Janet Fitch
Hi Cara! I just saw this... sorry it's taken. me so long. My fondness for various books changes over time and mood... Developmentally, I started with Poe and the sad horse stories of Marguerite Henry, classics like Sword in the Stone... then found Doestoyevsky, crime and Punishment. My favorite for many years, later supplanted by The Brothers Karamazov. Anais Nin's diaries affected me deeply as a young person--a woman speaking honestly, and poetically, about her own life. Faulkner--The Sound and the Fury. Joyce Carol Oates' short stories. Joan Didion's Play it As it Lays. Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. Marguerite Duras' The Lover. Graham Greene--the Quiet American, the Power and the Glory, The Comedians. John Le Carre, The Perfect Spy. I think if there was any work that I wish I'd written it would be the Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell--if I have to limit it to the book, I'd say the first one of the Quartet, Justine. It's moving, lyrical, intense, and creates an unforgettable world.
More Answered Questions
Angela Paolantonio
asked
Janet Fitch:
White Oleander was a very intense read for me at the time. I had no idea then I would someday write and then complete what was a very cathartic process for me. Your advise 'read hard books, you don't get better playing tennis with someone your own level', applies to writing hard books! Do you agree? (Had to have the Q in there...) Thanks for friending!
Michele Rios Petrelli
asked
Janet Fitch:
Hey Janet, I wanted to get your thoughts on writing groups. Do you feel these hinder or help a writer with their novel? I'm in a writing group now and though I think most of the writers are offering valid feedback sometimes I feel there are a couple not being genuinely sincere with their input. I just wanted to see if this is something I should keep investing my time in while working on my novel. Tks Shelly :)
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