better late than never: the follow-up
Lionel Shriver won the Orange Prize yesterday for her novel We Need to Talk About Kevin, discussed earlier here and here. Buy.this.book. From an interview with the author:
Q: What sparked 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'?
A: An intersection of the public and the private. I was in my early forties, and contending with the fact that my tentative decision to forgo children was soon to be writ in stone. What was I so afraid of? Meanwhile, stories kept pouring in from the U.S. about kids shooting up their high schools. I thought: that (among a host of other things) is what I’m afraid of.
1 comment:
Ms. Plisken:
Of interest to me is that the Economist, which doesn't review books by staff, did carry this story, as Ms. Shriver is The Economist's chief fiction reviewer. According to The Economist, "Ms. Shriver's existing agent, and nearly a dozen others, turned down We Need to Talk About Kevin before Kim Witherspoon in New York took it on and it was published in April 2003."
The Economist's policy of having no bylines or staff credits is an intriguing one. As they state: "Editorial independence is at the heart of The Economist. The constitution of the company does not permit any organisation or individual to gain a majority share-holding. The editor is appointed by trustees who are independent of commercial, political and proprietorial influences. The principle of anonymity is also central to the paper's philosophy. The Economist has no bylines, because it believes that what is written is more important than who writes it." How touchingly Modernist.
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