Description
Book SynopsisArranged in three parts, Kant''s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write opens with Claire''s most personal essays - reflections on a childhood divided between cultures, and between dueling models of womanhood. It is here, in these early years, that we see the seeds of Messud''s inquiry into the precarious nature of girlhood, the role narrative plays in giving shape to a life and the power of language. As the book progresses, we then see how these questions translate into Messud''s rich body of criticism. In sections on literature and visual arts, Claire opens up the ''radical strangeness'' of childhood in Kazuo Ishiguro''s NEVER LET ME GO; the search for the self in Saul Friedlander; the fragility and danger of girlhood captured by Sally Mann; and the search for justice in Valeria Luiselli''s THE LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE.
But it is the idea of the relationship between form and meaning to which this collection returns again and again. It is ''the tension b
Trade Review
In this moving and evocative essay collection, novelist Messud reflects on family, art, and why she writes . . . These intimate, contemplative and probing essays reveal Messud's rich inner life and generosity of spirit * Publishers Weekly (Starred review) *
Powerful and inspirational: Messud is as fine a critic as she is a novelist * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
All writing is autobiographical, but almost never in the ways we presume. This is a profound book about the intrication of literature and life, about the modest, miraculous ways art helps us to live. Claire Messud, with her lapidary intelligence and dizzying sense of history, is among the most luminous writers at work today -- Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness and What Belongs to You
Claire Messud's essays are generous visions of the world, informed by her razor-sharp intellect and uncompromising honesty -- Maaza Mengiste * Observer (Best books of 2020) *
Claire Messud's collection of essays and reviews from the past 20 years - titled Kant's Little Prussian Head & Other Reasons Why I Write - is an uplifting work: complex, precise and bracing . . . The family section is rendered vividly, in sentences beautifully formed and built to last. Some of the scenes Messud conjures feel unforgettable . . . The strength and delicacy of these chapters leave you trusting Messud's taste and judgment before you sample her criticism, which doesn't disappoint -- Susie Boyt * Financial Times *
