The Paris Review Interviews, III by The Paris Review

The Paris Review Interviews, III Reviews

• 
  Teresa

  Tal como dos dois volumes anteriores, gostei muito de todas as entrevistas, mas tenho de destacar a de George Steiner, pela riqueza e forma dos temas abordados.
  
  Os entrevistados desta edição:
  
  
  Alice Munro
  
  
  Dorothy Parker
  
  
  Elena Ferrante
  
  
  George Steiner
  
  
  Henry Miller
  
  
  Emmanuel Carrère
  
  
  John Steinbeck
  
  
  Julian Barnes
  
  
  Karl Ove Knausgård
  
  
  Lydia Davis
  
  
  Susan Sontag
  
  
  W. H. Auden
  
• 
  Antigone

  The third volume is a mixed bag. Some of the interviews stood merely as filler for me, yet they were juxtaposed against a few true fascinations.
  
  Ted Hughes, whom I've never known quite what to make of, has by far the most substantial conversation on the writing process in this collection. It was terrific to get a resilient sense of enthusiasm from Martin Amis, and Salman Rushdie's mystification over how the world views him is always, always, amusing. He's just completely oblivious on the subject of his character and how his personality holds the potential to abrade. Mailer roars, which I find anchoring, and Ralph Ellison - if you let him - will light a match and set your world on fire.
  
  There's a lot here, even in the lesser exchanges, on the psychic toll of writing. Cheever calls it "clinical fatigue." Chinua Achebe likens the labor to "a term of imprisonment." Jean Rhys speaks of isolation and depression. Leave it to Mailer, though, to deliver the goods by slamming a fist to the table:
  
  On hearing of Hemingway's suicide -
  
  "I remember it very well. I was with Jeanne Campbell in Mexico and it was before we got married. I was truly aghast. A certain part of me has never really gotten over it. In a way, it was a huge warning. What he was saying is, Listen all you novelists out there. Get it straight; when you're a novelist you're entering on an extremely dangerous psychological journey, and it can blow up in your face."
  
  And the interviews continue...
  
• 
  misael martins

  Este é um dos meus livros favoritos do ano. Por aquilo que contém, pelas entrevistas de que é feito, pela sabedoria que encerra, pelas perguntas que são feitas e pelas respostas que são dadas.
  Neste volume das entrevistas da mítica revista literária Paris Review, são entrevistadas 12 grandes figuras das letras mundiais do século XX.
  Alice Munro, mulher doce mas obstinada, nascida em 1931, fala da infância, dos editores, da dicotomia conto/romance, dos seus casamentos, do Canadá e da literatura, de um modo geral.
  Dorothy Parker, uma mulher intensa e explosiva da sociedade norte-americana, discorre sobre temas como a condição da mulher, a sátira nos seus livros e na vida em geral, a indústria de Hollywood, a poesia, os Loucos Anos 20 e ainda a sua passagem pela Vogue e pela Vanity Fair.
  Elena Ferrante, a misteriosa napolitana, fala sobre tudo e sobre nada: sobre as memórias conectivas que todos temos, sobre a infância que pode ser de cada um de nós e de todos ao mesmo tempo, sobre a condição de anónima, sobre Itália, sobre crianças, sobre literatura.
  George Steiner, filósofo carismático, começa por abordar a questão da filosofia versus a literatura, do ensaio versus o romance, fala ainda de grandes escritores e de renomados filósofos, aborda largamente os seus livros.
  Henry Miller, cáustico e satírico pornográfico, refere Hemingway, cita poetas, fala da moral e da religião, da obscenidade e do sexo, do que está a escrever, do que já publicou e do que escreverá e, seguida.
  Emmanuel Carrère, um dos poucos que não conhecia até o ler neste volume, discursa sobre romances e reescrita, de Philip K. Dick e da sua mãe, de ficção e do eu, do fascismo e do mistério.
  John Steinbeck, o incontornável John Steinbeck, goza aqui de estatuto especial pois a sua entrevista já estava prometida à Paris Review quando este morre, o que faz com que a entrevista se construa a partir de notas deixadas pelo autor, trechos de romances e cartas ou entradas de diário.
  Julian Barnes, o britânico francófilo, fala de França e de literatura, de verdade e de vocação, das mentiras essenciais e da preferência de Flaubert sobre Balzac, da diferença entre os romancistas americanos e os britânicos e de escritores com uma só grande obra, de personagens e horários.
  Karl Ove Knauagard, o nórdico politicamente incorrecto, é questionado sobre a sua luta, sobre a crítica, acerca dos consensos e da masculinidade, de respostas e de momentos.
  Lydia Davis, numa conversa informal, aborda a ética, de poemas e diálogos, cartas e budismo, tradução e infância, música e a tensão que cria a escrita.
  Susan Sontag, a minimalista devoradora de livros, fala de viagens, o sonho da escrita, referências, leituras, intelectualidade, feminismo, o início e os lamentos, a informação e os ensaios, a crítica e a escrita não por haver um público, mas por haver literatura.
  E, por fim, W. H. Auden, um narcisista consciente, que discorre sobre gravadores e infância, poesia e Housman, professores e Estados Unidos, ferocidade e má arte, público e almas gémeas, hábitos, cartões de créditos, elogios, mulheres, loucos, Isherwood, música, a Islândia, Finnegans Wake, gatos e casamentos, Mickey e o Demónio, vizinhos e sexo.
• 
  EMILIO SCUTTI

  Questo libro rappresenta un’occasione unica per entrare nell’officina, nei luoghi intimi dei più grandi scrittori contemporanei laddove nascono i capolavori poetici e letterari del nostro tempo. Forse manca una bibliografia degli autori che avrebbe completato l’opera.
• 
  Derek

  All four of these interview compilations are filled with brilliant interviews that illuminate diverse aspects of the creative process. The interviews reveal at least some creative commonalities among literary geniuses. For instance, most writers hate to admit that they have had any creative influences. Harold Bloom was right.
• 
  Ryan Chapman

  Every volume in this series is a must-have for every struggling writer, intelligent reader, and member of the literate society.
  
  Especially wonderful in this collection:
  Ralph Ellison's bold ambition and humility (
  Invisible Man was merely an "attempt" at a major novel),
  Martin Amis' no-bullshit approach to writing and life,
  Harold Pinter's off-putting self-absorption and condescension.
• 
  Jody

  I loved volumes one and two, so I figured I might as well buy the third volume. It does not disappoint. Like the previous volumes, this is my procrastination book that doesn't look like procrastination. I learn something with each interview, espcially Ted Hughes's interview. I harbored a hatred for that man, but after reading his editorial defense on Plath's book Ariel, his choices made sense. So, if anything, there's one less strange that I dislike.
• 
  Jim

  fascinating insights into some of my favourite authors & food for thought to scope out some writers I've not encountered previously. must attempt to read Vols I&II at some stage.
• 
  Derek

  I still maintain, these Paris Review Interviews are all the MFA anyone needs. Not only do we dive deep into the minds of some of historys greatest writers, we gleam their work ethics and form a picture on what it means to be a working writer. These interviews are uncommon in their candour and depth. It's taken over a year to read this, but it's the only way to read these. Slowly and go back over and over again over the parts that resonate.
  
  All the interviews contained within are gold, but my fav feature Martin Amis, Raymond Carver, Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie, Norman Mailer, Ted Hughes, Joyce Carol Oates and Jan Morris.
  
  Definitely rereading this.
• 
  Claire

  My least favorite of the first three volumes, but still full of wonderful advice and insight from masters in the field. I think I've become a little overwhelmed from reading so many of these interviews in so little time, but I don't regret what I've done. It'll just take a little while before I make it to volume four.
  
  (Um also, Ted Hughes sounded really eloquent and tender toward his craft, and toward Sylvia. Something particularly unexpected. I'm happy to have been proven wrong about him.)
• 
  John Hood

  
  http://miamisunpost.com/archives/2008...
  
  Bound - Miami SunPost
  
  Nov. 20, 2008
  
  A Gentleman Among Men
  
  George Plimpton Was All That and Then Some
  
  By John Hood
  
  George Plimpton and I first met at his Manhattan home back in ’90 or ’91 when he hosted a wedding reception for then Paris Review Senior Editor Fayette Hickox. I was just coming into my ego then and still a bit reticent around celebrity, but Plimpton made me feel immediately welcome into his world. That his world consisted of every 20th century writer of any merit, not to mention more bold-faced names than any three compendia on fame, only made his welcome all the warmer — and all the more cool.
  
  The next day Plimpton had me up to his place again, this time so I could interview him for Paper Magazine, and again he insisted that I call him “George.” It wasn’t an easy move for me to make — his stature suggested a definite “Mr. Plimpton” — but he was adamant. Besides, George was simply too damn agreeable to argue with. We collided a couple more times over the years, most notably when Brian Antoni threw a Black & White Ball to celebrate the release of Truman Capote, and on each and every occasion George remained the consummate gentleman — impeccably mannered, effortlessly elegant and genuinely kind.
  
  Of course I’m just one of the thousands upon thousands who encountered George throughout his long and robust life, and hardly one of his intimates. Had we been closer I’m sure I’d be among the many remembrances in the remarkable George, Being George (Random House, $30), an oral history that includes looks back from the likes of Gay Talese, Gore Vidal, William Styron and Peter Matthiessen.
  
  Subtitled George Plimpton’s Life as Told, Admired, Deplored, and Envied by 200 Friends, Relatives, Lovers, Acquaintances, Rivals — and a Few Unappreciative Observers, and expertly edited by his pal Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., George is not just the sort of oral history very few people deserve, it’s the sort George himself would’ve definitely approved of. Why? Because it was a form he perfected with the books Edie and Truman Capote.
  
  Yet neither Warhol’s tragic superstar nor the noted “non-fiction novelist” even came close to covering as much ground as George Plimpton, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, died the talk of the town, and in between lived enough lives to account for any 50 people, provided those 50 never stopped fully living throughout their entire lives.
  
  I’m talking a man of action as well as letters, and quite often both at the same time. As a participatory journalist for Sports Illustrated, George went three rounds with then light heavyweight champ Archie Moore, quarterbacked the Detroit Lions, goaled for the Boston Bruins, hit the PGA Tour alongside Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and flew through the air with the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus. Each of those feats and more are talked about in George, some with envy, some with pride and all with utter awe.
  
  But beyond the books and the exploits, George will perhaps be remembered for The Paris Review, which he helmed for the last 50-plus years of his life.
  
  Founded in ’53 by Peter Matthiessen and Harold “Doc” Humes and basically given to George shortly thereafter, The Paris Review remains perhaps the most influential literary journal in history, mostly on account of its interviews, which began with E.M. Forster and number virtually every writer to have picked up a pen since.
  
  Hemingway, Ellison, Faulkner, Greene, Burroughs, Miller, Bellow … name a 20th century heavyweight and The Paris Review chatted ‘em up. Some of those immortal interviews can now be found archived online, but to read them as they really were meant to be read, I wholeheartedly recommend you pick up Pantheon’s The Paris Review Interviews (Picador, $16).
  
  Of the three volumes currently available, it’s impossible for me to pick a favorite, so I’ll just mention personal highlights from each.
  
  In Volume I I’m most partial to James M. Cain, Richard Price and Dorothy Parker. Not because I don’t dig Borges and Bellow and Hemingway and Vonnegut (all of whom are also included), but because I double-dig crime and wisecracks, and if Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice and Price’s Clockers don’t epitomize crime writing and Parker wasn’t the embodiment of a wisecrack, then I’ll eat my hat.
  
  For Volume II I’ll stick with Graham Greene and William Faulkner, first because of The Comedians and Our Man in Havana, and second because of As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury, all of which I discovered back when I was broke and a book was all the sustenance I needed to get through a New York night.
  
  In III I’ll take Raymond Carver, Norman Mailer and Martin Amis. Carver’s ultimately inimitable short stories still floor me, and on a couple occasions I got to meet Mailer, so his entry gets extra credit. Amis, I’m proud to say, I too had the privilege of interviewing.
  
  And that kinda brings me full circle. Like George I believe in both word and action, and by George I’m inspired to fully use both. And while I might not do so with such grace and good manners, I’ve at least been given a blueprint. And so now have you.
• 
  Brad

  I bleeping love these books.
• 
  Andresa Bastos

  Brilliant. These interviews are an all time archive of human threads. Words to come back to.
• 
  Meri

  Joyce Carol Oates was, for me, the most relatable intervieew in the book. She's so sweet. I didn't really get that level of feeling (or anything) from some of the others.
• 
  Cristiana

  John Steinbeck
  "Pela minha janela passa um número espantoso de raparigas bonitas. Gosto muito de raparigas bonitas, mas tenho idade suficiente para não ter de conviver com elas. E é um alívio."
  
  "Testo sempre o que escrevo com os meus cães primeiro. Sabe, o Angel fica sentado a ouvir e tenho a sensação de que compreende tudo o que há para compreender. Mas com o Charley senti sempre que tentava acrescentar qualquer coisa. Anos atrás, quando o meu setter ruivo roeu o manuscripto de Ratos e Homens, comentei na altura que o cão devia ser um critico literário excelente."
  
  "Há duas vias para a privacidade - a varíola e a pobreza."
  
  "Há quem sue as estopinhas para evitar problemas, esquecendo-se de que suar as estopinhas é um problema."
• 
  Kenny

  I've reached another milestone in my reading career - discovering the joy of discovering a new author on my own, not recommended or syllabied or even really linked to any other writer - completely unknown, suddenly the next big writer I have to go out and get all their outpourings. That would be Jan Morris (born James Morris). Already intrigued? Me too! And add to all that, his extensive travel experiences, which he has a fascinating theory on. First off, he focuses on cities, which thanks to my modern poetry course centered thematically on poems created in the exigencies of city living, where the push and pull of anonymity vs. distinction and the press of bodies and consciousness seem ideally suited to the condensed form of a poem, I have come to (obviously) love. Urban life! Then, he specifically has a line, which he draws, seemingly arbitrarily, between Budapest and Bucharest, and any city that falls on the Bucharest side of the line (I believe) deserves his writerly attentions. Thence, he sets off on his wandering, flaneur-like travels through cities "like a dog running around with his tongue hanging loose" - including in Sydney ("sharp"), Beijing (a city he got too lost in where the wandering failed him), in Venice (his most frequented city, the one which has undergone so many transformations, and is currently, reduced to a museum for swarming tourists), and in Chicago (the city he most wants to preserve in his memory unsullied with subsequent trips). Finally, his travels aren't merely confined to the physical, but also to the metaphysical, though he wouldn't admit it that way. In fact, he should be referred to as a she, because she knew all along that she was female born in a male body. If that's not worth reading more about, then how about his travel experiences in Hong Kong - or a description of a city merging Italian, Russian, and Arabic. What a wonderfully bizarre human soul.
  
  The collection kicked off with Ralph Ellison, who discusses literature vis a vis activism, and how he disavows the latter term, preferring instead words like symbolism, ritual, description - a writer through and through.
  
  Then, there are the less appealing parts of the collection, the slew of what I call "middle America white authors of suburbia and normality made strange" - Cheever, Carver (who apparently was born in Washington State too, though, he has since tried to claim the dislocated label, having moved around a lot - his fiction doesn't at all though, all confined inside, confined being the operative word, such stifling stories!), William Carlos Williams, and Joyce Carol Oates.
  
  I am curious, at some point, to look at Jean Rhys, Chinua Achebe, and Salman Rushdie (for their global-ness). And also, Harold Pinter, if I do end up, however unlikely, digging deeper in Modern British Theater.
• 
  Vilis

  Būtu muļķīgi par interviju gramatu runāt paša vārdiem, tāpēc piedāvāju aprakstu ar runātāju teikumiem. Pa vienam no katra. “Rakstnieks piešķir dzīvei formu. Visi romāni ir par kādu minoritāti: katrs indivīds ir minoritāte. Vislabāk, ja maza deva autobiogrāfijas ir sajaukta ar krietnu daudzumu iztēles. Rakstnieki mēdz rakstīt daudz, taču reti kurš uzraksta vairāk kā tikai mazu drusku īstenības. Tēvs man teica, ka divdesmitpiecgadīgs autors rakstot saka piecdesmitgadniekiem, ka pasaule vairs nav tāda: tā ir šāda. Lielos stāstos tomēr ir ne tikai liela doma, bet arī īpašs domas izpausmes veids: vārdu savirknējums, valodas skanīgums… Rakstnieks tēlam var piešķirt dziļuma ilūziju, rādot viņu šķietami stereoskopiskā veidā, no diviem dažādiem skatupunktiem; rakstnieks var tikai kaut ko pastāstīt vai noklusēt par tēlu, viņš nevar lasītājam dot kvalitatīvi atšķirīgu informāciju. Būtu traki, ja darba skaidrojums būtu meklējams ārpus teksta.
  
  “Manuprāt, romānu rakstīt nav vērts, ja vien neesi pieķēries kam tādam, pie kā varētu aplauzties. Ja kādam nevajag būt par rakstnieku, ja kāds domā, ka varētu darīt arī ko citu, tad viņam arī vajadzētu darīt to citu. Rakstīšanas tehniskais process, rakstnieka darbs ir dabiski vientulīga nodarbe. Es katru dienu stundām ilgi sēžu viens pats istabā. Sekoju tam, ko redzu uz papīra: teikumu pēc teikuma. Ja mākslai ir, kā man šķiet, patiesi transcedentāla funkcija – ja tā mums ļauj pacelties no mūsu ierobežotības un naivuma – rakstīšanas laika garastāvoklim vai sajūtām nevajadzētu būt nozīmei. Manuprāt, labs redaktors ir vīrs, kurš man šķiet šarmants, kurš man sūta lielus čekus, slavē manu darbu, izskatu un seksualitāti, un kurš ir labi apvārdojis izdevēju un banku. Bet tā tik tāda piebilde.”
• 
  Niklas Pivic

  Another solid volume of interviews, introducing me to Georges Simenon's wafty yet lucid way of going about writing (few rules, yet strictly governed by himself), John Cheever (even more out there, with some great points and interesting observations on writing and life), Ted Hughes getting me angry from his oh-Plath's-stuff-must've-been-displaced way of going about things...
  
  The really, really interesting interviews are in my mind those with Martin Amis and Raymond Carver. Where Amis compares himself with his famous writer father (Kingsley Amis) and talks of how they differ and are very similar, not to mention how Martin Amis separates journalism from creative writing. Raymond Carver seems brutally honest in a gentle way, being very frank about his alcoholism and generally coming across as a writer I shall very much look forward to read.
  
  Salman Rushdie comes across as a lad, really, but a well-read and quite funny lad. Not like Jan Morris, who talks about travel fiction, writing techniques, travels and his transexuality in relation to how if affects and has affected him as a writer, especially in relation to his trilogy books which he started writing as John Morris. Evelyn Waugh comes across as an Oscar Wilde-ish person, somewhat blasé.
  
  Norman Mailer concludes the book in good fashion. He's a pretty down-to-earth interviewee and very interesting. Some nice points on Truman Capote.
  
  All in all, another very interesting book.
• 
  Olivia

  This book was such a pleasure to read. It collects interviews from as early as 1955, and is a strong display of the quirks, charms and genius of those interviewed. Some of the most engaging interviews were with Isak Dinesen, William Carlos Williams (and his wife), and John Cheever. A few authors were almost insufferable (cough...Martin Amis...cough...Norman Mailer) but others, like Jan Morris, were really illuminating. The collection does a great job setting the scene of each conversation, and includes one scribbled out manuscript page per author, that gives us another valuable glimpse into their process.
• 
  j_ay

  Ralph Ellison ***** (5 stars)
  Georges Simenon ****o
  Isak Dinesen ****o
  Evelyn Waugh ***oo
  William Carlos Williams ****o
  Harold Pinter ****o
  John Cheever ****o
  Joynce Carol Oates ****o
  Jean Rhys ****o
  Raymond Carver ****o
  Chinua Achebe ****o
  Ted Hughes ****o
  Jan Morris ****o
  Martin Amis ****o
  Salman Rushdie *oooo
  Norman Mailer ****o
  
• 
  Jim

  If your a writer you will love this book of interviews with the likes of Harold Pinter, William Carlos Williams and Martin Amis. The interviewers take their time and most of the interviews take place over a number of meetings. You can read an in depth review on my
  website.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Jennifer

  I'm loving these interviews. I cherry-picked some in vol. II as I wanted to read Alica Munro's first (she's so thoughtful and humble), but I'm reading vol. III's pieces straight through. Some favorites so far, in the collections (though I haven't yet got my hands on vol. I): Munro, Eudora Welty, Faulker (boy does he take himself seriously!), Ralph Ellison
• 
  Charles

  I read the previous two books of interviews in this series, with writers as varied as Truman Capote, Papa Hemingway, William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, and James Thurber. Just read a review of this one in the Wall Street Journal. Looks good.
• 
  Dr.abdullah H

  The interview questions was exactly on the spot. the writers werent hiding anything here.
  It makes you feel So connected, No small talk. Too obsessive, too complicated but solving their puzzles was of pure joy.
  Thanks
  
  bought it from Shakespeare and Co.
• 
  Boweavil

  Many of these interviews are fascinating, but I didn't read all of them. The words of the writers I have not read did not hold me and some of these are just too long, chatty and repetitive. It's the sort of book to pick up and put down when you have 15 minutes.
• 
  Leah W

  I really liked this collection... stronger than 2, not quite as good as 1, and now it's time to pick up 4, which came out on 10/27.
• 
  Gladia

  Some people look for answers in the Bible, I look for them in the Paris Review interviews. Some people abide to the 10 Commandments, I only need four: rob, borrow, beg, and steal (Faulkner).
• 
  Sarah

  I'm so glad I bought these.