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Running in Place: Scenes from the South of France by Nicholas Delbanco
The author describes his experiences traveling with his family in the south of France and discusses the qualities of the region that have attracted writers and artists
Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
Nicholas Delbanco
98 books18 followersNicholas Delbanco is the Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan and Chair of the Hopwood Committee. He has published twenty-five books of fiction and non-fiction. His most recent novels are The Count of Concord and Spring and Fall; his most recent works of non-fiction are The Countess of Stanlein Restored and The Lost Suitcase: Reflections on the Literary Life. As editor he has compiled the work of, among others, John Gardner and Bernard Malamud. The long-term Director of the MFA Program as well as the Hopwood Awards Program at the University of Michigan, he has served as Chair of the Fiction Panel for the National Book Awards, received a Guggenheim Fellowship and, twice, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship. Professor Delbanco has just completed a teaching text for McGraw-Hill entitled Literature: Craft and Voice, a three-volume Introduction to Literature of which he is the co-editor with Alan Cheuse; in 2004 he published The Sincerest Form: Writiing Fiction by Imitation. His new non-fiction book, Lastingness: The Art of Old Age will be published by Grand Central Publishing in 2011.
Full Biography
NOTE: The following biography was composed in 2000 by Jon Manchip White and reflects information only up to and including that year.
Nationality: American. Born: London, England, 1942. Education: Harvard University, B.A. 1963; Columbia University, M.A. 1966. Career: Member of Department of Language and Literature, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, 1966-84, writing workshop director, 1977-84; professor of English, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1984-85; Robert Frost Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1985—. Awards: National Endowment for the Arts creative writing award, 1973, 1982; National Endowment of Composers and Librettists fellowship, 1976; Guggenheim fellowship, 1980; Woodrow Wilson fellowship; Edward John Noble fellowship; New York State CAPS Award; Vermont Council of the Arts Award; Michigan Council of the Arts Award. Agent: Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York, New York 10036, U.S.A.
As a novelist, Nicholas Delbanco can be considered doubly fortunate in that he has always been able to draw inspiration and sustenance from two continents and two cultures.
Of Italian and German descent, he was born in London at the height of the German Blitz, and his family did not depart for America until he was six, and he was not naturalized as an American citizen until he was eleven. It is not surprising that, though later he would anchor himself firmly in New England and particularly in Vermont, and more recently in Michigan as the Robert Frost Professor of English Language and Literature, the influence of his European origins would play a consistent part in his fiction and non-fiction alike.
The cultural ambivalence, if such it may be called, manifested itself early. At Harvard, his B.A. thesis was devoted to a joint study of Rilke and Heredia, two noteworthy wanderers, and the subject of his M.A. thesis was that tragic outcast, Malcolm Lowry. Examining the numerous novels Delbanco has published to date, one finds that only five are set exclusively in the United States and that the majority are set, either in whole or part, in Provence, Tuscany, Greece, Switzerland, or as far afield as Barbados and Mexico. Several of his non-fiction books are concerned with Europe, one of them a study of that remarkable group of literary exiles, including Conrad, Crane, and James, who lived and worked together in a small corner of England at the turn of the last century. Indeed, one of the courses Delbanco has taught over the years is specifically entitled “Exiles,” and is devoted to Becket, Conrad, and Nabokov, while other courses have featured a gallery of roving and displaced novelists such as Joyce, Lawrence, Forster, Ford, Mann, Fitzgerald, and He
Full Biography
NOTE: The following biography was composed in 2000 by Jon Manchip White and reflects information only up to and including that year.
Nationality: American. Born: London, England, 1942. Education: Harvard University, B.A. 1963; Columbia University, M.A. 1966. Career: Member of Department of Language and Literature, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, 1966-84, writing workshop director, 1977-84; professor of English, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1984-85; Robert Frost Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1985—. Awards: National Endowment for the Arts creative writing award, 1973, 1982; National Endowment of Composers and Librettists fellowship, 1976; Guggenheim fellowship, 1980; Woodrow Wilson fellowship; Edward John Noble fellowship; New York State CAPS Award; Vermont Council of the Arts Award; Michigan Council of the Arts Award. Agent: Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York, New York 10036, U.S.A.
As a novelist, Nicholas Delbanco can be considered doubly fortunate in that he has always been able to draw inspiration and sustenance from two continents and two cultures.
Of Italian and German descent, he was born in London at the height of the German Blitz, and his family did not depart for America until he was six, and he was not naturalized as an American citizen until he was eleven. It is not surprising that, though later he would anchor himself firmly in New England and particularly in Vermont, and more recently in Michigan as the Robert Frost Professor of English Language and Literature, the influence of his European origins would play a consistent part in his fiction and non-fiction alike.
The cultural ambivalence, if such it may be called, manifested itself early. At Harvard, his B.A. thesis was devoted to a joint study of Rilke and Heredia, two noteworthy wanderers, and the subject of his M.A. thesis was that tragic outcast, Malcolm Lowry. Examining the numerous novels Delbanco has published to date, one finds that only five are set exclusively in the United States and that the majority are set, either in whole or part, in Provence, Tuscany, Greece, Switzerland, or as far afield as Barbados and Mexico. Several of his non-fiction books are concerned with Europe, one of them a study of that remarkable group of literary exiles, including Conrad, Crane, and James, who lived and worked together in a small corner of England at the turn of the last century. Indeed, one of the courses Delbanco has taught over the years is specifically entitled “Exiles,” and is devoted to Becket, Conrad, and Nabokov, while other courses have featured a gallery of roving and displaced novelists such as Joyce, Lawrence, Forster, Ford, Mann, Fitzgerald, and He
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 6, 2015
So many travelogues, so many of them to France. What gives this one schtick?
Nicholas Delbanco has a keen eye and a sensitivity for situations. Instead of glossing over his experiences, he understands the "predicament" of the expat and can get right to the bloody center of discomfort (or delight!)- in other words, the "why". The ability to write about it effectively is icing on the cake. But the schtick, and what gives him this sensitivity, may be the fact that he spent multiple years in France, at various milestones in his life. Young graduate, young lover, new husband, father.... comparing the french to themselves through time allowed him rich observations.
Nicholas Delbanco has a keen eye and a sensitivity for situations. Instead of glossing over his experiences, he understands the "predicament" of the expat and can get right to the bloody center of discomfort (or delight!)- in other words, the "why". The ability to write about it effectively is icing on the cake. But the schtick, and what gives him this sensitivity, may be the fact that he spent multiple years in France, at various milestones in his life. Young graduate, young lover, new husband, father.... comparing the french to themselves through time allowed him rich observations.
August 21, 2024
Worth perseverance, the last couple of chapters are nice.
December 8, 2010
I had a very hard time enjoying this book. It felt disjointed, and I could not relate to the writer. It is a literature professor's memoir on traveling to the same area in Provence over the course of 30 years, and has a very literature-based take on it. I got the feeling from the writer that he was of the sort who has many opportunities given to him, and that, combined with some minor name-dropping, kept me from connecting to his story. Some passages (particularly Lascaux), piqued my interest and kept me reading. Otherwise, it did not hold my interest at all.
February 24, 2008
A very literary memoir of extended visits by an American professor to the same spot in Provence, over the years. He starts as a student, then travels back and forth in time, writing about his visits with a girlfriend, wife, wife and baby, then the return with family including two teenage girls. Toward the end he asks, do people change and the place doesn't, or does the place change and people don't?
March 18, 2008
I particularly recall his discussion of visits to Lascaux, and other sites which do not get as much coverage in this genre of travel/biography...not only description of places but the writer's integration of a visit into his life journey....in the more contemplative mode of Frances Mayes, or Tim Parks.
February 12, 2009
Interesting recollections of the author's various stays in the South of France. It's a little hard to relate to someone who has those kinds of opportunities to travel. This is more of an travel book than a change in lifestyle story, "I bought a farm in Provence and ..."
May 7, 2010
A somewhat disjointed, but well-written, account of several trips to Provence separated by 30 years, and the people he traveled with and met there. Not a story, in the usual sense, and not about the part of France I am interested in.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews