Friday, May 23, 2014

Edward St. Aubyn’s ‘Lost for Words’ Revisits His Favorite Subject: Privilege

Edward St. Aubyn's 'Lost for Words' Revisits His Favorite Subject: PrivilegeBy on

Edward St. Aubyn’s recent NPR interview with Terry Gross contains a number of anecdotes about the author’s approach to writing, with one of the choicest being the ultimatum he gave himself as a younger writer.
 “I made a deal with myself that I would either write a novel and get it published or commit suicide,” he told Gross. “I was very unhappy at that time; I was 28. And it worked and I didn’t disrupt that formula, so I went on writing with the menace of insanity and suicide in the background.” His delivery of this anecdote is marked by the same dryness that you get from some of his characters, and it’s more disconcerting than any other single line the author has ever written. … Read More

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