Granta 100

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #100

by William Boyd (Editor)

The 100th issue of Granta (Winter 2007), guest edited by the acclaimed British novelist William Boyd, features original work by many of the writers who have helped to make it the most widely read literary magazine in the world Contributors include Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, A. M. Homes, John le Carré, Doris Lessing, Jayne Anne Phillips, Harold Pinter, Nicholas Shakespeare, Helen Simpson, and Mario Vargas Llosa. The issue also includes new pieces by its former editors, Bill Buford and Ian Jack, and original photographs of many of the writers by Bruce Frankel and Carolin Seeliger.

Solly and Lark / Jayne Anne Phillips --
Poem / Harold Pinter --
On buying a clavichord / James Fenton --
My question for myself / Carolin Seeliger and Tobias Wenzel --
My question for myself / Zadie Smith --
How snow falls / Craig Raine --
Something to tell you / Hanif Kureishi --
Three character sketches / Mario Vargas Llosa --
My question for myself / Jonathan Franzen --
From the flood plain / Jamie McKendrick --
In-flight entertainment / Helen Simpson --
My question for myself / Hans Magnus Enzensberger --
Eel tail / Alice Oswald --
The serampur scotch / Ian Jack --
For you / Ian McEwan --
The unknown known / Martin Amis --
Turn of the century / Bruce Frankel --
Human safari / Lucy Eyre --
Highlights / Alan Holinghurst --
My question for myself / Isabel Allende --
Jewelweed / Ashley Capps --
Chickens and eggs / Doris Lessing --
My question for myself / Gary Shteyngart --
End of the pier show / Michael Hofmann --
Greenland / Isabel Hilton --
To the city / Tash Aw --
My question for myself / Marie NDiaye --
The swing / Don Paterson --
Heraclitus / Salman Rushdie --
The white hole of Bombay / Nicholas Shakespeare --
My question for myself / Richard Ford The joy of difficulty / Lavina Greenlaw --
Estonia, out in the country / Ingo Schulze --
My question for myself / Gao Xingjian --
17 Melbourne Road / Oliver Reynolds --
Marriage lines / Julian Barnes --
May we be forgiven / A.M. Homes --
Pie-kah / Helen Oyeyemi --
Somewhere the wave / Derek Mahon

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Essays, Poetry, Anthologies

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Note: William^^Boyd

Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.

At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.

Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.

Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.

Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.

Reviews

[Declan · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the 19th century Punch published cartoons of Irish people which depicted them as - to borrow a description used by Charles Kingsley - "white apes". In the 1920s and 1930s caricatures were published in German newspapers depicting Jews as devious and avaricious. In the early part of the 21st century we have Martin Amis writing a story called "The Unknown Known", which continues the tradition of depicting a definable section of humankind as so despicable that their maltreatment need not trouble the minds of civilized people. In this case it is Muslims that are depicted in this manner, and the Amis view is that they are vile, idiotic and motivated to despise the west because of sexual frustration. One wonders how this conclusion was reached: reading a few magazine articles?, or perhaps over drinks with Christopher Hitchens?. I only hope that some day, and before too long, this story will be regarded as those cartoons and caricatures now are.

So this was the 100th issue of Granta, guest edited by novelist William Boyd who did the predictable thing and gathered England's most over-rated writers (Amis, McEwan, Barnes, Hollinghurst and Rushdie) together with some even less talented from England and beyond (Nicholas Shakespeare (I couldn't finish his short story); A.M. Homes (a shockingly poor effort); Hanif Kureishi (I've forgotten it already); Tash Aw (aw Tash, it's so sentimental).

Was there anything worth reading? Yes, I was amused by Ingo Schulze remembering a stay in the Estonia and I've always liked Jayne Anne Philips whispery, allusive writing. Doris Lessing's remembering her youthful responsibility for the successful hatching of some hen's eggs is surprisingly compelling and some of the poetry is quite good, especially "Eel Tail" by Alice Oswald. But for me Mario Vargas Llosa's "Three Character Sketches" is the best piece in this, not very memorable, one hundredth issue.

[Shelley Diamond · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ones I liked from this collection are:
Something to Tell You by Hanif Kureishi
Three Character Sketches by Mario Vargas Llosa
In-Flight Entertainment by Helen Simpson
Human Safari by Lucy Eyre
Chickens and Eggs by Doris Lessing
Heraclitus by Salman Rushdie
May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho hum, it's not such a great issue for the celebratory 100th. Didn't care for the poetry; I've never liked poetry anyway. Good essays by Isabel Hilton, Salman Rushdie and Nicholas Shakespeare and good stories by Jayne Anne Philips and Helen Oyeyemi, however. And, I liked the Ingo Schulze piece on his visit to Estonia. While I usually like Mario Vargas Llosa and A. M. Homes, their pieces for this issue just fell flat. I was just bored by the "My question for myself" pieces and Martin Amis' story was just an angry polemic. Despite the unevenness here, I do await the next issue. I devour each upon receipt and have never regretted being a long time subscriber.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the usual Granta perhaps being a celebratory 100th edition, edited by William Boyd and stuffed to a greater extent with 'names'. A fine and varied read however. I can see now why Boyd refers to poetry having faded out of the magazine early as I felt what was here suffered under the weight of the other pieces, surprisingly so, whereas otherwise the blend of non-fiction, fiction, photography worked well.

It was startling to see the strength of the climate change message in 2007, bringing home how wilfully it has been ignored, and even more startling to see references to Afghan Americans (though it should not have been) I especially liked Salman Rushdie's piece on Heraclitus, taking issue with the notion that character is destiny and pointing out the influence of chance, of luck.

Boyd's introduction provides a history of the magazine. Long may it continue.

[Kate Gannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a subscriber to Granta for many years now, I cannot get over the amazing quality of writing that appears between its covers regularly. Usually the journal has a theme which the stories all (sometimes loosely) follow; this time they just celebrated their 100th issue, and thus the collection did not really have a theme.

They have brought back poetry, which has been missing from the journal for a while, and also included a wonderful addition of questions that writers would like to ask themselves. An entire book on this topic will be available in May: http://www.selbstfrage.de

My favorite stories in the book were James Fenton's essay on buying a clavichord, the character sketches by Maria Vargas Llosa, the libretto about infidelity by Ian McEwan, Lucy Eyre's essay on human tourism in Africa, Doris Lessing's story about adolescent's misinterpreting adult motivations until later in life, Tash Aw's story about adoption and Salman Rushdie's essay on Heraclitus and the literary perspective of character as destiny and whether our daimon is our ethos.

Spoilers to this story
Perhaps the funniest story in the collection was Ingo Schultze's story about Estonia in which a poor Estonian tries to please some Finnish hunters by supplying a bear for them to shoot. The only one he can find is an ex-circus animal, which is starving in a Russian circus. He agrees to let them kill it, but does not bother to tell them that the animal is not wild. The bear escapes by stealing a woman's bicycle and riding it away.

An overwhelmingly good collection of writing, and despite what some reviewers have said of this book, a great pleasure to read.

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will include Martin Amis' short story, "The Unknown Known".

Update: Wow. I just read a summary of the story over...over there and, whew, let me tell you: this isn't going to win Martin any new fans.

This isn't terrorism he's imagining it's...well, it's horrorism.

An excerpt is available at the Granta web site: http://www.granta.com/extracts/3113

Even as we enter the age of cosmic and perhaps eternal war, it remains remarkable...

Reading these...these words from the pen of a master, while listening to 101 youtube chicks cover "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" is...well, dears, it's devastating.


***

So, at seven pages, the beginning of an abandoned novella showed a lot of promise. Characters with names like Truqbom, Colonel Gul. But, apparently, Martin pussed out because he was afraid of being, ah, prophetic? Or instructive to the Evil Doers? Like Al-Qaeda would, you know, really stage an invasion of a small town with a bunch of compulsive rapists?

[Allen Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at a local book store, and have to say it is a amazing find. Granta is a amazing little thing which bills itself as 'The Magazine of New Writing' published in book format quarterly since 1979. Its a collection of personal narratives, short stories, travel writing, photo-journalism, and reportage. Sometimes an issue has a specific theme, such as travel, British novelists, Africa, ect...

The 100th issue of Granta was a good one to start with. I enjoyed pretty much all of the stories, the standouts being Human Safari, Greenland, and Estonia, Out in the Country, ever so slightly. I have since ordered about 30ish issues from Granta's back catalog of issues which I hope will not disappoint.

[Sanjay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow, I've never been able to 'get' Granta. The roster of writers is more than impressive, it's edited with evident and great care and the themed issues are well-chosen. Yet, when going through it, one is somehow overtaken by an inexplicable feeling of ennui. Be that as it may, this special 100th issue, guest-edited by William Boyd, practically demands to be read, with contributions by Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and many more.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This issue is loaded with pieces from some of my favorite contemporary writers such as Zadie Smith, Jonathan Franzen, Ian McEwan, Isabel Allende, Doris Lessing, Salman Rushdie, and Richard Ford, to name just a few of the forty authors represented. I particularly liked Julian Barnes’ short story “Marriage Lines.” Granta almost never disappoints me and this I a worthy issue to celebrate their 100th edition.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

nothing spectacular here, a big disappointment compared to previous anniversary or special issues.

[Kati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent mix of stuff. I really liked the photos of writers with the answers to the questions they wish they were asked.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

The usual suspects.......... yawn.

[Brenden]

Granta 100 (Granta: The Magazine of New Writing) by William Boyd (2008)

[Catherine Siemann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standout stories by Helen Oyayemi, Hanif Kureishi, Nicholas Shakespeare, and Alan Hollinghurst; but considering the authors collected here, not as extraordinary as might have been expected.

[John Kelleher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some strong pieces, overall very good