Reading Alice Munro, 1973-2013
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The 2008 Book Club Master Book List Table of Contents
The 2008 Book Club Master Book List Grouped into a few categories, and sorted by author’s name. Thinned by a few deletions and updated with all the hot new additions suggested at the Sunday gathering at Larrie & Suzanne’s on January 13/2008 … Things in the Notes section are mainly taken from various Web pages or book jackets. Table of Contents Literary Fiction:______________________________________________________________ 2 Counterculture / Underground: ________________________________________________ 30 History / Historical Fiction: ___________________________________________________ 32 Biography/Autobiography: ____________________________________________________ 34 Travel / Place:_______________________________________________________________ 40 Nonfiction: _________________________________________________________________ 44 Themes:____________________________________________________________________ 50 Book Club Master Book List – 2008 edition 1 Title / Author Notes Year Literary Fiction: Lucky Jim In Lucky Jim, Amis introduces us to Jim Dixon, a junior lecturer at 2004 (Kingsley Amis) a British college who spends his days fending off the legions of malevolent twits that populate the school. His job is in constant danger, often for good reason. Lucky Jim hits the heights whenever Dixon tries to keep a preposterous situation from spinning out of control, which is every three pages or so. The final example of this--a lecture spewed by a hideously pickled Dixon--is a chapter's worth of comic nirvana. The book is not politically correct (Amis wasn't either), but take it for what it is, and you won't be disappointed. Oryx and Crake Depicts a near-future world that turns from the merely horrible to 2004 (Margaret Atwood) the horrific, from a fool's paradise to a bio-wasteland. Snowman (a man once known as Jimmy) sleeps in a tree and just might be the only human left on our devastated planet. -
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick 1 Table of Contents The Shawl “Just as you can’t About the Book.................................................... 3 grasp anything About the Author ................................................. 5 Historical and Literary Context .............................. 7 without an Other Works/Adaptations ..................................... 9 opposable thumb, Discussion Questions.......................................... 10 you can’t write Additional Resources .......................................... 11 Credits .............................................................. 12 anything without the aid of metaphor. Metaphor is the mind’s opposable thumb.” Preface What is the NEA Big Read? No event in modern history has inspired so many books as A program of the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA Big the Holocaust. This monumental atrocity has compelled Read broadens our understanding of our world, our thousands of writers to reexamine their notions of history, communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a humanity, morality, and even theology. None of these good book. Managed by Arts Midwest, this initiative offers books, however, is quite like Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl—a grants to support innovative community reading programs remarkable feat of fiction which starts in darkest despair and designed around a single book. brings us, without simplification or condescension, to a glimmer of redemption. A great book combines enrichment with enchantment. It awakens our imagination and enlarges our humanity. -
Cahiers-Papers 53-1
The Giller Prize (1994–2004) and Scotiabank Giller Prize (2005–2014): A Bibliography Andrew David Irvine* For the price of a meal in this town you can buy all the books. Eat at home and buy the books. Jack Rabinovitch1 Founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch, the Giller Prize was established to honour Rabinovitch’s late wife, the journalist Doris Giller, who had died from cancer a year earlier.2 Since its inception, the prize has served to recognize excellence in Canadian English-language fiction, including both novels and short stories. Initially the award was endowed to provide an annual cash prize of $25,000.3 In 2005, the Giller Prize partnered with Scotiabank to create the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Under the new arrangement, the annual purse doubled in size to $50,000, with $40,000 going to the winner and $2,500 going to each of four additional finalists.4 Beginning in 2008, $50,000 was given to the winner and $5,000 * Andrew Irvine holds the position of Professor and Head of Economics, Philosophy and Political Science at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Errata may be sent to the author at [email protected]. 1 Quoted in Deborah Dundas, “Giller Prize shortlist ‘so good,’ it expands to six,” 6 October 2014, accessed 17 September 2015, www.thestar.com/entertainment/ books/2014/10/06/giller_prize_2014_shortlist_announced.html. 2 “The Giller Prize Story: An Oral History: Part One,” 8 October 2013, accessed 11 November 2014, www.quillandquire.com/awards/2013/10/08/the-giller- prize-story-an-oral-history-part-one; cf. -
The Golem Myth in Cynthia Ozick's The
Demanding Connection: The Golem Myth in Cynthia Ozick’s The Puttermesser Papers and Thane Rosenbaum’s The Golems of Gotham MA-thesis English language and culture: education and communication R.D.Ekhart 0114812 Utrecht University April 2010 Supervisor: dr. Derek Rubin Table of Contents Introduction 3 1. Demanding Connection: 8 Contemporary Jewish American Fiction 2. A Jewish Cultural Memory: 14 The Myth of the Golem 3. Creation and Redemption in Cynthia Ozick’s 21 The Putterrmesser Papers 4. Creation and Redemption in Thane Rosenbaum’s 32 The Golems of Gotham Conclusion 45 Works Cited 47 Front page image: Instructions on how to make a golem Source: http://www.templesanjose.org/JudaismInfo/tradition/Golem_files/image005.jpg 2 Introduction “And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7, ASV) “She demands connection - surely, a Jew must own a past” (Ozick, Puttermesser Papers 17). Cynthia Ozick’s protagonist Ruth Puttermesser is determined to find herself an ancestor. She needs someone who represents a past that can define her present. Owning a past is one way of defining what constitutes Jewishness. Edward Shapiro makes it clear what exactly makes Jewish identity problematic: “the problem of Jewish identity lies in the question whether Jewishness is a matter of religion, history, culture or ethnicity” ( Introduction , 286). Jews of all places and all times have struggled with the question of what defines the Jewish self. This question has different answers for different Jews at different times and in different places and it is true that, as Jonathan Rosen says, “every generation has its own story to tell” (257). -
The Form and Feeling of Leonard Michaels' Jewish-American Literature
Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Washington University Spring 2018 Senior Honors Thesis Abstracts Spring 2018 The Form and Feeling of Leonard Michaels’ Jewish-American Literature Harrison Hall Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/wushta_spr2018 Recommended Citation Hall, Harrison, "The Form and Feeling of Leonard Michaels’ Jewish-American Literature" (2018). Spring 2018. 52. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/wushta_spr2018/52 This Abstract for College of Arts & Sciences is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington University Senior Honors Thesis Abstracts at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Spring 2018 by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. English The Form and Feeling of Leonard Michaels’ Jewish-American Literature Harrison Hall Mentor: Nancy Berg The conventional narrative to describe Jewish-American literature tracks a departure and possible return to a Jewish culture and heritage. However, the twentieth¬ to twenty- first century writer Leonard Michaels did not display such a shift. In the 1960s, his style evoked what he termed the “weird delirium” of a counter-culture in New York City. His early stories draw heavily on his onomatopoeic conception of the Yiddish language and describe cultural Jews living and fighting in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Later in his life, Michaels adopted a simpler style and set his final collection, The Nachman Stories, in California. This change led some to criticize Michaels for abandoning literature more obviously aligned with mid-twentieth century Jewish-American experience. -
Identity, Gender, and Belonging In
UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN, TRINITY COLLEGE Explorations of “an alien past”: Identity, Gender, and Belonging in the Short Fiction of Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro, and Margaret Atwood A Thesis submitted to the School of English at the University of Dublin, Trinity College, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Kate Smyth 2019 Declaration I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University’s open access institutional repository or allow the library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. ______________________________ Kate Smyth i Table of Contents Summary .......................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iv List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................... v Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Part I: Mavis Gallant Chapter 1: “At Home” and “Abroad”: Exile in Mavis Gallant’s Canadian and Paris Stories ................ 28 Chapter 2: “Subversive Possibilities”: -
The Love of a Good Woman” Ulrica Skagert University of Kristianstad
Things within Things Possible Readings of Alice Munro’s “The Love of a Good Woman” Ulrica Skagert University of Kristianstad Abstract: Alice Munro’s “The Love of a Good Woman” is perhaps one of the most important stories in her œuvre in terms of how it accentuates the motivation for the Nobel Prize of Literature: “master of the contemporary short story.” The story was first published in The New Yorker in December 1996, and over 70 pages long it pushes every rule of what it means to be categorised as short fiction. Early critic of the genre, Edgar Allan Poe distinguished short fiction as an extremely focused attention to plot, properly defined as that to which “no part can be displaced wit- hout ruin to the whole”. Part of Munro’s art is that of stitching seemingly disparate narrative threads together and still leaving the reader with a sense of complete- ness. The story’s publication in The New Yorker included a subtitle that is not part of its appearing in the two-year-later collection. The subtitle, “a murder, a mystery, a romance,” is interesting in how it is suggestive for possible interpretations and the story’s play with genres. In a discussion of critical readings of Munro’s story, I propose that the story’s resonation of significance lies in its daring composition of narrative threads where depths of meaning keep occurring depending on what aspects one is focusing on for the moment. Further, I suggest that a sense of completion is created in tone and paralleling of imagery. -
Longlisted & Shortlisted Books 1994-2018
Longlisted & Shortlisted Books 1994-2018 www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca # The Boys in the Trees, Mary Swan – 2008 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, Mona Awad - 2016 Brother, David Chariandy – 2017 419, Will Ferguson - 2012 Burridge Unbound, Alan Cumyn – 2000 By Gaslight, Steven Price – 2016 A A Beauty, Connie Gault – 2015 C A Complicated Kindness, Miriam Toews – 2004 Casino and Other Stories, Bonnie Burnard – 1994 A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry – 1995 Cataract City, Craig Davidson – 2013 The Age of Longing, Richard B. Wright – 1995 The Cat’s Table, Michael Ondaatje – 2011 A Good House, Bonnie Burnard – 1999 Caught, Lisa Moore – 2013 A Good Man, Guy Vanderhaeghe – 2011 The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway – 2008 Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood – 1996 Cereus Blooms at Night, Shani Mootoo – 1997 Alligator, Lisa Moore – 2005 Childhood, André Alexis – 1998 All My Puny Sorrows, Miriam Toews – 2014 Cities of Refuge, Michael Helm – 2010 All That Matters, Wayson Choy – 2004 Clara Callan, Richard B. Wright – 2001 All True Not a Lie in it, Alix Hawley – 2015 Close to Hugh, Mariana Endicott - 2015 American Innovations, Rivka Galchen – 2014 Cockroach, Rawi Hage – 2008 Am I Disturbing You?, Anne Hébert, translated by The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Wayne Johnston – Sheila Fischman – 1999 1998 Anil’s Ghost, Michael Ondaatje – 2000 The Colour of Lightning, Paulette Jiles – 2009 Annabel, Kathleen Winter – 2010 Conceit, Mary Novik – 2007 An Ocean of Minutes, Thea Lim – 2018 Confidence, Russell Smith – 2015 The Antagonist, Lynn Coady – 2011 Cool Water, Dianne Warren – 2010 The Architects Are Here, Michael Winter – 2007 The Crooked Maid, Dan Vyleta – 2013 A Recipe for Bees, Gail Anderson-Dargatz – 1998 The Cure for Death by Lightning, Gail Arvida, Samuel Archibald, translated by Donald Anderson-Dargatz – 1996 Winkler – 2015 Curiosity, Joan Thomas – 2010 A Secret Between Us, Daniel Poliquin, translated by The Custodian of Paradise, Wayne Johnston – 2006 Donald Winkler – 2007 The Assassin’s Song, M.G. -
The Story About the Story Great Writers Explore Great Literature
The Story About the Story Great Writers Explore Great Literature Edited by J. C. Hallman ∏ın House Books Copyright © 2009 Tin House Books Additional copyright information can be found on pages 418-21. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, contact Tin House Books, 2601 NW Thurman St., Portland, OR 97210. Published by Tin House Books, Portland, Oregon, and New York, New York Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West, 1700 Fourth St., Berkeley, CA 94710, www.pgw.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The story about the story : great writers explore great literature / edited by J. C. Hallman. -- 1st U.S. ed. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-9802436-9-7 1. Literature--History and criticism. 2. Authors--Books and reading. I. Hallman, J. C. PN45.S857 2009 809--dc22 2009015717 First U.S. edition 2009 Interior design by Janet Parker Printed in Canada www.tinhouse.com Table of Contents introduction: Toward a Fusion ...........................................................................................8 J. C. Hallman Salinger and Sobs ......................................................................................14 Charles D’Ambrosio An Essay in Criticism ................................................................................35 Virginia Woolf On a Stanza by John Keats ......................................................................42 -
Award Winning Novels: Plot Summaries for Books in Bayside's Resource Centre (Courtesy of Chapters Website)
Award Winning Novels: Plot Summaries for Books in Bayside's Resource Centre (Courtesy of Chapters website) Man Booker Award Winners Mantel, Hilary. Bring Up the Bodies. By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith''s son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry''s second wife, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church. But Henry''s actions have forced England into dangerous isolation, and Anne has failed to do what she promised: bear a son to secure the Tudor line. When Henry visits Wolf Hall, Cromwell watches as Henry falls in love with the silent, plain Jane Seymour. The minister sees what is at stake: not just the king''s pleasure, but the safety of the nation. As he eases a way through the sexual politics of the court, and its miasma of gossip, he must negotiate a "truth" that will satisfy Henry and secure his own career. But neither minister nor king will emerge undamaged from the bloody theatre of Anne''s final days. Barnes, Julian. The Sense of An Ending. The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes''s new novel is laced with his trademark precision, dexterity and insight. It is the work of one of the world''s most distinguished writers. Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they navigated the girl drought of gawky adolescence together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. -
Trends in Collecting Blogg
copies of Runaway (2004) were signed, and they are TRENDS IN COLLECTING commanding prices of US$400 or more for mint copies. The Love of a Good Woman (1998) is an older book and will become even more difficult to find in The Scotiabank Giller Prize mint, signed condition. ALTHOUGH NOT AS widely collected or hyped The most difficult Giller winner to find over as the Man Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller the next few years will be the most recent, Lam's Prize (formerly called the Giller Prize) should not Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. It was initially be underestimated for either its selection of top published in the spring of 2006 in a hardcover Canadian fiction or its difficulty for modern literary edition of 5,000 copies. It was then released in trade collectors. paperback format a few months later. The hardcover In brief, the Giller Prize was founded by Jack edition has vanished from sight; the publisher has no Rabinovitch in honour of his wife, Doris Giller, who more first primings, and there aren't any copies to be rose to a respected status within the literary and found in Chapters/Indigo or on www.abebooks.com. newspaper community before her death in 1993. The real mystery is, where did they go? One ofDoris's big accomplishments was establishing Although the Giller Prize has emphasized literary a new standard for book reviews for the Monrreal heavyweights, the prize has done an excellent job of Gazette. promoting some of the younger or newer literary M.G. Vassanji won the inaugural Giller Prize talent rising up in Canada. -
Cynthia Ozick, Critic
Joseph Epstein When Jews Boxed JEWISH REVIEW OF BOOKS Volume 7, Number 3 Fall 2016 $10.45 Dara Horn Cynthia Ozick, Critic Shoshana Olidort Jonathan Safran Foer’s Midlife Doorstop Plus Elliott Horowitz Caffeinated Mysticism Alvin H. Rosenfeld Primo Levi’s Achievement Allan Arkush Kirsch’s Canon Rafael Medoff Zion and the American Election, 1944 Jonathan Sacks and Shlomo Riskin On Jewish Power: An Exchange Editor JEWISH REVIEW BOOKS Abraham Socher Senior Contributing Editor Allan Arkush Art Director Betsy Klarfeld Please join us Managing Editor Amy Newman Smith Editorial Assistant Sunday, November 6, 2016 Kate Elinsky Editorial Board Our 2nd Annual Conference Speakers Robert Alter Shlomo Avineri Leora Batnitzky Ruth Gavison Moshe Halbertal Jon D. Levenson Anita Shapira Michael Walzer J. H.H. Weiler Leon Wieseltier Ruth R. Wisse Steven J. Zipperstein Publisher Eric Cohen Eliot Cohen Moshe Halbertal Shai Held Johns Hopkins University NYU Law School and Rosh Yeshiva Associate Publisher & The Hebrew University Mechon Hadar Director of Marketing Lori Dorr Advancement Officer Malka Groden JRB Publication Committee Anonymous Marilyn and Michael Fedak Dara Horn Meir Soloveichik Bret Stephens Martin J. Gross Distinguished novelist Congregation Shearith Israel Wall Street Journal and Yeshiva University Pulitizer Prize recipient Susan and Roger Hertog Roy J. Katzovicz Judy and Leonard Lauder Steven Price George Rohr Daniel Senor Judy and Michael Steinhardt The Jewish Review of Books (Print ISSN 2153-1978, Online Joseph H. H. Weiler Leon Wieseltier Ruth R. Wisse ISSN 2153-1994) is a quarterly publication of ideas and NYU Law School and The Brookings Institution Harvard University criticism published in Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, European University Institute and The Tikvah Fund by Bee.Ideas, LLC., 745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1400, New York, NY 10151.