Jean Améry, the Austrian essayist and Primo Levi’s former barrack-mate at Auschwitz, wrote one last novel before he died. Its six angry chapters are written as if by Charles Bovary, accusing Flaubert of ruining his life.
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Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
On the Difficulty of Separating Van Gogh the Artist from Van Gogh the Brand
It has become harder over the last 130 years or so to see Van Gogh plain. It is practically harder in that our approach to his paintings in museums is often blocked by an urgent, excitable crescent of worldwide fans, iPhones aloft for the necessary selfie with Sunflowers. They are to be welcomed: the international reach […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Selfie with ‘Sunflowers’
Julian Barnes on Vincent van Gogh, and the difficulties of seeing his well-known work with fresh eyes.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Nick Hornby on the Difficulty of Working as a Junior Book Critic
And this is one of the strange things about life as a junior book critic (I was more than 30, but I was definitely a junior): you spend all your life reading, but you can never take part in a conversation about books with your friends. They want to talk about the new Julian Barnes, […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Julian Barnes on Confidence and Calling Yourself a Writer
INTERVIEWER So you chose novel writing as a profession. BARNES Oh, I didn’t choose it as a profession—I didn’t have the vanity to choose it. I can perhaps now state that I am at last a novelist, and think of myself as a novelist, and can afford to do journalism when it pleases me. But […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Sin of Height
Ballooning in the 19th century. Adapted from Levels of Life, a book by Julian Barnes about love, loss and ballooning: “Aeronauts were the new Argonauts, their adventures instantly chronicled. A balloon flight linked town and country, England and France, France and Germany. Landing provoked pure excitement: a balloon brought no evil. By the Normandy fireside […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Interview: Julian Barnes, The Art of Fiction No. 165
INTERVIEWER So you chose novel writing as a profession. BARNES Oh, I didn’t choose it as a profession—I didn’t have the vanity to choose it. I can perhaps now state that I am at last a novelist, and think of myself as a novelist, and can afford to do journalism when it pleases me. But […]
Posted inUncategorized
Kate Silver: Top Five Long Reads of 2010
I always love Kate Silver‘s #longreads picks. Here’s her Top 5. frontofbook: Longreads asked for a top five. Here are a few that stand out: Christopher Hitchens, “Martin, Maggie, and Me” (Vanity Fair) The Hitchens-Amis bromance is the ultimate had-to-be-there of Thatcher-era intelligentsia. Bottoms up. Michaelangelo Matos, eMusic Q&A: Rob Sheffield (17 Dots) Pop fans […]
Posted inUncategorized
INTERVIEWER So you chose novel writing as a profession. BARNES Oh, I didn’t choose it as a profession—I didn’t have the vanity to choose it. I can perhaps now state that I am at last a novelist, and think of myself as a novelist, and can afford to do journalism when it pleases me. But […]
