“Remember, as you read this small book, generally and specifically about love, remember that suffering is, after all, the Latin root for passion”: Ellen Prentiss Campbell on Julian Barnes’s new novel.
How do you write a compelling fiction when the reader knows what happens?
I think this lovely, kicky video speaks for itself: Happy Valentine’s Day! from Whitney Blank on Vimeo. Which of your books seem attracted to each other, aesthetically or intellectually–or both? Here are a couple of pairings from the bookshelf nearest to my desk: Thanks to Valerie Laken for finding this video.
At the FGIBI party, I had the chance to meet Jami Attenberg, whose novel-in-stories Instant Love I recently read and admired. Instant Love follows an ensemble of vivid characters whose lives intersect as they stumble upon, after, or away from romance. Whether the passion in question is fleeting or fundamental, each story sharpens to a fine narrative point–a moment of connection or dissolution. The effect of reading these stories together satisfies more than merely sampling one. Attenberg makes me believe in her characters’ lives beyond the page by offering scenes across shared history (spanning high-school romances to hasty marriages and […]
