A delightfully aimless, somewhat rueful collection of nine essays
on places visited and friends lost. Novelist/memoirist Delbanco
(The Lost Suitcase, 2000, etc.; Writing/Univ. of Michigan) is a
writer's writer, always in search of a fresh story, turn of phrase,
or book to read-indeed you can read his essays in great part for
the gallery of titles he lists in each. He titles his own
collection after a phrase from Baudelaire ("n'importe o hors du
monde") and begins with an old-fashioned defense of imitation as
"the route-not perhaps the only route, but a well-traveled one-to
originality." Writing, he believes, is an act of discovery,
recounting everything from the epic movement of people to a
personal transformation. In the eponymous essay, Delbanco regrets
the "wide-eyed and improvisational" style of such intrepid early
travel writers as Marco Polo or Mary Kingsley, who truly ventured
out to discover terra incognita. By contrast, he finds, modern
travel writing has more to do with recovery: "the writer reports on
information gained or innocence long lost." Modeling himself after
the earlier form in "Letter from Namibia," Delbanco recounts a
visit he made as a young man in the late 1960s to an isolated
African farm, diligently cataloguing the plethora of curious
animals, the daily workings of the farm, and the personalities he
met. "Northern Lights" ambles through literature by writers such as
Dinesen, Conrad, and Nabokov, who found their voices by delving
into raw and unfamiliar worlds. "The Dead" contains cameo
appearances by several deceased mates; Delbanco describes his
friendship with writer John Gardner, as well as a hilarious 1973
luncheon with James Baldwin and his flamboyant entourage in
Provence. "On Daniel Martin" is a close reading of John Fowles's
novel, while "Strange Type" meditates on the richly ambivalent
meanings offered by inadvertently transposed letters. Overall, the
collection makes up in quirkiness what it lacks in cohesion. A
Guide Bleu for the literary armchair. (Kirkus Reviews)
Nicholas Delbanco--who, John Updike says, "wrestles with the
abundance of his gifts as a novelist the way other men wrestle with
their deficiencies"--ventures forth to discover and illuminate
various writers and places. In this follow-up to his acclaimed "The
Lost Suitcase," Delbanco weaves varied reflections to reveal a
singular understanding of the relationships among literature, the
past, and the world around us.
Describing trips to such diverse destinations as Namibia;
Afghanistan; Bellagio, Italy; and the Bellagio in Las Vegas,
Delbanco conveys the wonder and the apprehension of visiting new
places. However, he goes beyond commonplace travelogues, examining
our desire to travel and to write and read about distant lands. In
the title essay, which surveys the state of travel and travel
writing in a world that has grown smaller and less strange, he
explores the continuing allure of new locales and the ways in which
familiar places change in our imagination over time.
Delbanco's reflections on literature look to past writers and
literary traditions as a way of enriching the present. Delbanco
begins by asking us to reconsider society's infatuation with
novelty and proposes the paradoxical notion of imitation as a
source of originality. Remembering his friendships with two
colorful departed figures, John Gardner and James Baldwin, and
celebrating the now somewhat--and regrettably--neglected works of
John Fowles and Ford Madox Ford, he pays tribute to these writers'
generosity of spirit and commitment to literature.
In "Strange Type," Delbanco explores his own recent brush with
death. Here too, he draws on a range of subjects and reflections,
describing his recovery from heart problems via a poem by Malcolm
Lowry, the surprising persistence of typos despite advances in
word-processing technology, and Ernest Hemingway as literary
celebrity.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(74)
