Jean Hanff Korelitz

Last updated
Jean Hanff Korelitz
JHKwik.jpg
Jean Hanff Korelitz
Born (1961-05-16) May 16, 1961 (age 62)
OccupationAuthor
Alma mater Dartmouth College; Clare College, Cambridge
Notable worksAdmission, The White Rose, You Should Have Known, The Plot,The Latecomer
Spouse
(m. 1987)
Children2
Website
www.jeanhanffkorelitz.com

Jean Hanff Korelitz (born May 16, 1961) is an American novelist, playwright, theater producer and essayist. [1]

Contents

Biography

Korelitz was born to Jewish parents and raised in New York City. After graduating from Dartmouth College with a degree in English, she continued her studies at Clare College, Cambridge, [2] where she was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal. [1] She has published eight novels since 1996, the most recent being The Latecomer, published in May 2022. She has also written articles and essays for many publications, including Real Simple and the "Modern Love" column in The New York Times .

In 2013 Korelitz created BOOKTHEWRITER, a New York City based service that presents "Pop-Up Book Groups" with prominent authors in private homes. Approximately 20 events are held each year and groups are limited to 20. Past authors have included Joyce Carol Oates, Erica Jong, David Duchovny, Jeanine Cummins, Christina Baker Kline, Jane Green, Adriana Trigiani, Meghan Daum, Dani Shapiro, Darin Strauss, Elizabeth Strout and many others. [3]

In 2015 Korelitz and her sister, Nina Korelitz Matza, created Dot Dot Productions, LLC, in order to produce The Dead, 1904, an immersive theater adaptation of James Joyce's short story "The Dead", with The Irish Repertory Theatre. The story was adapted by Korelitz and Paul Muldoon. [4]

Personal life

While living in England, Korelitz met Irish poet Paul Muldoon. The couple married on August 30, 1987, [1] and went on to have two children: Dorothy (born 1992) and Asher (born 1999). From 1990 until 2013 on they lived in Princeton, New Jersey, where Muldoon has long taught Creative Writing. They now reside in Korelitz's native New York City. [5] During a talk for House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining program, Korelitz said she “became an atheist at the age of eight." [6]

Novels

A Jury of Her Peers and The Sabbathday River

Korelitz's first novel, A Jury of Her Peers, was a legal thriller about a Legal Aid lawyer who uncovers a jury tampering plot, which Kirkus called "a monstrous-conspiracy wolf in legal-intrigue clothing." [7] Her second novel, The Sabbathday River, transplanted elements of the plot of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter to a small community near Hanover, New Hampshire, and described a case of infanticide and a resulting trial. [8]

The White Rose

Korelitz's third novel, The White Rose, transposed the plot and characters of the Richard Strauss opera Der Rosenkavalier to 1990s New York City. In The New York Times Book Review , reviewer Elizabeth Judd described The White Rose as "incisive and urbane ... (hearkening) back to the gender confusions of Shakespeare's comedies" and called the novel "a significant step forward" following Korelitz's earlier legal thrillers. Anthony Giardina, reviewing the novel in the San Francisco Chronicle, complained that the character of Oliver was occasionally unconvincing but called the academic details of Sophie's and Marian's lives "spot-on". The Boston Globe 's reviewer, Barbara Fisher, wrote: "Within the comic plot of this lighthearted novel lies a weightier theme. Having played around with disguises, cross-dressing, and self-delusion, the characters happily gain the prize of self-knowledge." [9]

Admission

Admission, published in April 2009, was reviewed in the Education supplement of The New York Times by a high school senior who compared the college application process to the heroine's mid-life crisis. [10] Entertainment Weekly gave the novel an A− rating and called it "that rare thing in a novel: both juicy and literary, a genuinely smart read with a human, beating heart." [11] In its review, Huffington Post reviewer Malcolm Ritter singled out the "atmosphere and details" of the admissions office setting. "That's fascinating for us who've gotten good or bad news from colleges for which we yearned, or shepherded ambitious children through the gauntlet of the application process." [12] The Wall Street Journal criticized the novel for its "wooden monologues" and "improbable love story". [13]

Admission was adapted by screenwriter Karen Croner for the 2013 film of the same name, starring Tina Fey.

You Should Have Known

Grand Central Publishing published Korelitz's fifth novel, You Should Have Known, in March 2014. The book tells the story of a New York therapist who discovers that her beloved husband has a secret and unfathomable life and may have been responsible for a murder. The book was published in eighteen languages. An HBO adaptation of the book, titled The Undoing , aired in 2020 starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, Donald Sutherland, Matilda De Angelis, Lily Rabe, Edgar Ramirez, Noah Jupe and Noma Dumezweni and directed by Susanne Bier.

The Devil and Webster

Grand Central Publishing published Korelitz's sixth novel, The Devil and Webster, in March 2017. Formerly a VISTA volunteer in Goddard, NH, Naomi Roth is now a feminist scholar and the first female president of Webster College in Central Massachusetts. Webster College, which shares some characteristics with Wesleyan University and others with Dartmouth College, is a liberal arts college known for left-leaning and activist undergraduates. In a plot that mirrors the student unrest of recent years, the Webster community erupts in student protests over the denial of tenure to an African-American professor of anthropology. Roth, whose daughter Hannah is a Webster sophomore, discovers that her own activist past has not prepared her to handle the protest, which quickly spirals out of control. On NPR's Fresh Air , Maureen Corrigan described it as "a smart, semi-satire about the reign of identity politics on college campuses today." [14]

The Plot

Celadon Books, a division of Macmillan, published Korelitz's seventh novel, The Plot , in spring 2021. The novel concerns a failed writer, Jacob Finch Bonner, who appropriates the plot of his late student's unwritten novel. The resulting book becomes a publishing phenomenon, but its author begins to receive messages from someone who claims to know what he did. [15] In late 2021, it was announced actor Mahershala Ali was signed on to star in a limited series adaptation of The Plot. [16]

The Latecomer

Korelitz's eighth novel, The Latecomer, was published by Celadon Books on May 31, 2022. Described as a slow-building literary novel, The Latecomer revolves around the wealthy New York-based Oppenheimer family, where the Oppenheimer triplets' lives are upended by the arrival of a fourth, unexpected sibling. In February 2022, it was reported that the novel would be adapting into a television series from Bruna Papandrea's Made Up Stories and Kristen Campo. [17]

Bibliography

Novels

Other books

Theater work

In 2015 Korelitz and her sister, Nina Korelitz Matza, created Dot Dot Productions LLC to produce The Dead, 1904. The Dead, 1904 was produced for The Irish Repertory Theatre in The American Irish Historical Society from November 2016 through January 2017, starring Kate Burton as Gretta Conroy and Boyd Gaines as Gabriel Conroy [18] and received generally favorable reviews. A second production, from November 2017 through January 2018 starred Melissa Gilbert as Gretta Conroy and Rufus Collins as Gabriel Conroy. [19] [20] A third production from November 2018 through January 2019 featured most of the remaining cast, including Melissa Gilbert as Gretta Conroy and Rufus Collins as Gabriel Conroy, with the addition of American tenor Robert Mack as Bartell D'Arcy. Gallery Press published The Dead, 1904 in November, 2018. [21]

Film and television adaptations

Korelitz's book Admission is the basis for the 2013 film of the same name. The film was adapted from the novel by Karen Croner and directed by Paul Weitz. It stars Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, as well as Lily Tomlin, Wallace Shawn, Nat Wolff, and Gloria Reuben. The first trailer was released on November 15, 2012, and the film was released in the US on March 22, 2013. [22] [23] [ needs update ] David E. Kelley's adaptation of You Should Have Known, renamed The Undoing , was filmed for HBO with director Susanne Bier and starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, Donald Sutherland and Noah Jupe. Originally scheduled for May 2020 it was rescheduled for October 2020.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tina Fey</span> American comedian and actress (born 1970)

Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American comedian, actress, writer, and producer. Fey was a cast member and head writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1997 to 2006. After her departure from SNL, she created the NBC sitcom 30 Rock and the Netflix sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020), the former of which she also starred in. Fey is also known for her work in film, including Mean Girls (2004), Baby Mama (2008), Date Night (2010), Megamind (2010), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Sisters (2015), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), Wine Country (2019), Soul (2020), A Haunting in Venice (2023), and Mean Girls (2024).

<i>Death in the Clouds</i> 1935 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie

Death in the Clouds is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in 1935. It features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and Chief Inspector Japp. It is a "closed circle" murder mystery: the victim is a passenger on a cross-Channel aircraft flight, and the perpetrator can only be one of eleven fellow-passengers and crew.

Ariadne Oliver is a fictional character in the novels of Agatha Christie. She is a crime fiction novelist, the creator of the fictional Finnish detective Sven Hjerson, and a friend of Hercule Poirot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Muldoon</span> Irish poet

Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet.

<i>The Dead</i> (1987 film) 1987 film by John Huston

The Dead is a 1987 drama film directed by John Huston, written by his son Tony Huston, and starring his daughter Anjelica Huston. It is an adaptation of the short story of the same name by James Joyce, which was first published in 1914 as the last story in Dubliners. An international co-production between the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany, the film was Huston's last as director, and it was released several months after his death.

"The Dead" is the final short story in the 1914 collection Dubliners by James Joyce. It is by far the longest story in the collection and, at 15,952 words, is almost long enough to be described as a novella. The story deals with themes of love and loss, as well as raising questions about the nature of the Irish identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helene Hanff</span> American dramatist

Helene Hanff was an American writer born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best known as the author of the book 84, Charing Cross Road, which became the basis for a stage play, television play, and film of the same name.

<i>Daddy-Long-Legs</i> (novel) American epistolary novel

Daddy-Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by the American writer Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, as she leaves an orphanage and is sent to college by a benefactor whom she has never seen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Webster</span> American novelist

Jean Webster was the pen name of Alice Jane Chandler Webster, an American author whose books include Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy. Her best-known books feature lively and likeable young female protagonists who come of age intellectually, morally, and socially, but with enough humor, snappy dialogue, and gently biting social commentary to make her books palatable and enjoyable to contemporary readers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Irish Historical Society</span> Established in 1897, largest curation of Irish identity outside of Ireland

The American Irish Historical Society (AIHS) is a historical society devoted to Irish American history that was founded in Boston in the late 19th century. Non-partisan and non-sectarian since its inception in 1897, it maintains the most complete private collection of Irish and Irish-American literature and history in the United States, and it publishes a journal entitled The Recorder. The society also holds various cultural events at its headquarters at 991 Fifth Avenue in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish Repertory Theatre</span> Off-Brodway theatre

The Irish Repertory Theatre is an Off Broadway theatre founded in 1988.

<i>84 Charing Cross Road</i> (film) 1987 film by David Hugh Jones

84 Charing Cross Road is a 1987 British-American drama film directed by David Jones, and starring Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Mercedes Ruehl, and Jean De Baer. It is produced by Bancroft's husband, Mel Brooks. The screenplay by Hugh Whitemore is based on a play by James Roose-Evans, which itself is an adaptation of the 1970 epistolary memoir of the same name by Helene Hanff — a compilation of letters between Hanff and Frank Doel dating from 1949 to 1968. Several characters who are not in the play were added for the film, including Hanff's Manhattan friends and Doel's wife Nora.

<i>Les Misérables</i> (1958 film) 1958 film

Les Misérables is a 1958 film adaptation of the 1862 Victor Hugo novel. Written by René Barjavel, the film was directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois and stars Jean Gabin as Jean Valjean.

<i>And Then There Were None</i> 1939 mystery novel by Agatha Christie

And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, who described it as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as Ten Little Niggers, after an 1869 minstrel song that serves as a major plot element. The US edition was released in January 1940 with the title And Then There Were None, taken from the last five words of the song. Successive American reprints and adaptations use that title, though American Pocket Books paperbacks used the title Ten Little Indians between 1964 and 1986. UK editions continued to use the original title until 1985.

Halley Feiffer is an American actress, playwright and showrunner, known for her award-winning plays I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard, Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City, and for showrunning and writing the entire season of American Horror Story: Delicate starring Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian.

<i>Admission</i> (film) 2013 American film

Admission is a 2013 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Paul Weitz and starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd. The film was released in the United States and Canada on March 22, 2013. It is an adaptation of Jean Hanff Korelitz's 2009 novel of the same name.

<i>The Days of Abandonment</i> Novel by Italian writer Elena Ferrante (2002)

The Days of Abandonment is a 2002 Italian novel by Elena Ferrante first published in English in 2005, translated by Ann Goldstein and published by Europa Editions. The novel tells the story of an Italian woman living in Turin whose husband abruptly leaves her after fifteen years together.

<i>The Undoing</i> 2020 American mystery psychological thriller television miniseries

The Undoing is an American mystery psychological thriller television miniseries based on the 2014 novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. It was written and produced by David E. Kelley and directed by Susanne Bier. The miniseries stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant and premiered on HBO on October 25, 2020.

<i>The Plot</i> (novel) 2021 novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The Plot: A Novel is a work of fiction written by Jean Hanff Korelitz. The book was published in May, 2021 by Celadon Books. The story is a mystery-thriller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xochitl Gonzalez</span> American novelist and producer

Xochitl Gonzalez is an American writer, screenwriter, and producer. In 2022, she published her debut novel Olga Dies Dreaming which became a New York Times Best Seller on January 30, 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Jean Korelitz Is Wed to Paul Muldoon". The New York Times . 31 August 1987.
  2. "Jean Hanff Korelitz on Masochism and Movies". Charity Shumway. July 17, 2012.
  3. Bosman, Julie (29 January 2014). "Be Careful at the Book Club, the Author Might Be There". The New York Times.
  4. "About The Dead, 1904". The Dead, 1904.
  5. Kaufman, Joanne (19 December 2013). "The Poetry of Downsizing". The New York Times.
  6. Jean Hanff Korelitz on "This Must Be the Place," House of SpeakEasy's Seriously Entertaining at Joe's Pub in 2023 , retrieved 2023-07-05
  7. ""A Jury of Her Peers" Book Review". Kirkus Reviews. May 20, 2010.
  8. "The Sabbathday River". The Mystery Reader. Archived from the original on 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2013-01-17.
  9. Fisher, Barbara (February 6, 2005). "The White Rose". The Boston Globe . Archived from the original on March 28, 2015.
  10. Reddicliffe, Rebecca (April 13, 2009). "Book Report: "Admission" by Jean Hanff Korelitz". The Choice Blog. The New York Times.
  11. Greenblatt, Leah (April 1, 2009). "Review of "Admission"". Entertainment Weekly.
  12. Ritter, Malcolm (April 10, 2009). "Novel finds drama in Ivy League admissions frenzy". Huffington Post.
  13. Schaefer Riley, Naomi (May 9, 2009). "Romance and the College Recruiter". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
  14. Corrigan, Maureen (22 March 2017). "Smart, Satirical 'Devil And Webster' Takes On College Identity Politics". NPR. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  15. Corrigan, Maureen (May 15, 2021). "Review - The plot of 'The Plot' - the best thriller of the year (so far) - is too good to give away". Washington Post. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  16. Littleton, Cynthia (4 November 2021). "Mahershala Ali Limited Series 'The Plot' Draws Multiple Bidders". Variety. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  17. Perez, Lexy (February 22, 2022). "'The Latecomer' Novel to Be Adapted as Series by Bruna Papandrea, Kristen Campo (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  18. Paulson, Michael (2016-09-29). "Irish Rep to Serve Dinner and 'The Dead'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  19. Als, Hilton. "Irish Rep Brings James Joyce's "The Dead" to Life". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  20. Playbill
  21. "New Titles 2018". The Gallery Press. Retrieved 2019-04-21.
  22. "Admission (2013)". IMDb. 22 March 2013.
  23. Crossan, Jamie (16 November 2012). "Tina Fey, Paul Rudd 'Admission' trailer released". NME.