Richard Ingrams
A Dish of Sweetcorn
Leaving Home
By Garrison Keillor
Faber & Faber 256pp £9.95
I set out thinking I wasn't going to enjoy Garrison Keillor and his tales of Lake Wobegon. American, sentimental, nostalgic, corny, 'Thurberesque' – his world, as described by critics, seemed to have all the ingredients likely to deter a hard-bitten and frivolous Englishman. But the Americans have a wonderful way of winning one over and they do it with their sincerity. Keillor may be sweetcorn but there is nothing phoney about him.
In case you don't know by now, Lake Wobegon is a little town somewhere in the middle of Minnesota which, in turn, is somewhere in the middle of America. It is the kind of town where Mr Keillor imagines the following conversation taking place between two people driving through it
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Paul Gauguin kept house with a teenage ‘wife’ in French Polynesia, islands whose culture he is often accused of ransacking for his art.
@StephenSmithWDS asks if Gauguin is still worth looking at.
Stephen Smith - Art of Rebellion
Stephen Smith: Art of Rebellion - Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux
literaryreview.co.uk
‘I have fond memories of discussing Lorca and the state of Andalusian theatre with Antonio Banderas as Lauren Bacall sat on the dressing-room couch.’
@henryhitchings on Simon Russell Beale.
Henry Hitchings - The Play’s the Thing
Henry Hitchings: The Play’s the Thing - A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare & Other Stories by Simon Russell Beale
literaryreview.co.uk
We are saddened to hear of the death of Fredric Jameson.
Here, from 1983, is Terry Eagleton’s review of The Political Unconscious.
Terry Eagleton - Supermarket of the Mind
Terry Eagleton: Supermarket of the Mind - The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act by Fredric Jameson
literaryreview.co.uk