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The Fork River Space Project
A clean, unclipped and unmarked copy in a Brodart jacket cover.
- GenresFiction
185 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1977
12 people want to read
About the author
Wright Morris
135 books34 followersWright Marion Morris was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms.
Morris won the National Book Award for The Field of Vision in 1956. His final novel, Plains Song won the American Book Award in 1981.
Morris won the National Book Award for The Field of Vision in 1956. His final novel, Plains Song won the American Book Award in 1981.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 27, 2018
Câline de bine de câline de bine.
January 1, 2025
There was a time when few read Cormac McCarthy. More recently, Percival Everett (thank goodness I started collecting the latter before he hit it big.)
I’m not sure if Wright Morris will be rediscovered, but I’m going to get everything he’s written before it happens, and if the world is just, it will.
Morris captures, perhaps even more than Willa Cather, what it’s really like on The Great Plains. The Fork River Space Project (what a title) charms - humorous, eerie, and at times touching - but it’s the crafty sentences and turn of phrases that pulled me in. His voice is so unique. I couldn’t help but wonder who influenced his writing? You get a sense of the usual suspects - Twain, Melville, Thomas Mann, Henry James, and to an extent, James Joyce. Nabokov was a peer, so perhaps? Henry Green? Apparently, he corresponded with John O’Hara and Muriel Spark. These connections make sense, but really his style is all his own.
Besides The Fork River Space Project, I’ve only read In Orbit, which was just great enough to keep me coming back.
Here’s an insightful article by Peter Orner about Morris’s work and why it’s pretty insane that he is not more widely read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/bo....
I love the quote from novelist, Michael Parker, who said of one Morris’s novels that it just sits on his shelf and aches and aches. I met Parker once and one of the things he said that stuck with me is to not just read modern fiction of this time, but to go back and read the Edna Ferbers. There’s a reason they were lauded in their day.
Morris won the National Book Award twice, and there’s a reason. He’s just that good.
I’m not sure if Wright Morris will be rediscovered, but I’m going to get everything he’s written before it happens, and if the world is just, it will.
Morris captures, perhaps even more than Willa Cather, what it’s really like on The Great Plains. The Fork River Space Project (what a title) charms - humorous, eerie, and at times touching - but it’s the crafty sentences and turn of phrases that pulled me in. His voice is so unique. I couldn’t help but wonder who influenced his writing? You get a sense of the usual suspects - Twain, Melville, Thomas Mann, Henry James, and to an extent, James Joyce. Nabokov was a peer, so perhaps? Henry Green? Apparently, he corresponded with John O’Hara and Muriel Spark. These connections make sense, but really his style is all his own.
Besides The Fork River Space Project, I’ve only read In Orbit, which was just great enough to keep me coming back.
Here’s an insightful article by Peter Orner about Morris’s work and why it’s pretty insane that he is not more widely read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/bo....
I love the quote from novelist, Michael Parker, who said of one Morris’s novels that it just sits on his shelf and aches and aches. I met Parker once and one of the things he said that stuck with me is to not just read modern fiction of this time, but to go back and read the Edna Ferbers. There’s a reason they were lauded in their day.
Morris won the National Book Award twice, and there’s a reason. He’s just that good.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews