This is the third book by Julian Barnes that I have read (well, most of it). Each one was different. Only one was fiction.
This one is a collection of essays about authors. George Orwell, Michel Houellebecq (Atomised was the title his novel had in English, translated from French) , Hemingway, Flaubert (rather, Madame Bovary), Kipling, and a few more.
This is an intriguing book, because writers rarely write about other writers- at least not that much. Rather than a traditional review, I will give you a few passages/quotes from this book.
Michel Houellebecq
"It is in our relations with other people, that we gain a sense of ourselves; it's that, pretty much, that makes relations with other people unbearable."
"Anything can happen in life, especially nothing."
Orwell
"All art is to some extent, propaganda."
Ernest Renan, quoted in the chapter about Orwell
"Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation."
Some wonderful anecdotes, and more, about the lives and inclinations of some well-known (and some not) authors. If you are into this sort of reading, wonderful stuff. Well-written.
This one is a collection of essays about authors. George Orwell, Michel Houellebecq (Atomised was the title his novel had in English, translated from French) , Hemingway, Flaubert (rather, Madame Bovary), Kipling, and a few more.
This is an intriguing book, because writers rarely write about other writers- at least not that much. Rather than a traditional review, I will give you a few passages/quotes from this book.
Michel Houellebecq
"It is in our relations with other people, that we gain a sense of ourselves; it's that, pretty much, that makes relations with other people unbearable."
"Anything can happen in life, especially nothing."
Orwell
"All art is to some extent, propaganda."
Ernest Renan, quoted in the chapter about Orwell
"Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation."
Some wonderful anecdotes, and more, about the lives and inclinations of some well-known (and some not) authors. If you are into this sort of reading, wonderful stuff. Well-written.
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