His fourteen novels thus far are somewhat thematically linked. The first two novels, written in the 1970s, were basically coming of age or bildungsroman novels. The next three, his third, fourth and fifth books (The Good Son, The Congressman's Daughter and Tornado Alley) are often thought of as his Passion Trilogy, sharing similar structures (each novel is broken up into different "books"; each novel is narrated in the first person by a variety of characters, male and female). And the books share similar geography, with stories that either take place largely in the East (as it does in "The Congressman's Daughter"), or which begin on the East coast and gradually move West. "The Good Son" starts out in the East (Ohio), New York and in New England (Vermont, etc.), where Nova lived for over three decades, and its denouement takes place in both the West (Washington) and East, New York. "Tornado Alley", The last book in the Passion Trilogy moves the action from the East coast (Pennsylvania) across country to the West coast, in California, where the majority of Nova's story about passion, adultery and unrequited love plays out. In each book, a serious conflict arises between parent and child, or man and wife (or both), usually due to one or both of them being in love (complicated triangles were part of Nova's well-written bag of tricks during this era of his career). This Passion Trilogy may well prove to be Nova's personal masterpiece. In its unerring ability to capture Americans of all classes (lower, middle and upper) and the struggles for power that take place every day (between father and son, father and daughter, husband and wife, etc.), and its uncanny ability to capture the voices of characters feminine and masculine, the three novels and writing therein are reminiscent of the best work of Booth Tarkington. A book critic for the Seattle Times was moved to write, "I see them as the all-American prose equivalent to Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 3, 5 and 7. ...there's a genuinely classical grandeur to Nova's tales of erotic derailment and titanic family conflict." Nova's next three novels, his seventh, eighth and ninth books ("Trombone", "The Book of Dreams", and "The Universal Donor"), are linked geographically, with all of the action taking place on the West coast, largely in California, where Nova was born and raised. As a child, he played with the daughter of Jane Mansfield and as a teenager, raced against Steve McQueen. His Hollywood childhood was put to good use in his California trilogy of novels that taken on relationships the various people (lovers, fathers, friends and others) wrapped up in movie-making and con games, with the lines between both often being blurred. In his three most recent novels ("Wetware", "Cruisers", and "The Informer"), Nova has moved into the genre of crime and mystery fiction, taking cues and borrowing tropes from writers like William Gibson ("Wetware"), James M. Cain ("Cruisers") and Graham Greene ("The Informer").
Jin Xuefei is a Chinese-American poet and novelist using the pen name Ha Jin (哈金). Ha comes from his favorite city, Harbin. His poetry is associated with the Misty Poetry movement.
John Simmons Barth is an American writer who is best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include The Sot-Weed Factor, a whimsical retelling of Maryland's colonial history, Giles Goat-Boy, a satirical fantasy in which a university is a microcosm of the Cold War world, and Lost in the Funhouse, a self-referential and experimental collection of short stories. He was co-recipient of the National Book Award in 1973 for his episodic novel Chimera.
Carlos Fuentes Macías was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962), Aura (1962), Terra Nostra (1975), The Old Gringo (1985) and Christopher Unborn (1987). In his obituary, The New York Times described Fuentes as "one of the most admired writers in the Spanish-speaking world" and an important influence on the Latin American Boom, the "explosion of Latin American literature in the 1960s and '70s", while The Guardian called him "Mexico's most celebrated novelist". His many literary honors include the Miguel de Cervantes Prize as well as Mexico's highest award, the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor (1999). He was often named as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, though he never won.
William Tanner Vollmann is an American novelist, journalist, war correspondent, short story writer, and essayist. He won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction with the novel Europe Central.
William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist who won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for his 1983 novel Ironweed.
Jane Smiley is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991).
Joseph Prince McElroy is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is noted for his long postmodern novels such as Women and Men.
Stephen Michael Erickson is an American novelist. The author of influential works such as Days Between Stations, Tours of the Black Clock and Zeroville, he is the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award and a Guggenheim fellowship.
Lydia Davis is an American short story writer, novelist, essayist, and translator from French and other languages, who often writes short short stories. Davis has produced several new translations of French literary classics, including Swann's Way by Marcel Proust and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.
Allan Gurganus is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose work, which includes Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and Local Souls, is often influenced by and set in his native North Carolina.
Michael Silverblatt is a literary critic and American broadcaster who hosted Bookworm, a nationally syndicated radio program focusing on books and literature, from 1989 to 2022. He recorded over 1,600 interviews with authors and other literary figures, including David Foster Wallace, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag, William Gass, W. G. Sebald, and John Ashbery.
Karl Ove Knausgård is a Norwegian author. He became known worldwide for six autobiographical novels, titled My Struggle. The Wall Street Journal has described him as "one of the 21st century's greatest literary sensations".
Christopher Sorrentino is an American novelist and short story writer of Italian and Puerto Rican descent. He is the son of novelist Gilbert Sorrentino and Victoria Ortiz. His first published novel, Sound on Sound (1995), draws upon innovations pioneered in the work of his father, but also contains echoes of many other modernist and postmodernist writers. The book is structured according to the format of a multitrack recording session, with corresponding section titles.
Tao Lin is an American novelist, poet, essayist, short-story writer, and artist. He has published four novels, a novella, two books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and a memoir, as well as an extensive assortment of online content. His third novel, Taipei, was published by Vintage on June 4, 2013. His nonfiction book Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change was published by Vintage on May 1, 2018. His fourth novel, Leave Society, was published by Vintage on August 3, 2021.
Kem Nunn is a third-generation Californian novelist, surfer, and magazine and television writer who lives in southern California. He has been described as "the inventor of surf-noir" for his novels' dark themes, political overtones, and surf settings. He is the author of six novels, including his 1984 seminal debut surf novel Tapping the Source, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Tapping The Source inspired the 1991 movie Point Break, and its 2015 remake. Nunn's novel, Tijuana Straights, received a Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Alexander Louis Theroux is an American novelist and poet. He is known for his novel Darconville's Cat (1981), which was selected by Anthony Burgess for his book-length essay Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 – A Personal Choice in 1984 and by Larry McCaffery for his 20th Century's Greatest Hits list.
Stacey Levine is an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she attended the University of Missouri's journalism school and the University of Washington. Her fiction and criticism have appeared in numerous journals, including The Washington [D.C.] Review, Fence, The Denver Quarterly, Tin House, the Notre Dame Review, the Iowa Review, The American Book Review, Nest-A Journal of Interiors, The Seattle Times, Bookforum, The Stranger, and others.
Just Kids is a memoir by Patti Smith, published on January 19, 2010, documenting her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe.
Broken Sleep: an American Dream is the second novel by American writer Bruce Bauman, published in 2015. It follows the exploits of the powerful Savant family, including rock star-cum-US presidential candidate Alchemy Savant, his half-brother Moses Teumer, and their brilliant but insane mother Salome Savant.
Bookworm is an interview radio show hosted by Michael Silverblatt and produced by KCRW. The show featured interviews and discussions with authors and other literary figures. The show ran from 1989 to 2022, syndicated nationally on NPR.
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