What do you think?
Rate this book
Little Fugue
Acclaimed short-story writer and winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award, Robert Anderson has written a brilliantly inventive first novel–a book that blends the facts of a famous writer’s life with the profound effect of her death on an entire generation.
Sylvia Plath’s legacy inspires, harrows, and haunts the three people at the center of Little Fugue : her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, freed by her death and then imprisoned by her myth; Assia Gutmann Wevill, Plath’s rival and Hughes’s mistress, who kills herself only six years after Plath; and Robert Anderson, a young New York writer, who is obsessed with Plath’s poems and her suicide, which “forged my identity and, incidentally, ruined my life.”
Their lives intersect, transiently and directly, through some of the more dramatic social upheavals of the past the ’68 student riots, the drug-addled seventies, the AIDS crisis of the eighties, the cataclysm of 9/11.
Little Fugue crackles with wit and verbal dexterity. There have been many accounts of the Plath/Hughes drama, but author Robert Anderson provides a fresh, utterly convincing interpretation of events. This is a brilliant novel of artists caught between the erotic allure of extinction and the eternal power of poetry.
Sylvia Plath’s legacy inspires, harrows, and haunts the three people at the center of Little Fugue : her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, freed by her death and then imprisoned by her myth; Assia Gutmann Wevill, Plath’s rival and Hughes’s mistress, who kills herself only six years after Plath; and Robert Anderson, a young New York writer, who is obsessed with Plath’s poems and her suicide, which “forged my identity and, incidentally, ruined my life.”
Their lives intersect, transiently and directly, through some of the more dramatic social upheavals of the past the ’68 student riots, the drug-addled seventies, the AIDS crisis of the eighties, the cataclysm of 9/11.
Little Fugue crackles with wit and verbal dexterity. There have been many accounts of the Plath/Hughes drama, but author Robert Anderson provides a fresh, utterly convincing interpretation of events. This is a brilliant novel of artists caught between the erotic allure of extinction and the eternal power of poetry.
- GenresFiction
384 pages, Hardcover
First published December 28, 2004
45 people want to read
About the author
Robert Anderson
26 books5 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
See this thread for more information.
ROBERT ANDERSON was born in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1964. He grew up outside of Minneapolis and attended the University of Minnesota. He came to New York in 1986 and lived for many years in Times Square residential hotels–the Vigilant, the Woodward, and the St. James–while working as a cook and writing. His first book, the short-story collection Ice Age, won the University of Georgia Press’s Flannery O’Connor Award in 2000.
See this thread for more information.
ROBERT ANDERSON was born in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1964. He grew up outside of Minneapolis and attended the University of Minnesota. He came to New York in 1986 and lived for many years in Times Square residential hotels–the Vigilant, the Woodward, and the St. James–while working as a cook and writing. His first book, the short-story collection Ice Age, won the University of Georgia Press’s Flannery O’Connor Award in 2000.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 13, 2018
Painful!
March 27, 2013
I gave up on this novel 1/3 of the way through. The writing is incredibly bombastic. It seems as though the author spent one too many nights with his thesaurus and attempted to appear poetic and intelligent, but merely produced prose that is clunky and almost painful to plod through. While I cannot resist reading anything that is inspired by Plath, this book simply was not worth my time.
May 29, 2008
A fictional recounting of the torturous union of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath and the resultant fallout, mixed in with a bit of chronological perspective from the third party narrarator that journeys through the major events of the past four decades.
Fantastic writing that lends itself well to the poetic nature of the subject matter. The clever narrative gets a bit lost in the three-party perspective that jumps around in time, particualrly during the survey of Vietnam protests during the 60's era survey...*gag*
A definite curious take on dear Ted And Sylvia.
Fantastic writing that lends itself well to the poetic nature of the subject matter. The clever narrative gets a bit lost in the three-party perspective that jumps around in time, particualrly during the survey of Vietnam protests during the 60's era survey...*gag*
A definite curious take on dear Ted And Sylvia.
July 2, 2013
Although at first I was wary of what I thought was an overabundance of allegoric wordiness, I soon became enchanted by the hypnotic (and wholly appropriate given the subject matter) language.
On a personal level, this novel caused me to examine my own thoughts about Sylvia Plath, which changed far more than I'd realized since first reading The Bell Jar twenty years ago.
As an aside, if you have the tendency (as I do) to read several books at once, I recommend suspending the practice during this novel. This world is best enjoyed on its own terms.
On a personal level, this novel caused me to examine my own thoughts about Sylvia Plath, which changed far more than I'd realized since first reading The Bell Jar twenty years ago.
As an aside, if you have the tendency (as I do) to read several books at once, I recommend suspending the practice during this novel. This world is best enjoyed on its own terms.
March 27, 2011
A novel about Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes - was really looking forward to reading but think I missed the plot a bit - found it a bit too 'deep and meaningful'. Is the author the Robert of the novel? Who knows.
Did have me heading back to google to check up on a few details of their shared life, which helped fill in a few of the gaps ....
Did have me heading back to google to check up on a few details of their shared life, which helped fill in a few of the gaps ....
February 5, 2009
Possibly the worst entry in the quasi-biographical-novel-about-Sylvia-Plath category, which includes 'The Ballad of Sylvia and Ted' and 'Wintering,' and which is therefore saying an awful lot. Deplorable.
December 30, 2009
I was super excited when I heard about this book, since I'm a Sylvia plath junkie/hoarder of Plath-and-Hughes-related books. But this novel was so overwritten that it bordered on being unreadable. I read the first half and then skimmed the rest.
January 24, 2008
another novel of slyvia plath?
but apparently we needed this one.
beautiful prose; heartbreaking.
but apparently we needed this one.
beautiful prose; heartbreaking.
September 21, 2012
Intersting premise. A bit wordy though.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews