Böcker av Michael Kalisch

The Midcentury Minor Novel brings to light a distinctive mode of the American novel emergent in the middle decades of the twentieth century. It explains how a group of neglected writers reimagined the novel as a minor form, defined by its constraints rather than its possibilities. Reflecting a broadly held view among critics that midcentury fiction was in crisis or decline, these 'minor writers' sought to make a virtue of what were taken to be the novel's bleak prospects, crafting fictions of modest proportions and seemingly attenuated ambition that reflexively explored their own aesthetic limitations. Ironically, the book argues, midcentury anxieties about the 'death of the novel' breathed new life into it. Blending literary criticism and intellectual history, the book offers close readings of five writers who shared this curious project for the novel, an account of which adds texture to our understanding of the aesthetic diversity of midcentury American literature.

Benjamin Markovits is a leading Anglo-American novelist with a varied and ambitious body of work, ranging from a trilogy of historical fictions on the life of Lord Byron (Imposture, 2007; A Quiet Adjustment, 2008; Childish Loves, 2011), to an award-winning portrayal of a gentrification project in Obama-era Detroit (You Don't Have to Live Like This, 2015), to intimate studies of contemporary family life (A Weekend in New York, 2018; Christmas in Austin, 2019). Prolific and unpredictable, Markovits is one of the most interesting realist writers working today. Featuring contributions from emerging and established scholars, this collection provides fresh perspectives on Markovits's place in the contemporary literary field, as well as offering a detailed survey of his work to date. The collection begins with Markovits's early 'campus novel', The Syme Papers (2004), before exploring his celebrated 'Byron Trilogy', and the 2005 story-cycle, Either Side of Winter. Contributors consider Markovits's best-known book, You Don't Have to Live Like This, which won the James Tait Memorial Prize, as well as his more recent fictions focusing on the trials and tribulations of the Essinger family. Taken together, this authoritative collection brings to light the many preoccupations of Markovits's singular oeuvre--from Byron to basketball, from race relations to real estate. It also includes a frank and wide-ranging interview with the author.The collection will be a first port of call for students and scholars in search of a comprehensive introduction to the work of one of our most exciting contemporary novelists.