Books and Literature

Subterms

    More stories

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Brontë Sisters Plaque at Westminster Abbey Typo Fixed

      by

      Punctuation delayed, but not denied: A memorial to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë at Poets’ Corner in the celebrated London church finally gets its accent marks.For 85 years, the names of three of English literature’s best-known writers, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, were featured in Poets’ Corner, the Westminster Abbey nook dedicated to great poets, authors and playwrights, but something wasn’t quite right: They were missing the accent mark.This week, the error was fixed when six diereses — umlaut-like punctuation dots, each just about a third of an inch in diameter — were added above the E of the famous last name.It’s a small but sizable victory for three sisters who could not publish under their own names nearly 200 years ago, even as their novels “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights” helped change the portrayal of women’s lives in fiction.“Those three women fought harder than most to have their voices heard, to have their work understood on its own merits, and it endures,” said Sharon Wright, who discovered the mistake while visiting Westminster Abbey in London in January. “We can at least get their names right.”Ms. Wright, who describes herself as a stroppy Yorkshire woman like the literary sisters, was researching her upcoming book “The Brontës in Bricks and Mortar,” when she visited the plaque. Ms. Wright, who also edits the Brontë Society Gazette, a periodical for Brontë fans, compared the plaque with how the women had signed their own names, and saw the discrepancy.“Three of our greatest writers, and their names are spelled incorrectly,” Ms. Wright said at the abbey on Friday. “You can’t make it up.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Jhumpa Lahiri Declines Noguchi Museum Award Over Kaffiyeh Ban

      by

      The museum said the Pulitzer Prize-winning author withdrew her acceptance after it fired staff members for wearing clothing expressing political views.The Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer Jhumpa Lahiri has declined to accept an award from the Noguchi Museum in Queens next month in disapproval of its new ban on political dress for its staff, which led to the firings of three employees who had worn kaffiyehs to signal solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.“Jhumpa Lahiri has chosen to withdraw her acceptance of the 2024 Isamu Noguchi Award in response to our updated dress code policy,” according to a statement emailed by the museum on Wednesday.“We respect her perspective and understand that this policy may or may not align with everyone’s views,” the statement said of Ms. Lahiri. “We remain committed to our core mission of advancing the understanding and appreciation of Isamu Noguchi’s art and legacy while upholding our values of inclusivity and openness.”The museum, founded nearly 40 years ago by Noguchi, a Japanese American designer and sculptor, announced last month that during their working hours employees could not wear clothing or accessories that expressed “political messages, slogans or symbols.”The policy, which does not apply to visitors, was instituted after several staff members had, over a period of months, often worn kaffiyehs — scarves associated with Palestinians — for what one fired employee termed “cultural reasons.” The museum defended the prohibition earlier this month, saying in a statement that “such expressions can unintentionally alienate segments of our diverse visitorship.” A significant majority of staffers signed a petition opposing the rule.Lahiri and Lee Ufan, a Korean-born minimalist painter, sculptor and poet, were to have received the Isamu Noguchi Award at the museum’s fall benefit gala next month. Ufan could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, but is still scheduled to receive the award, the museum said.Lahiri, who was born in London, won the 2000 Pulitzer for fiction for her debut, the story collection “Interpreter of Maladies,” and has since published several books of fiction and nonfiction in both English and Italian. She is also the director of the creative writing program at Barnard College. Through her literary agent, Lahiri declined to comment.Questions of how to express solidarity with Israelis or Palestinians have divided cultural institutions since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 of last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israel’s subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip has killed more than 41,000 people, according to the local health authorities.Lahiri was one of thousands of scholars who signed a letter to university presidents in May expressing solidarity with campus protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, calling it “unspeakable destruction.”The museum’s budget is supported by royalties from furniture and lighting designs by Noguchi, who died in 1988. The staff petition alludes to his voluntary internment in an Arizona detention camp for Japanese Americans during World War II in an effort to improve conditions there. More

    • 113 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      All the Reviews of Sally Rooney’s New Novel, “Intermezzo”

      by

      “Intermezzo,” the Irish novelist’s fourth novel, is one of this fall’s most anticipated books.Seven years into her writing career, a new book by Sally Rooney is all but guaranteed to be an event.Rooney, an Irish novelist, has been hailed as a voice of the millennial generation, a writer who can marshal the economic uncertainty and emotional precarity that haunt young adults into moving, thorny romances that question intimacy and the value of art. Her 2017 debut, “Conversations With Friends,” was followed by “Normal People” in 2019 and “Beautiful World, Where Are You” in 2021.She has met both critical and commercial success. And with her increased profile came increased scrutiny: those who say her novels are smut thinly disguised by intellectual, refined prose. Or that, despite being written by a self-proclaimed Marxist, the sexual politics of her books can seem awfully retrograde.Regardless, critics are largely positive on her latest novel, “Intermezzo,” about a pair of Irish brothers mourning the recent death of their father, and the women they both become entangled with. (Note: Several of the articles below are behind subscription paywalls.)What did we say?“Clearly this book is going to divide people,” writes our own Dwight Garner, who is very decidedly not divided in his enthusiasm for Rooney’s latest.Rooney’s writing about love hits as hard as it does because she is especially adept at evoking loneliness, for which love is a salve. There is so much restraint and melancholy profundity in her prose that when she allows the flood gates to open, the parched reader is willing to be swept out to sea.What did she say to us?While many reviewers have been sure to point out how “Intermezzo” is told primarily from the perspective of two men, as opposed to Rooney’s previous books, she told The Times’s David Marchese that it wasn’t an overly intentional choice.Interestingly, the first voice that came to the page for me in this project was Margaret’s — the character who becomes entangled in Ivan’s life in the course of the book. It certainly wasn’t that I sat down thinking, I have to write a book where the male voice is central. I just felt my way through the story that seemed to emerge when I encountered these characters, which is what I always try to do.She’s trying something new.Laura Miller at Slate writes that this is “deeper territory for Rooney.”While sadder and less of a page-turner than her three previous novels, “Intermezzo” is in many ways a more truthful book. As delicious as Rooney’s earlier love stories have been, they tend to conclude with a tidiness that defies reality. It’s very rarely the case that two people finally becoming a couple will solve most of their problems, and loss inevitably waits around each of life’s corners. “Intermezzo” is the work of an artist who is continually trying out new techniques and continually growing, but in a direction that might inspire fewer bucket hats, tote bags and Netflix adaptations. Perhaps not all of her current fans will follow her there, but the ones who do won’t regret it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      Is Paying Kids to Read a Wise Strategy?

      by

      More from our inbox:Trump and the Psychiatrists: Is He Unfit to Serve?The Folly of a Second DebateA Heartwarming Story of Immigrants in the Heartland Tara BoothTo the Editor:Re “To Persuade a Reluctant Tween to Read, Try Cash,” by Mireille Silcoff (Opinion guest essay, Sept. 8):While I appreciate Ms. Silcoff’s desire to have her daughter experience the joys of reading, I seriously doubt that paying her daughter to read “worked.” While the monetary reward persuaded her daughter to read the book in the short term, it was unlikely to facilitate the motivation to read, which must feel like a choice and unpressured.Decades of research have shown that paying people to do things they love undermines their subsequent motivation, and paying them to complete tasks they do not enjoy keeps the motivation tied to rewards so that they are less likely to value the activity and choose to engage in it on their own.The belief in rewards as an effective motivator is a myth; other strategies are more likely to facilitate long-term motivation. Rewards are a simple fix that is likely to backfire.Wendy S. GrolnickLongmeadow, Mass.The writer is professor emeritus of psychology at Clark University and co-author of “Motivation Myth Busters: Science-Based Strategies to Boost Motivation in Yourself and Others.”To the Editor:I loved this guest essay because that’s precisely what I did 20 years ago when my husband and I traveled for our yearly two-week vacation to the beach with my daughter, two nephews and three other children who often vacationed with us.I offered each child a new book of their choice and $20 if they finished it before the trip was over. All of the kids got the $20 to use during two hours on their own at souvenir shops, and this reading challenge became a standard of our summer vacations.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Elias Khoury, Master of the Modern Arabic Novel, Dies at 76

      by

      In his fiction and journalism, he sought to illustrate the story of the contemporary Middle East and his native Lebanon.Elias Khoury, a Lebanese writer whose sweeping, intricately rendered tales of postwar life in the Middle East won him praise as one of the greatest modern Arabic novelists, and whose editorial leadership of some of Lebanon’s leading publications made him an arbiter of his country’s turbulent political culture, died on Sunday in Beirut. He was 76.His daughter, Abla Khoury, confirmed the death, in a hospital, adding that her father had been in declining health for several months.Mr. Khoury’s writing, both fiction and journalism, often focused on the twin events that defined his world: the Lebanese civil war, from 1975 to 1990, and the plight of Palestinians after the founding of Israel, particularly the tens of thousands who fled to Lebanon in 1948 and after the Six-Day War of 1967.As a novelist, Mr. Khoury was often compared with the American writer James A. Michener, who in books like “Hawaii” (1959) and “Texas” (1985) attempted to capture epic swaths of history in an intimate narrative.But if his vision was Michenerian, his prose was Faulknerian, driven by interweaving, stream-of-conscious narratives. He also claimed Vladimir Nabokov and Italo Calvino as influences.Mr. Khoury in 2014. His novels often began with a single, sustained encounter before spinning outward, kaleidoscopically, into the past and across borders.Bilal Hussein/Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Test Yourself on the International Settings of These Novels

      by

      A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz celebrates cities that are significant, whether they are the primary setting or not. Even if you aren’t familiar with the books, your knowledge of world geography and history should help you. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. Links to the books will be listed at the end of the quiz if you’d like to do further reading. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Test Yourself on These Sports Books Adapted Into Films

      by

      Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about books that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions, video games and more. This week’s challenge is focused on sports books that have been adapted into films within the past 25 years.Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the books and their movie adaptations. More

    • 63 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      2 Books Celebrating Happy Marriages

      by

      Elizabeth Alexander and John Bayley loved their partners to the end.Pekic/GettyDear readers,Marriage is like a second-grade spelling test: We shield our work while glancing around to see if a neighbor’s answers match. And I do mean work! Sharing your life with someone can be challenging, but it’s also fun and oddly liberating because you never really know how your weird union compares with anyone else’s. Eventually you learn to keep your eyes on your own paper.Unless you’re a reader. Then you’re privy to the occasional marriage memoir, in which some brave, generous, often beleaguered soul lifts the curtain on the whole operation and tells the rest of us what’s going on behind the scenes. This year has been a bonanza for voyeurs, thanks to Leslie Jamison (“Splinters”), Lyz Lenz (“This American Ex-Wife”) and Molly Roden Winter (“More”). Honorable mentions go to Maggie Smith for “You Could Make This Place Beautiful,” which came out last year, and “Liars” by Sarah Manguso, a novel so real-feeling it could be a body double for a true story.With one polyamorous exception, all of the above skew to the divorce end of the spectrum. This is not to say that their authors haven’t lived happily ever after; they’re doing just fine, if acknowledgments pages and Instagram posts are to be believed.But in honor of the 25th anniversary of the day I accidentally smeared car grease across my dress and had my name spelled wrong in the program — also known as my wedding day, Sept. 25, 1999 — I decided to reread two memoirs of happy marriages. These books were every bit as candid and thought-provoking and, in some ways, aspirational as I remembered.—LizPS. Both of these memoirs are really sad. Don’t read too much into it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More