Favorite Author Meme

Heather at Errant Dreams came up with a wonderful meme–enjoy & consider yourself tagged!

* Answer the questions as you see fit. Although they’re all phrased to ask about a singular author, feel free to respond with multiples, or even a list.
* Where possible & convenient (you don’t have to go as crazy as I did!), include a link here or there to an author’s website, your review of one of their books, or a review that inspired you to try the author(s), so your readers can get more information on anyone that sounds interesting.
* Tag five people and drop by their blogs to let them know you tagged them, or open-tag your readers.
* It would be nice if you included a link back to your tagger.

1. Who’s your all-time favorite author, and why?

I think I would have to say CS Lewis. I’ve read all of his books, many of them several times. I’ve read the Narnia Chronicles at least a dozen times, and books like The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters have meant a lot to me at certain times in my life.

2. Who was your first favorite author, and why? Do you still consider him or her among your favorites?

The first author I remember being obsessed with–as in, I’ve got to read everything by this person–was John Bellairs. He wrote gothic stories for kids illustrated by Edward Gorey that were imaginative and just scary enough, and the first one I read was The House with a Clock in its Walls. I’m saving a few for Superfast Baby when she’s old enough. I had read multiple books by other authors, but I was more into the series, than the author, as with the All of a Kind Family books.

3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why?

Robin Hobb, without question. She’s a superlative storyteller and I just lost myself in love starting with Assassin’s Apprentice. I’d also add Leo Tolstoy and Jhumpa Lahiri to the list, having read both of them for the first time in 2007.

4. If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?

Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Stephen King, Madeleine L’Engle, CS Lewis, Robin Hobb, George RR Martin, Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, Charles Dickens, Kathleen Norris, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, Dan Allender, Edith Wharton, Jhumpa Lahiri.

Nothing really to add on further reflection. I spend a lot of time thinking about my favorite authors!

The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith

Synopsis:
While working on a novel in Tunisia, a writer encounters his own heart of darkness.

Review:
I had written a truly brilliant review of Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery, but it got eaten. Fie! The salient points were:

  1. Patricia Highsmith plays cat and mouse with the reader just like her most famous creation Tom Ripley played cat and mouse with anyone he encountered
  2. She is a master of nuance characterization
  3. The final third of the novel is a tour-de-force of subtle character dynamics
  4. This is one of my favorites of hers

I should also add that at times, Highsmith is scathingly funny, though this will come as no surprise to those of you who are familiar with her work. My absolute favorite remains Edith’s Diary, but I’ll be recommending The Tremor of Forgery a lot.

Writing Challenge (Booking Through Thursday)

btt button

  • Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.)
  • Turn to page 123.
  • What is the first sentence on the page?
  • The last sentence on the page?
  • connect them together.(And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that&’s cheating!)

From The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith:

“That is, if there’s some reason to hide it and there usually is if a man’s been murdered.”

“Murdered? Who said anything about that?” Carole paced up and down the length of the small apartment hallway. She could no more tell Jensen the truth than she could gouge out her own eyes. Then again, King Lear had always been her favorite Shakespeare play. “Ah, to play Cordelia again!”

“You never were very good, you know.” Jensen snapped his book shut. “And I’m sick to God of hearing about your thespian aspirations. You and I were never meant for anything other than the ordinary.”

A rage filled Carole, startling her with its ferocity. Jensen never took her seriously, not in ten years of marriage, five of which she spent in audition after audition, only ever “good enough,” never hired, never relieved from the pressure of the dream she’d carried since she was a little girl. And then, the babies started coming, and who cared about Carole’s dreams anymore? Not Jensen, the man whose face she used to see before her eyes when she closed them at night. Her mouth tasted of metal as she allowed herself to feel the full measure of her fury towards the sloppy, careless life he’d given to her. She would tell him the truth, and demand the respect that should have been hers from the moment he first said, “I love you.”

“I’m not joking. She said she came by to play with the babies, but you know her idea of playing is to light up a cigarette and turn on Dr. Phil. She started in on the house. Dirty baseboards. Cereal bowls still in the sink at ten in the morning. And all the while I started to see something I’d never seen before. And that’s how much she looks like you. So I put drain cleaner in her coffee. She keeled over right in front of me and her body is in the trunk of my car. I killed your mother and I’m not sorry. I’d kill you, too, if we didn’t need your paycheck.” Carole waited, breathless, even gleeful. “Do you believe me, darling?”

“Yes, sure,” Jensen said attentively, as if waiting for the rest.

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The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Synopsis:
Aimless Tom Ripley has been dispatched to Italy to bring feckless playboy Dickie Greenleaf home, but when Dickie rejects Tom’s friendship, Tom chooses a darker course.

Review:
I have read and enjoyed several books by Highsmith, but stayed away from the Ripley books because in the crime and mystery genres, I tend not to like the recurring character, like Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford, to give another example from an author I admire, and when I heard about Ripley, I assumed the same. I learned I was wrong by seeing Anthony Minghella’s excellent film version of The Talented Mr. Ripley, and then I worried that the book would surpass the movie or vice versa and I just didn’t want to have to put myself in the position of having to choose between them. Continue reading