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Sto caricando le informazioni... Famous Writers I Have Known: A Noveldi James Magnuson
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. A breezy, entertaining twist on the classic mystery-heist-con novel. Pokes fun at creative writing programs, and at thinly disguised authors -- J.D. Salinger and James Michener. ( ) Fiction Magnuson, James Famous Writers I Have Known: A Novel Read by Kevin T. Collins Audible audio edition, 10 hours and 11 minutes, unabridged, $4.99 Also available in hardcover (2014) and paperback (W. W. Norton, 978-0-393-35081-4, 320 pgs. $15.95, January 2015) Famous Writers I Have Known by James Magnuson, director of the James A. Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, is unequal parts noir, caper, and satirical sendup of creative writing programs and the contemporary literary scene, generally. Frankie Abandonato is a career grifter in New York forced to flee after his latest con goes murderously awry. The first flight out of La Guardia is to Austin and Frankie takes off. Landing in Austin, he’s mistaken for V. S. Mohle (think J.D. Salinger), a famously reclusive author who has agreed to teach a writing workshop at a prestigious fiction program. Sensing the con of a lifetime, Frankie assumes the mantle of tortured genius and must ultimately confront Mohle’s nemesis, Rex Schoeninger (think James Michener). The two writers haven’t spoken since feuding over a Pulitzer came to blows on The Dick Cavett Show. Famous Authors I Have Known rollicks with farce, especially when Frankie tries to bluff his way through literature workshops, where he mistakes Jay Gatsby for an author, is baffled by “some Cheever guy,” finds himself on the phone with Günter Grass, and assigns exercises such as “Describe a field as seen by a cow. Do not mention the cow.” Students make earnest declarations: “Realism is the atlas of fiction!” Magnuson’s dialogue is smart, quick, and often hilarious. Here Frankie and his former partner, who have been in prison for most of the 1990s, discuss a newfangled scam involving African royalty and something called email: “If you think I’m going to pose as a Nigerian prince, you’re crazy.” “Did I say you were going to have to pose as anybody? That’s the beauty of it. It’s all done on the computer. It’s totally risk-free.” “I’m not wearing any goddamned robes.” This novel is all plot as befits a crime caper. Magnuson is judicious with illustrative detail, not feeling the need to painstakingly draw every brick in the wall when a sketch will do for his purposes. The pace is brisk and even suspenseful as the story approaches its climax, holding attention effortlessly. Famous Authors I Have Known is read by actor Kevin T. Collins, a veteran of audio narration whose work has won a couple of AudioFile Earphones Awards. Collins’s voice is smooth and his pacing even. Frankie is a combination of cynical world-weariness, perpetual bemusement at the alien literary world he’s landed in, and intermittent existential terror. Collins manages this mixture with aplomb, although a bit more attitude would be appropriate and his choice of where to place the emphasis in any particular phrase seemed off at times. Collins does a satisfying range of voices and accents, managing to make Texans sound like Texans, not caricatures. Magnuson romps through the novel, lightheartedly skewering literary pretention, joining the perennial debate about what is art and what is popular. Is there more value in a single critically-acclaimed novel, or in a career of prosaic prose that “kept generations of readers reading?” Does it matter? Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. Folksy writing style but I was altogether unimpressed with the story. As satire, it doesn’t hold a candle to Supreme Courtship (Christopher Buckley). The premise has a con man, who accidentally swindles mobsters, hiding out in a writers’ colony. For a couple months he manages to pull the wool of over the eyes of the student writers, the academics who operate the program, and the world famous author who sponsors the program. Magnuson falls short of capitalizing on circumstances that lend themselves to satire. Along with that meandering sub plots add little to the story or the satire. For me the ending felt like it was tacked on quickly to meet a deadline. Readable writing enlivened flat characters, but I wouldn’t recommend this book to friends. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
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In this brilliant mix of literary satire and crime caper, Frankie Abandonato, a small-time con man on the run, finds refuge by posing as V. S. Mohle--a famously reclusive writer--and teaching in a prestigious writing program somewhere in Texas. Streetwise and semiliterate, Frankie finds that being treated as a genius agrees with him.The program has been funded by Rex Schoeninger, the world's richest novelist, who is dying. Buzzards are circling, angling for the remains of Rex's fortune, and Frankie quickly realizes that he has been presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Complicating matters is the fact that Rex is haunted by a twenty-five-year feud with the shadowy Mohle. What rankles Rex is that, while he has written fifty bestsellers and never gotten an ounce of literary respect, Mohle wrote one slender novel, disappeared into the woods, and become an icon. Determined to come to terms with his past, Rex has arranged to bring his rival to Texas, only to find himself facing off against an imposter.Famous Writers I Have Known is not just an unforgettable literary romp but also a surprisingly tender take on two men--one a scam artist frantic to be believed, the other an old lion desperate to be remembered. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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