Bookends : collected intros and outros

Title:

Author:

Chabon, Michael, editor of compilation.

Personal Author:

Chabon, Michael, editor of compilation.

ISBN:

9780062851291

Edition:

First Harper Perennial paperback edition.

Physical Description:

xii, 175 pages ; 21 cm

Contents:

The Wes Anderson collection, Matt Zoller Seitz ; Trickster makes this world, Lewis Hyde ; The long ships, Frans G. Bengtsson ; Superheroes : fashion and fantasy, Andrew Bolton ; Julius Knipl, real estate photographer, Ben Katchor ; Herma, MacDonald Harris ; Casting the runes and other ghost stories, M.R. James ; Brown sugar kitchen, Tanya Holland ; Monster man, Gary Gianni ; The sailor on the seas of fate, Michael Moorcock ; American Flagg!, Howard Chaykin ; D'Aulaires' Norse myths, Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire ; "The rocket man," Ray Bradbury ; John Carter of Mars : warlord of Mars, Marv Wolfman, Gil Kane and others ; The escapists, Brian K. Vaughan ; Summerland ; Fountain city, excerpt -- Fountain city, excerpt ; The mysteries of Pittsburgh ; Gentlemen of the road ; The phantom toolbooth, Norton Juster ; Wonder when you'll miss me, Amanda Davis -- 1980-1996, Carsickness ; Uptown special vinyl edition, Mark Ronson.

Abstract:

"In Bookends, Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon offers a compilation of pieces about literature--age-old classics as well as his own--that presents a unique look into his literary origins and influences, the books that shaped his taste and formed his ideas about writing and reading. Chabon asks why anyone would write an introduction, or for that matter, read one. His own daughter Rose prefers to skip them. Chabon's answer is simple and simultaneously profound: "a hope of bringing pleasure for the reader." Likewise, afterwords--they are all about shared pleasure, about the "pure love" of a work of art that has inspired, awakened, transformed the reader. Ultimately, this thought-provoking compendium is a series of love letters and thank-you notes, unified by the simple theme of the shared pleasure of discovery, whether it's the boyhood revelation of the most important story in Chabon's life (Ray Bradbury's "The Rocket Man"); a celebration of "the greatest literary cartographer of the planet Mars" (Edgar Rice Burroughs, with his character John Carter); a reintroduction to a forgotten master of ghost stories (M. R. James, ironically "the happiest of men"); the recognition that the worlds of Wes Anderson's films are reassembled scale models of our own broken reality (as is all art); Chabon's own rude awakening from the muse as he writes his debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; or a playful parody of lyrical interpretation in the liner notes for Mark Ronson's Uptown Special, the true purpose of which, Chabon insists, is to "spread the gospel of sensible automotive safety and maintenance practices." Galaxies away from academic or didactic, Bookends celebrates wonder--and like the copy of The Phantom Tollbooth handed to young Michael by a friend of his father he never saw again--it is a treasured gift."-- Publisher's description.

Personal Subject:

Chabon, Michael-Books and reading.

Chabon, Michael-Sources.

Subject Term:

Literature -- History and criticism.

Genre:

Essays.

Literary criticism.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Belmont	Book	818.54 C428	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	818.54 C428	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A brilliant, idiosyncratic collection of introductions and afterwords (plus some liner notes) by New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon--"one of contemporary literature's most gifted prose stylists" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times).

In Bookends, Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon offers a compilation of pieces about literature--age-old classics as well as his own--that presents a unique look into his literary origins and influences, the books that shaped his taste and formed his ideas about writing and reading.

Chabon asks why anyone would write an introduction, or for that matter, read one. His own daughter Rose prefers to skip them. Chabon's answer is simple and simultaneously profound: "a hope of bringing pleasure for the reader." Likewise, afterwords--they are all about shared pleasure, about the "pure love" of a work of art that has inspired, awakened, transformed the reader. Ultimately, this thought-provoking compendium is a series of love letters and thank-you notes, unified by the simple theme of the shared pleasure of discovery, whether it's the boyhood revelation of the most important story in Chabon's life (Ray Bradbury's "The Rocket Man"); a celebration of "the greatest literary cartographer of the planet Mars" (Edgar Rice Burroughs, with his character John Carter); a reintroduction to a forgotten master of ghost stories (M. R. James, ironically "the happiest of men"); the recognition that the worlds of Wes Anderson's films are reassembled scale models of our own broken reality (as is all art); Chabon's own rude awakening from the muse as he writes his debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; or a playful parody of lyrical interpretation in the liner notes for Mark Ronson's Uptown Special, the true purpose of which, Chabon insists, is to "spread the gospel of sensible automotive safety and maintenance practices."

Galaxies away from academic or didactic, Bookends celebrates wonder--and like the copy of The Phantom Tollbooth handed to young Michael by a friend of his father he never saw again--it is a treasured gift.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author goes his own way writing about some of his favorite books and comics.Chabon (Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces, 2018, etc.) eagerly returns to the beloved genres of his youth in this joyous collection covering nearly 20 years of introductions, prefaces, forewords, and afterwords to adventure tales, sci-fi, ghost stories, comic books, and his own books, all written in the "hope of bringing pleasure to the readerto some reader, somewhere." He confesses he read Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth at least five or six times. Though it didn't make him want to be a writerthat came later with Arthur Conan DoyleJuster's "world of wonders" still gives him a "tiny thrill of nostalgia and affection for the wonderful book." Stop "reading this nonsense," he chides, and go read the book. That advice reflects a common theme in this collection: Chabon, the fan, urging readers to read these stories. He firmly believes M.R. James' ghost story, "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad," is one of the "finest short stories ever written." He confesses that the "splendor and fragility" of Ray Bradbury's story "The Rocket Man," which Chabon first read when he was 10, was the "most important short story in my life as a writer." Bradbury "gave me my first everlasting lessons in literary style." Chabon waxes euphoric about the "remarkable artistic achievement" of Michael Moorcock's heroic fantasy, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, as he does about Howard Chaykin, the "craftsman, an artisan of pop," and his experiments in comic book art. There are two pieces about Chabon's abandoned, early "disaster," Fountain City, one on Summerland, and one on The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and discovering his need to write in "traditional, bourgeois narrative form." The author closes with a couple liner notes about Mark Ronson and the Pittsburgh "post-punk" band Carsickness.Eclectic, exuberant fandom from Chabon. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.