Laughing and crying simultaneously
A heartrending autobiographical essay about the mess Sam Lipsyte made of his life before age twenty-five has echoes in his fiction, Philip Connors says.
A heartrending autobiographical essay about the mess Sam Lipsyte made of his life before age twenty-five has echoes in his fiction, Philip Connors says.
“I chose a very short text because I knew that I would read without stopping to breathe, thus very badly.” Amelié Nothomb keeps a culture diary, converses at PEN with Buket Uzuner.
At The Awl today I profile Emma Forrest, author of Your Voice in My Head, a memoir that left me raw, shaken, and hopeful all at once. An excerpt: If you’ve ever been in therapy and liked, trusted and worried about losing your shrink, Emma Forrest has lived your nightmare. Three years ago, her psychiatrist died of lung cancer she . . .
Nicholson Baker distinguishes between contingent and chronic literary influences: “with Updike, when I disagree with him, there is an element of pain, of emotional rupture.” (See also.)