Review by Booklist Review
The eighth volume in this distinguished series of interviews includes conversations with 13 authors-novelists, poets, story writers, and, breaking new ground for the series, an essayist (E. B. White), a biographer (Leon Edel), an editor (James Laughlin), and a translator (Robert Fitzgerald). One would be hard-pressed to find outside this series any author interviews more enlightening. Nowhere do writers speak more from the heart than they do here; nowhere can other writers find such inspiration and such a sense of fraternity; and nowhere can readers of good literature find such stimulus to read more and more. The interview in this volume with Cynthia Ozick-a penetrating, demanding session that obviously took a lot out of the subject-is particularly engrossing. BH. 809'.04 Authors-20th century-Interviews [OCLC] 87-31736
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In its eighth edition, this fecund forum continues to illuminate the creative mind. Prolific author Oates points out that the present volume signals a departure in that it includes essayist (as well as poet and children's book author) E. B. White, biographer Leon Edel, translator (and poet) Robert Fitzgerald and editor (and poet) James Laughlin. John Irving says he owes literary debts to Charles Dickens, Gunter Grass and Kurt Vonnegut, and recalls how he and John Cheever were snubbed by J. P. Donleavy. New Directions founder Laughlin provides a concise history of American Modernism in his personal reminiscences of Ezra Pound, Tennessee Williams, Gertrude Stein, Delmore Schwartz and William Carlos Williams. John Hersey wrote his Pulitzer Prize-winning first novel A Bell for Adano in a month, White reveals that he has ``done little reading in my life,'' Joseph Brodsky explains ``if you really want your poem to work, the usage of adjectives should be minimal; but you should stuff it as much as you can with nounseven the verbs should suffer.'' Cynthia Ozick insisted on typing out answers to the interviewer's questions in his presence, amended and doubled the manuscript with oral comments, and later reviewed and revised her spoken addendum. And Paris Review editor Plimpton conducted his interview of E. L. Doctorow in public and with audience participation at New York City's 92nd Street YMHA. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Each interview in this addition to the stimulating series is so different that it is hard to generalize about them. In some, interviewer and interviewee can barely disguise their impatience with each other; others are highly sympathetic. In this instance, ``interview'' is a highly misleading term; many writers gave answers to set questions by mail, and several of the interviews have been heavily edited. Nonetheless, many great names in 20th-century literature are represented here, including May Sarton, Eugene Ionesco, Philip Larkin, and Milan Kundera, and the insights they provide regarding the writing process are fascinating. A quibble: Does Elizabeth Hardwick really belong to this party? Carl Vogel, San Francisco P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Thirteen more excellent conversations with leading wordsmiths. Here, for the first time in this series, those interviewed include not only the usual ""'creative' writers--that inadequate, embarrassing term,"" as Joyce Carol Oates writes in her introduction, but also essayist E.B. White, biographer Leon Edel, editor and poet James Laughlin, and translator Robert Fitzgerald. The others who muse--often amusingly--on their craft are John Hersey, Cynthia Ozick, Elie Wiesel, Derek Wolcott, E.L. Doctorow, Anita Brookner, Robert Stone, Joseph Brodsky, and John Irving. Ozick types out her answers to verbal questions; Irving rants at J.P. Donleavy for once snubbing John Cheever; Laughlin reminisces about Thomas Merton (""He was so nice, so jolly""); White admits that, while his famous precept ""place yourself in the background"" is ""a useful one. . .It's true that I paid little attention to it""--these idiosyncratic, vital voices stimulate, provoke, and nourish. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
