by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 17, 2008 | Pam Houston |
“I wonder what it would be like,” she said to me on one of those days that make you feel that you have chosen the right profession, “if I could once and for all get my mother out of my head.” “Picture it,” I told her. “Tell...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 15, 2008 | craft of writing, details, novels, reading |
Just as Home, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award in Fiction, has been called a companion to Gilead, this post is a companion to yesterday’s. Prompted by comments, I wanted to add that if you enjoyed Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson’s first novel,...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 14, 2008 | novels, reviews, shapes |
For anyone who enjoyed Gilead, Marilynne Robinson’s second novel, which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, you will love her new novel, Home. For she has just crossed town, so to speak, and turned around to tell us the story from a different porch. On...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 11, 2008 | truth |
“That’s not what she means,” I said. “She means, like, we are what’s happened to us. So if you take away what’s happened to us, then, you know…Well, who would you be?” “I’d be someone different.”...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 8, 2008 | Dani Shapiro, memoir, novels, truth |
Playing with Fire was Dani Shapiro’s first novel. It was published in 1989. It begins, “There are many versions to this story…” And indeed, nine years later, the author published another version–“the true story,” the...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 7, 2008 | catching moments, reading |
“Island living has been a lens through which to examine my own life…I must keep my lens when I go back… I must remember to see with island eyes. The shells will remind me; they must be my island eyes.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 5, 2008 | memoir |
“Wordstruck is exactly what I was– and still am: crazy about the sound of words, the look of words, the taste of words, the feeling of words on the tongue and in the mind.” Robert MacNeil from his 1989 memoir, Wordstruck* Robert MacNeil’s...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 3, 2008 | Columbus GA |
What often stands out to me in Richard Russo’s writing is the dialogue. Which makes sense as he is also a screenwriter. Here is a short piece of dialogue from The Bridge of Sighs. “Mom says you’re writing your life story up there.” “Nothing...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 2, 2008 | time |
“Here she is with another hour before her.” The Hours, Michael Cunningham One of the reasons I love reading this novel is the way the author intertwines the lives of the three women with recurring words and images–steps forward, cold water, failure,...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 31, 2008 | reviews |
“The weather was unusually warm for the last day of October. We didn’t even need jackets. The wind was growing stronger, and Jem said it might be raining before we got home. There was no moon.” To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee I read it in...
