Bad Blood (Sage book)

Last updated

Bad Blood
Bad Blood (Sage book).jpg
First edition
Author Lorna Sage
LanguageEnglish
Genre Memoir
Publisher Fourth Estate
Publication date
2000
Publication placeWales
Media typePrint (Paperback & Hardback) & AudioBook (Cassette)
Pages288 pp (first edition, paperback)
ISBN 1-84115-043-6 (first edition, paperback)
OCLC 46512313

Bad Blood is a 2000 work blending collective biography and memoir by the Anglo-Welsh literary critic and academic Lorna Sage.

Contents

Set in post-war North Wales, it reflects on the dysfunctional generations of a family, its problems, and their effect on Sage. It won the 2001 Whitbread Book Biography of the Year seven days before Sage died of emphysema. [1]

Reception

Upon release, Bad Blood was generally well-received among the British press. The Daily Telegraph reported on reviews from several publications with a rating scale for the novel out of "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish": Daily Telegraph , Sunday Telegraph , and TLS reviews under "Love It" and Literary Review review under "Pretty Good". [2] On Bookmarks, the book received a Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg (4.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with a summary saying, "It is a memoir that, as the Library Journal writes, “stands up to the very best". [3]

James Fenton wrote in The New York Review of Books : "What makes the book remarkable is the individual story she has to tell, and which she delivers with such glee." [4]

The Guardian ranked Bad Blood at number 89 in its list of 100 Best Books of the 21st Century in September 2019. [5]

Release details

Related Research Articles

<i>The Blind Assassin</i> 2000 novel by Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin is a novel by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. The book is set in the fictional Ontario town of Port Ticonderoga and in Toronto. It is narrated from the present day, referring to previous events that span the twentieth century but mostly the 1930s and 1940s. It is a work of historical fiction with the major events of Canadian history forming an important backdrop, for example, the On-to-Ottawa Trek and a 1934 Communist rally at Maple Leaf Gardens. Greater verisimilitude is given by a series of newspaper articles commenting on events and on the novel's characters from a distance.

<i>We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families</i> 1998 non-fiction book by Philip Gourevitch

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda is a 1998 non-fiction book by The New Yorker writer Philip Gourevitch about the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which an estimated 1,000,000 Tutsis and Hutus were killed.

<i>You Shall Know Our Velocity</i> Book by Dave Eggers

You Shall Know Our Velocity! is a 2002 novel by Dave Eggers. It was Eggers's debut novel, following the success of his memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000).

<i>The Line of Beauty</i> 2004 Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst

The Line of Beauty is a 2004 Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst.

<i>True History of the Kelly Gang</i> 2000 novel by Peter Carey

True History of the Kelly Gang is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, based loosely on the history of the Kelly Gang. It was first published in Brisbane by the University of Queensland Press in 2000. It won the 2001 Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the same year. Despite its title, the book is fiction and a variation on the Ned Kelly story.

<i>Atonement</i> (novel) 2001 novel by Ian McEwan

Atonement is a 2001 British metafictional novel written by Ian McEwan. Set in three time periods, 1935 England, Second World War England and France, and present-day England, it covers an upper-class girl's half-innocent mistake that ruins lives, her adulthood in the shadow of that mistake, and a reflection on the nature of writing.

<i>Nowhere Man</i> (Hemon novel) 2002 novel by Aleksandar Hemon

Nowhere Man is a 2002 novel by Aleksandar Hemon named after the Beatles song "Nowhere Man". The novel centers around the character of Jozef Pronek, a Bosnian refugee, who was already the subject of Hemon's novella Blind Jozef Pronek & Dead Souls published in his short story collection The Question of Bruno (2000).

<i>The Master</i> (novel) 2004 novel by Colm Tóibín

The Master is a novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. His fifth novel, it received the International Dublin Literary Award, the Stonewall Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year and, in France, Le prix du meilleur livre étranger in 2005. It was also shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize

<i>The Last Samurai</i> (novel) Novel by Helen DeWitt

The Last Samurai (2000) is the first novel by American writer Helen DeWitt. It follows a single mother and her young son, a child prodigy, who embarks on a quest to find his father. Despite selling well and garnering critical acclaim on publication, it was out of print for almost a decade; when reissued in 2016, it received renewed praise and accolades.

<i>Austerlitz</i> (novel) 2001 novel by W. G. Sebald

Austerlitz is a 2001 novel by the German writer W. G. Sebald. It was Sebald's final novel. The book received the National Book Critics Circle Award.

<i>The Story of Lucy Gault</i> 2002 novel by William Trevor

The Story of Lucy Gault is a novel written by William Trevor in 2002. The book is divided into three sections: the childhood, middle age and older times of the girl, Lucy. The story takes place in Ireland during the transition to the 21st century. It follows the protagonist Lucy and her immediate contacts. The book was shortlisted for the Booker and Whitbread Prizes in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorna Sage</span> English writer and critic, 1943–2001

Lorna Sage was an English academic, literary critic and author, remembered especially for contributing to consideration of women's writing and for a memoir of her early life, Bad Blood (2000). She taught English literature at the University of East Anglia.

<i>Blonde</i> (novel) 2000 novel by Joyce Carol Oates

Blonde is a 2000 biographical fiction novel by Joyce Carol Oates that presents a fictionalized take on the life of American actress Marilyn Monroe. Oates insists that the novel is a work of fiction that should not be regarded as a biography. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (2001) and the National Book Award (2000). Rocky Mountain News and Entertainment Weekly have listed Blonde as one of Joyce Carol Oates's best books. Oates regards Blonde as one of the two books she will be remembered for.

<i>Love</i> (Morrison novel) 2003 novel by Toni Morrison

Love (2003) is the eighth novel by Toni Morrison. Written in Morrison's non-linear style, the novel tells of the lives of several women and their relationships to the late Bill Cosey.

<i>Pastoralia</i> Collection by George Saunders published in 2000

Pastoralia is short story writer George Saunders’s second full-length short story collection, published in 2000. The collection received highly positive reviews from book critics and was ranked the fifth-greatest book of the 2000s by literary magazine The Millions. The book consists of stories that appeared in The New Yorker; most of the stories were O. Henry Prize Stories. The collection was a New York Times Notable Book for 2001.

<i>Chronicles: Volume One</i> 2004 memoir by Bob Dylan

Chronicles: Volume One is a memoir written by American musician Bob Dylan. The book was published on October 5, 2004, by Simon & Schuster.

Frances Wilson is an English author, academic, and critic.

<i>Priestdaddy</i> 2017 memoir by Patricia Lockwood

Priestdaddy is a memoir by American poet Patricia Lockwood. It was named one of the 10 best books of 2017 by The New York Times and was awarded the 2018 Thurber Prize for American Humor. In 2019, The New York Times included the book on its list "The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years," and The Guardian named it one of the 100 best books of the 21st century.

<i>Family Matters</i> (novel) Novel by Rohinton Mistry

Family Matters is the third novel published by Indian-born author Rohinton Mistry. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2002. Subsequent editions were published by Faber in UK, Knopf in US and Vintage Books in India. The book is set in Shiv Sena-ruled Bombay.

Bella Bathurst is an English writer, photojournalist, and furniture maker. Her novel The Lighthouse Stevensons won the 2000 Somerset Maugham Award.

References

  1. Wilson, Frances (9 September 2000). "Guardian review: Bad Blood by Lorna Sage". the Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  2. "Books of the moment: What the papers said". The Daily Telegraph. 9 September 2000. p. 68. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  3. "Bad Blood". Bookmarks. Archived from the original on 3 November 2004. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  4. Fenton, James (13 June 2002). "The Woman Who Did" . Retrieved 21 October 2019.(subscription required)
  5. "100 Best Books of the 21st Century". The Guardian. 21 September 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.