In the Guardian recently, novelist Graham Joyce accused Jeanette Winterson of elitism after she criticized the novels on this year’s Booker shortlist for not being difficult enough. It wasn’t the first time Winterson has been charged with intellectual arrogance. Following the success of her first novel, the semi-autobiographical Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, in 1985, Winterson’s outrageous claims that she was both the greatest living writer and that the only true heir to Virginia Woolf put off readers and writers alike. Read more…
jeanette winterson
PULSE
by Julian Barnes
Marriage and relationships are the main preoccupation of Pulse, Julian Barnes’ third short story collection and seventeenth book. In most cases, these are the relationships of middle-aged, middle-class British people much like Julian Barnes himself, or awkward second attempts bearing the patina of past betrayals, divorces, and personal failings. Read more…