Joe Murphy on Robert Hughes
Hi Everyone-
Well, first things first: don't forget about our anniversary sale (our 34th!). It starts tomorrow, September 21st, and runs through Sunday the 24th. All books are 20% off, and all CDs and DVDs are 15% off. It's a great deal, so come in for some pleasant fall shopping!
And now to quickly mention a couple of books: I very highly recommend Robert Hughes' new memoir, Things I Didn't Know. Hughes, the critic who galvanized the art world with his famous treatise on modern art The Shock of the New, offers an equally insightful examination of his own life, including his early days in Australia, his discovery (not easily made in Australia at the time) of the challenge of modern art, his tempestuous relations with the women in his life, his path to becoming one of the world's most influential art critics, and the devastating car accident that changed everything, particularly his relationship with his Australian homeland. It's all one could hope for in a memoir by a true raconteur, written with Hughes' usual acerbic incisiveness, and it's thoroughly absorbing. It's also a Buyer's Choice, at 20% off (even after the sale ends!).
Finally, as I mentioned last week, this is an unusually strong fiction season, but I'd like to mention a great novel from last year, now finally out in paperback: Zadie Smith's acclaimed On Beauty. With its Howards End-based themes, sharp portraits of family life, and Smith's delightful wit, On Beauty wound up as one of our customers' favorite books of the year last year, as well as being shortlisted for the Booker Prize. if you missed it the first time around, come pick up the paperback.
See you in the stores,
Joe Murphy
Head Book Buyer
Well, first things first: don't forget about our anniversary sale (our 34th!). It starts tomorrow, September 21st, and runs through Sunday the 24th. All books are 20% off, and all CDs and DVDs are 15% off. It's a great deal, so come in for some pleasant fall shopping!And now to quickly mention a couple of books: I very highly recommend Robert Hughes' new memoir, Things I Didn't Know. Hughes, the critic who galvanized the art world with his famous treatise on modern art The Shock of the New, offers an equally insightful examination of his own life, including his early days in Australia, his discovery (not easily made in Australia at the time) of the challenge of modern art, his tempestuous relations with the women in his life, his path to becoming one of the world's most influential art critics, and the devastating car accident that changed everything, particularly his relationship with his Australian homeland. It's all one could hope for in a memoir by a true raconteur, written with Hughes' usual acerbic incisiveness, and it's thoroughly absorbing. It's also a Buyer's Choice, at 20% off (even after the sale ends!).Finally, as I mentioned last week, this is an unusually strong fiction season, but I'd like to mention a great novel from last year, now finally out in paperback: Zadie Smith's acclaimed On Beauty. With its Howards End-based themes, sharp portraits of family life, and Smith's delightful wit, On Beauty wound up as one of our customers' favorite books of the year last year, as well as being shortlisted for the Booker Prize. if you missed it the first time around, come pick up the paperback.See you in the stores,
Joe Murphy
Head Book Buyer
1 Comments:
From the UK Guardian
Corfu pays belated tribute to Durrells
· Commemorative park to honour British brothers
· Authors put island on the tourist map
Helena Smith in Athens
Friday September 22, 2006
Guardian
Corfu, the island that inspired Lawrence and Gerald Durrell to write some of their most famous works, including My Family and Other Animals, is finally commemorating the brother authors.
Sixty-seven years after war forced the Durrells to flee their beloved island home, the authorities have sought to redress an oversight that has offended fans and resident Britons alike, by honouring two men whose prose humorously, and persuasively, put modern Corfu on the map.
The town hall has announced it will name Boschetto Park, alongside Corfu Town's elegant esplanade, after the pair. A plaque honouring the two as "writers and philhellenes" will be unveiled on the spot, near the island's cricket pitch, on Sunday. Lawrence's daughter Penelope, who was born in Athens in 1940, and Gerald's widow, Lee, an American biologist, will fly in for what is being billed a "big fiesta".
"It is a step that is long overdue," said Spyros Georgas, a local physician who initiated the campaign. "The Durrells are a part of our life, a time that, unfortunately, has vanished. They made Corfu known and we should not forget them."
Dr Georgas, who treats some of the elderly British aristocrats and retired civil servants who moved to the island from India in the 50s and 60s, said authorities had previously proposed that a lane be named after the brothers. "It was a cul-de-sac, totally wrong. I told them it just wasn't fair, so they suggested some new roads out of town which would have had no meaning at all."
Three years on, the mayor suggested the gardens instead.
"We thought we were only going to get a plaque, not a whole garden named after them, and it's a beautiful space," said Richard Price, director of the Durrell School of Corfu. "A lot of time was spent convincing [the mayor] about their contribution. I think, eventually, we wore him down."
My Family and Other Animals, Gerald's affectionate account of his childhood on Corfu, which marks its 50th anniversary this year and was recently broadcast by the BBC, has sold five million copies.
Prospero's Cell, Lawrence's evocation of Corfu - among the few books by either brother to be translated into Greek - remains a classic. Intoxicated by the island's landscape, history and alluring sea, the elder Durrell felt compelled to write on its first page: "Greece offers you the discovery of yourself." He would go on to write in 1957 The Alexandria Quartet, which has been credited with changing the direction of the modern novel.
Gerald later founded the Jersey Zoological Park and became one of the world's leading experts on the breeding of animals in danger of extinction.
"Lawrence discovered himself as a serious writer on Corfu and it was here that Gerald had his eyes opened to the natural world," Mr Price said.
The gardens may not be the last Durrell memorial in Corfu. "What we've done is not enough," said Giorgos Lavranos, who heads the culture division at the town hall. "I'd like to see a Durrell museum built next."
Backstory
Lawrence and Gerald Durrell spent five years on Corfu arriving there in 1935 and leaving at the outbreak of war. Three of the four children (Gerald, Leslie and Margo) arrived with their widowed mother, Louisa, at the urging of Lawrence, who had recently settled on the island with his new wife, Nancy.
Descendants of a colonial family that had lived in India for three generations, the Durrells had not visited Europe before the death of their father, Lawrence Samuel, who built railways in India. That caused a financial crisis and the family's move to Bournemouth in 1928.
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