Pandora Sykes
Autor von What Writers Read: 35 Writers on Their Favourite Book
Werke von Pandora Sykes
What Writers Read 1 Exemplar
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The word “favourite” seems to have been interpreted quite loosely here. Some authors focus on formative books from childhood. Others identify recent favourites (e.g., Ann Patchett on Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss) or titles that have influenced their own craft (e.g., Taiye Selasi on Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger and Kit de Waal on Donal Ryan’s The Thing about December.)
Of the 35 short essays, only about a half dozen had any effect on me. William Boyd writes well about Joseph Heller’s ability to capture the absurdity of war in his novel Catch-22, reflecting Boyd’s sense of the Biafran conflict, which he had personal experience of as a young man. Sebastian Faulks discusses an intriguing adult novel he read as a nine-year-old; unfortunately, he has no recollection of the title, and whether his memory can, at this point, even be trusted on the particulars of character and plot is debatable. Deborah Levy’s wonderful and lively voice carries her personal essay on Dodie Smith’s classic I Capture the Castle, and Damon Galgut’s insightful piece on Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams is rewarding—it made me want to read the novella. So did Ali Smith on Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book, which concerns the relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter, a subject dear to my heart. Smith observes that it’s a work of “profound openness, where age knows everything anew and youth is profound experience. Saying this, or trying to describe the book in any way at all, doesn’t come anywhere near what happens when you read it: the calm, the joy, the depth, the understanding, the warmth of this slim little masterpiece about everything.” I’ve long intended to read this, and Smith has motivated to get to it soon.
Aside from these few highlights, Sykes’s book was nothing special for me. I can’t say I’d recommend it. A positive: it’s very short and very quickly read.… (mehr)