Larry Lockridge

I am a writer living in New York City. In 2016 I retired from NYU, where I'd taught in the Department of English for many years, and have now embarked on a new career as novelist. Previously I was best-known for a prize-winning biography of my father, "Shade of the Raintree: The Life and Death of Ross Lockridge, Jr." (Viking 1994; Indiana Univ. Press, 2014). Ross Lockridge, Jr. wrote the best-selling novel "Raintree County," an unabashed attempt at the Great American Novel. It was much acclaimed in early 1948 but its author died a suicide only two months following publication. I was five years old at the time. This wasn't much of an incentive for me ever to write novels of my own.

I am belatedly publishing four standalone yet interrelated novels, "The Enigma Quartet," with Iguana Books, Toronto over the next two years. "The Cardiff Giant" was published on January 11, 2021 and "The Great Cyprus Think Tank" on October 4, 2021. "Out of Wedlock" will be published in July, 2022 and "The Woman in Green" on January 5, 2023. The latter date marks exactly the 75th anniversary of the publication of "Raintree County," to which "The Woman in Green" is indirectly an homage.

These novels aren't attempts at the Great American Novel, lord knows, but they aspire to human significance and ethical depth within the magical circus of metaphysical farce. I call them "metafarcical." At the least I hope they are funny. Unlike "Raintree County," they also have the virtue of being short. My novels are enhanced by the artwork of Marcia Scanlon, who has created cover designs and illustrative drawings for each of the four, described by one reviewer as "irresistible renderings." Though satirical, the novels are affirmative in the end. Malachy McCourt writes of "The Cardiff Giant": "a pungent satire of human gullibility, this fierce, upbeat novel is a timely restorative in a dark season." Takis Kayalis writes of "The Great Cyprus Think Tank" that "to grasp Cyprus in its essence both mythic and real, hurry up and join Bart Beasley's fantastic expedition, as told in this priceless novel by master storyteller Larry Lockridge." And Maureen McLane writes: "Mindful of all kinds of disaster, this is a novel of deep comedy, energy, and chastened joy. I strongly advise you to ride out any tsunami on the backs of Lockridge's sea turtles." www.LarryLockridge.com