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English
Seven Stories Press,U.S.
30 May 2023
In Writers, great American storyteller Barry Gifford paints portraits of famous writers caught in imaginary vulnerable moments in their lives. In prose that is funny, grotesque, and a touch brutal, Gifford shows these writers at their most human, which is to say at their worst- they are liars, frauds, lousy lovers, and drunks.

This is a world in which Ernest Hemingway drunkenly sets explosive trip wires outside his home in Cuba, Marcel Proust implores the angel of death as a delirious Arthur Rimbaud lies dying in a hospital bed, and Albert Camus converses with a young prostitute while staring at himself in the mirror of a New York City hotel room.

In Gifford's house of mirrors, we are offered a unique perspective on this group of literary greats. These stories, meant to be performed as plays, aretender and thoughtful exercises in empathy. Obsessions loom large, especially a preoccupation with death. Gifford asks- What does it mean to devote oneself entirely to art? And as an artist, what defines failure, or success?

This new edition of Writers includes five new pieces, featuring Georges Simenon with Andre Gide, Franz Kafka with Marcel Proust, Flannery O'Connor with William Burroughs, Ivan Turgenev with Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Joseph Conrad with D.H. Lawrence, and Willa Cather with Gypsy Rose Lee.
By:  
Imprint:   Seven Stories Press,U.S.
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 204mm,  Width: 128mm, 
Weight:   369g
ISBN:   9781644212868
ISBN 10:   1644212862
Pages:   192
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

BARRY GIFFORD is the author of more than forty published works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, which have been translated into twenty-eight languages. Gifford began his career as a poet and musician. His most recent prose works are The Roy Stories, Landscape With Traveler- The Pillow Book of Francis Reeves, and Jack's Book- An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac. His most recent poetry collection is Imagining Paradise- New and Selected Poems (2012). Gifford lives in the San Francisco area.

Reviews for Writers

Barry Gifford invented his own American vernacular-William Faulkner by way of B-movie film noir, porn paperbacks, and Sun Records rockabilly. -Jonathan Lethem The experience of reading Gifford is like starting a car and realizing, too late, that someone has cut its brake lines. A spectacular wreck is imminent, so you might as well enjoy the adrenaline rush... -Nathaniel Rich, New York Review of Books Gifford cuts right through the heart of what makes a good novel readable and entertaining... The way Barry Gifford does it, it's high art. -Elmore Leonard Gifford is a master. -Los Angeles Times


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