Toby Lichtig
Up The Creek
The Wikipedia entry for John Irving has a useful anorak’s checklist of the recurring motifs in the author’s eleven novels to date. This diverse array includes bears; severed body parts; New Hampshire; wrestling; absent parents; mortal accidents; and characters who are also writers. All feature prominently in his new, twelfth, novel, as do many other favourites, such as Phillips Exeter Academy (where Irving grew up), sex between young boys and older women (see Irving’s disclosure of his abuse as a preteen), and the city of Iowa (where Irving studied). Along with a good knotty yarn, you know what you’re getting with John Irving.
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'When the language starts functioning as a character in fiction, when it is there drawing attention to itself ... It’s not anything that anybody really takes seriously.'
Our interview with Anthony Burgess from 1983.
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https://literaryreview.co.uk/master-criminals-of-the-universe
'Unlike much that was extracted from India, these paintings were not plunder, and those who created them were properly remunerated and often received due credit.'
@PParkerWriting on 'Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company'.
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