“Richard Brautigan’s first novel sold less than 800 copies. His next novel sold 4 million copies. Trout Fishing in America turns 50 this year, and while most novels of that age now seem dated, Brautigan’s work seems particularly so: playful, goofy, fragmentary, optimistic. Trout Fishing in America is worth revisiting for exactly its status as an artifact of that time, a book that reveled in language, and made its writer into an imperfect legend.”
Literary Hub
A rundown of the Baileys Prize shortlist from Simon Savidge of Savidge Reads. “My number one choice has to be Stay With Me. I absolutely adore this book from start to finish, I think it’s incredible.”
Jen Campbell reviews this year’s Baileys shortlist. “The book I enjoyed the most, and would love to see win is Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo.”
“Marcus is good company, I think, and that’s what drew me back to him again and again.” Mike McCormack discusses his beautiful, compulsive, elegaic novel Solar Bones, winner of the Goldsmiths Prize and the BGE Irish Book of the Year.
“Trying to learn to be a good man is like learning to play tennis against a wall. You are only a good man – a competent, capable, interesting and lovable man – when you're doing it for, or with, other people”
Jules Evans introduces The Art of Losing Control: A Philosopher’s Search for Ecstatic Experience.
“Evans’s heart (or should that be soul) is in the right place. His sensitivity as a thinker, like his skill as a storyteller, is never in doubt.”
Guardian
“Many writers dread the idea of writing but force themselves to do it. I’m not like that. Built up over 30-plus years of working at home, the habit of self-discipline means that at the first sign of sleepiness I commit absolutely to a nap. Some days I don’t really feel like sleeping but I lie down and force myself” Geoff Dyer details his writing day at the Guardian.
A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat has become the 6th most expensive art work ever sold at auction, going for $110.5 million.
The New York Times
“Hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky… Hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency”
“Is this how one becomes an artist? By growing accustomed to the madness of others?”
“She has a thoroughly contemporary style that is all her own. Her clever and funny take on domestic life and Nigerian society is a welcome addition to her country’s burgeoning literary scene. Despite the intense sadness of her subject matter, she has produced a bright, big-hearted demonstration of female spirit”
Diana Evans
The Guardian