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V S Naipaul: Masque of Africa At its best, V S Naipaul’s Masque of Africa is marked by moments of startling clarity and insight — but the author’s view of his subject is that of an old man. New Statesman, September 6th 2010 The Humbling: Philip Roth Sex, death, loneliness, old age: yes, it's another Roth novel. But this time, is the great American author merely repeating himself? New Statesman, October 29th 2009 Touchstones: Mario Vargas Llosa Before our meeting, I had considered him to be something of a poseur and dilettante, a self-styled Great Man, in the classic Latin American model. New Statesman, April 16th 2007 Reporting: David Remnick David Remnick specialises in the long literary profile and, in his hands, it is a most capacious and flexible form - the ideal form, perhaps, for our age of globalised celebrity. New Statesman, September 18th 2006 Book reviews: Yasunari Kawabata Elegiac and exquisite, the fictions of Yasunari Kawabata were among the most memorable of the 20th century. Jason Cowley on a writer who knew the value of silence. New Statesman, August 21st 2006 Collected: Massive Attack Jason Cowley traces the career of the troubled, unique collective that changed the face of British dance music. New Statesman, March 27th 2006 Tropic Moon: Georges Simenon For writers of colonial fiction, Africa held a dark erotic attraction, even if the message underlying their work was that Europeans have no place there. New Statesman, January 30th 2006 The Possibility of an Island: Michel Houellebecq If interest in Houellebecq's life and work remains inexorable, this is because, in many ways, the life is inextricable from the work. New Statesman, November 7th 2005 The Plot Against America: Philip Roth In portraying individual lives tethered to the forces of history, Philip Roth's new novel revisits the themes of previous work. But it also reveals an unexpectedly benign and forgiving side, writes Jason Cowley. New Statesman, October 11th 2004 Brief Lives: WF Deedes I had once been scornful of Deedes, whom I imagined to be the personification of Conservative Man, but of late I had begun to read his journalism--columns, despatches from sub-Saharan Africa, countryside diaries--with intensifying respect and admiration. New Statesman, July 26th 2004 Hey Nostradamus!: Douglas Coupland Ideal for the MTV generation, Douglas Coupland's fiction is becoming increasingly dark. New Statesman, September 8th 2003 Lanzarote: Michel Houllebecq Michel Houellebecq's Lanzarote portrays the author's unheroic struggle against ennui. New Statesman, July 28th 2003 The Little Friend: Donna Tart After more than a decade of silence, Donna Tartt is back with a new novel that draws on her childhood in the American South. Jason Cowley on the secret of her success. New Statesman, October 28th 2002 Who's a Dandy?: George Walden Walden, in his desire for the curious story of the life and death of Beau Brummell to become more widely known, has gone ahead and translated Barbey himself. First, however, he offers his own thoughts on dandyism in an entertaining introductory essay. New Statesman, October 21st 2002 Retrospective: Gerhard Richter The critics are hailing Gerhard Richter as the saviour of painting in the age of conceptual populism. Jason Cowley finds out why. New Statesman, May 6th 2002 Mother Tongues: Helena Drysdale Modern travel writing is in crisis, too often no more than an indulgence of ego. But the books of Helena Drysdale have a rare difference. New Statesman, November 19th 2001 Vespertine: Bjork Jason Cowley on why Bjork's voice is like an icepick to the heart. New Statesman, September 17th 2001 On Histories and Stories: AS Byatt More and more novelists are appropriating real-life characters and the events of history for fictional ends. Why? Jason Cowley on the art of literary grave-robbing. New Statesman, December 4th 2000 Sex, Science and Self in Imperial Vienna: Otto Weininger A misogynist and anti-Semite, the philosopher Otto Weininger was obsessed by decay. Jason Cowley on the brief life and work of a disturbed icon of Vienna. New Statesman, August 21st 2000 Diary of a man in Despair: Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen never forgave himself for not murdering Hitler when he had the chance. Jason Cowley reads the fascinating war diaries of an aristocrat and pessimist. New Statesman, March 6th 2000 My German Question: Peter Gay Peter Gay, the distinguished American cultural historian, has long been haunted by thoughts of a shadow life. New Statesman, January 24th 2000 Hitler's Vienna: Brigitte Hamann The Vienna through which Hitler wandered in his youth was a melting pot of decadent turmoil, the capital of an empire in decline - a "research laboratory for world destruction". New Statesman, April 26th 1999 The Collected Works of Bruno Schulz: Jerzy Ficowski To read the fiction and correspondence of Bruno Schulz, knowing that he was murdered by the Nazis, is a bit like watching footage of passengers board a plane that later crashed: you long to warn him of the dangers ahead. New Statesman, February 12th 1999 |
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