by thousands of colored light bulbs. The design respects the historic icon under which it is located but also promises to become an icon in its own right and bring the fun-loving spirit of Coney Island into the twenty-first century. Featuring essays, photographic documentation, and jury comments, Coney Island: The Parachute Pavilion Competition is a critical resource for students, designers, city officials, and anyone interested in Coney Island and the reinvention of the historic recreation sites of our cities.
This thought-provoking journey takes readers from the Hungary of the 1930s and the ravaged Budapest of World War II to Lukacs's discovery of the New World, his forays into the intellectual life of New York City, and finally his settling in Philadelphia.
Poet and critic Christopher Buckley said of his poetry, "[Soto has] mastered his form, has found his voice, and has the life experiences to provide meaningful content." He could have been speaking of his prose as well. Soto is at home with the essay; he is able to paint moments that would otherwise seem dull and not worthy of comment. He picks up hitchhikers, sorts through the mystery of finding a wife, and pulls together his wits to solve the hunger of stray dogs. He is tender and outrageous; he is reflective on worldly matters and cagey with his family and friends. In all, his dazzling effects of language will keep the reader continually surprised.These portraits are set in his hometown, Fresno, and in his current residence, the San Francisco Bay area. They therefore mark his time and place, but honor the instincts of the master Knut Hamsun, who walked around his town, a spectacle of wonder This volume includes forty-eight pieces: all of the personal narratives formerly collected inSmall Faces, the best of Lesser Evils--both volumes long out-of-print--as well as five new essays.
Plunging into the enchanted and luminous worlds ofSpeak, Memory; Ada, or Ardor; and the infamous Lolita, Azam Zanganeh seeks out the Nabokovian experience of time, memory, sexual passion, nature, loss, love in all its forms, and language in all its allusions. She explores Nabokov's geography-from his Russian childhood to the landscapes of "his" America-suffers encounters with his beloved "nature," hallucinates an interview with the master, and seeks the "crunch of happiness" in his singular vocabulary. This beautifully illuminated book will both reignite the passion of experienced Nabokovians and lure the innocent reader to a well of delights as yet unseen.
Faced with the prospect of moving to another place, Bowers finds herself thinking about the familiar world in new and unfamiliar ways. Through her eyes, too, we see how an interest in nature and the outdoors developed from early childhood and how simple curiosity has led her to the most surprising discoveries. "Science is my eyes, my fingers, my ears ... my window on the world, " she says. At odd and unexpected moments, her work also seems to bring new insights into herself and her life as a writer, a wife, and a mother. These pages promise a new adventure at every turn in the trail. For sheer terror, there's a climb up the face of Baboquivari for laughs, there's the great bagworm caper; and for some quiet truths, there are themes of gain and loss, of connection and reconciliation. Crunching through winter snow or sweating under summer sun, we know we're in the hands of an experienced guide.
How do American girls see themselves and their lives today? What are their dreams? Jenny, Laura, and Martha McPhee take readers into the world of girls today, in this beautiful book of original photographs and life stories culled from the sisters' interviews with girls across America.
Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom begins this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty years, Bloom has transformed college students into lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for literature. Now, at a time when faster and easier electronic media threatens to eclipse the practice of reading, Bloom draws on his experience as critic, teacher, and prolific reader to plumb the great books for their sustaining wisdom.
Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.
Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.
Written during the Second World War while Hikmet was serving a thirteen-year sentence as a political prisoner, his verse-novel uses cinematic techniques to tell the story of the emergence of secular, modern Turkey by focusing on the always-entertaining stories of sundry characters from all walks of life. As his vignettes flash before our eyes at movie-like speed, it becomes clear he is also telling the turbulent story of the twentieth century itself and the ongoing struggle between tradition, which trusts in God, and modernity, which entrusts the world to human hands.
A new edition of the most definitive collection of Albert Einstein's popular writings, gathered under the supervision of Einstein himself. The selections range from his earliest days as a theoretical physicist to his death in 1955; from such subjects as relativity, nuclear war or peace, and religion and science, to human rights, economics, and government.
Poetry. Translated from the Turkish by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk. This is the first complete English translation of Hikmet's 1935 book that denounced the imminent Italian invasion of Ethiopia. It is this book that let the Turkish military to begin persecuting Hikmet for his anti-Fascist views. Three years later, the military would sentence him to 28 years in prison for his politics.
Hillerman's legion of fans will delight in this latest compilation of essays, some never before published in book form, that show how he draws inspiration for his novels from the picturesque landscapes of New Mexico, the Rio Grande, and other places. 36 full-color photos.
This compilation of essays and reviews, gathered posthumously from the New York Times Book Review and other publications, solidifies John Gardner's legacy as a consummate teacher and controversial critic with a provocative sense of humor. Writing about his fellow craftsmen, John Gardner offers piercing insights into those whose works he admired and those whose works he didn't. In exacting unapologetic evaluations upon such writers as Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, John Cheever, Larry Woiwode, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Updike, Gardner separates genuine fiction from fakery, careful not to spare his own writings in the process, and in doing so, he displays his influences and wide-reaching observations of the literary life. Refreshingly unpredictable and self-aware, this collection lays bare the core qualities of lasting fiction and is essential reading for anyone interested in American literature.
A teacher of writing and literature for 35 years, Donna DeLeo Bruno has loved books and relished reading for as far back as she can remember. Since retirement, she shares her immense enjoyment and keen appreciation of books and writing styles, with presentations at libraries, book clubs, and women's groups.
Interviews with more than 150 parents and care givers inform a probing examination of the anxieties and conflicts that arise in situations in which middle-class parents and their children's care givers have different cultural backgrounds.
Shoreline is an anthology of selected short fiction, non-fiction, poetry & prose from The Association of Rhode Island Authors.
The translation into English verse of one of Moliere's most masterful and most popular plays. "A continuous delight from beginning to end" (Richard Eberhart). Introduction by Richard Wilbur.
One of America"s foremost novelists and critics focuses on the essential joys of great literature, with particular emphasis on the novel. With razor-sharp wit, she investigates unexpected byways in the works of Leo Tolstoy, Saul Bellow, Helen Keller, Isaac Babel, Sylvia Plath, Susan Sontag, and more.
The Hundredth Monkey takes its title from philosopher Ron Amundson's expose of the "Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon," a claim about collective consciousness. Forty-three essays by thirty-nine authors, including Isaac Asmov, Martin Gardner, Carl Sagan, Ray Hyman, Paul Kurtz, and James Randi, examine aspects of paranormal and fringe-science beliefs from an authoritative, scientific point of view. The penetrating and entertaining essays, many with timely postscripts, are grouped into nine categories: - Understanding Human Need
- Examining Popular Claims - Encouraging Critical Thinking
- Medical Controversies - Evaluating the Anomalous Experience
- Astrology - Considering Parapsychology
- Crashed Saucer Claims - Controversies Within Science Scientists and scholars discuss the burden of skepticism and the delicate balance between a creative openness to new ideas and the relentless scrutiny of new claims. A classic source book for scientifically responsible explanations of controversies, hoaxes, bizarre mysteries, and popular cultural myths.
- Examining Popular Claims - Encouraging Critical Thinking
- Medical Controversies - Evaluating the Anomalous Experience
- Astrology - Considering Parapsychology
- Crashed Saucer Claims - Controversies Within Science Scientists and scholars discuss the burden of skepticism and the delicate balance between a creative openness to new ideas and the relentless scrutiny of new claims. A classic source book for scientifically responsible explanations of controversies, hoaxes, bizarre mysteries, and popular cultural myths.
A clairvoyant, Leadbeater wrote, is simply a person who develops "the power to respond to another octave out of the stupendous gamut of possible vibrations" and so is enabled "to see more of the world..than those of more limited perception." And what a world Leadbeater describes for us in these pages---a world of Master adepts and their pupils, untapped human powers and potentials, ancient mysteries, devas and nature spirits--in short, the unseen workings of the universe.
Selected short fiction, nonfiction, poetry & prose from The Association of Rhode Island Authors: Lenore M. Rheaume, Steven R. Porter, Al Bettencourt, Jimmy Gyasi Boateng, Helen Burke, Paul F. Caranci, R.N. Chevalier, Kathy Clark, Jane F. Collen, JEssica M. Collette, Norman Desmarais, Leo C. Frisk, Jr. L.A. Jacob, Debbie Kaiman Tillinghast, Deborah Katz, Lawrence J. Krips, Susan Letendre, Frances L. O'Donnell, Christie O'Neil Harrison, Joanne Perella, Mark Perry, Joni Pfeiffer-Moser, Dawn M. Porter, Victor C. Rudowski, Edward Taylor, Tom Trabulsi, Barbara Ann Whitman and Bruce Wilcox.
This rich collection of writings on the nature of love and commitment has long delighted brides and grooms of every denomination. Culled from both sacred and secular texts, and suitable for either traditional or informal wedding ceremonies, these selections might be included in Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, interfaith, and non-denominational exchanges of vows.
Among the passages appropriate for readings by parents, friends, or the bride and groom are selections from Plato and Sappho, Rilke and Auden, Ecclesiastes and Euripedes, Shakespeare and Donne, pascal and Montaigne, Emily Dickinson and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. There are love songs from the Aztecs and Eskimos, Hindu and African wedding prayers, a Buddhist marriage homily, a Shaker hymn, and Irish blessing, excerpts from Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox marriage services, and passages from the Old and New Testaments, some familiar, some surprising. With myriad choices, Wedding Readings will help you add a special, personal touch to your marriage ceremony.
Gerald Stern's poetry has been variously praised for its visionary quality, its scope and passion, but most especially for its wholehearted embrace of life. Stern's special manner of joie de vivre is immediately evident in his prose pieces as well. In this collection of personal essays, Stern speaks to the reader on subjects closest to his heart - family, justice, Jewishness, ecstasy, loss, and love, as well as Andy Warhol, Paris, and getting shot in the neck. He ranges from passionate literary discussions to buoyant anecdotes about "borrowing" William Carlos Williams' hat from the writer's historic home. With seven new pieces, What I Can't Bear Losing celebrates a writer passionately engaged with life in America after World War II and gives a glimpse of the poetic processes of one of today's most beloved literary voices.