Writers at Work 09: The Paris Review Interviews Ninth Series

Includes interviews with Mario Vargas Llosa, Samuel Beckett, Tom Wolfe, Maya Angelou, William Kennedy, Doris Lessing, Walker Percy, and others in which they talk about themselves, their work, and their thoughts on the art and craft of writing

The venerable Paris Review series remains insightful and delightful, and these 12 interviews, as novelist Styron suggests in his introduction, offer "an extraordinary variety and range." Wallace Stegner calls his path to writing "pure, brute accident" and suggests that writers can best prepare by "knowing something substantive." Maya Angelou reveals that she reads the Bible for "melody" as well as "content" and ruminates on how hard it is for people to grow up. Tom Wolfe and William Kennedy both find value and frustration in their early careers as newspaper reporters. Mario Vargas Llosa and Octavio Paz reflect on the particular obligations their Latin American heritages present. This volume includes two departures: a portrait--not a Q&A--of "the great master of grief and disenchantment" Samuel Beckett, who turns out to be "so expansive, so relaxed in company"; and the initial interview in the "Art of Criticism" series, in which Harold Bloom appears supremely confident, dispensing opinions on various authors (he calls Saul Bellow "an immensely wasted talent") and critics, and showing enthusiasm for television evangelists and MTV. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Collected in the ninth edition of this series are interviews with Samuel Beckett, P.L. Travers, Wallace Stegner, Octavio Paz, Walker Percy, Doris Lessing, William Kennedy, Maya Angelou, Harold Bloom, Tom Wolfe, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Tom Stoppard. The diversity of writers is matched by the styles and techniques of the interviewers, occasionally making for an unevenness in presentation. But each interview offers often surprising but always illuminating insights. The extraordinary range combines elements of the intellectual and technical processes of writing with literary gossip for entertaining and informative reading. Highly recommended.
- Denise Sticha, Carnegie Lib. of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.