Search results for ""Author John O'Brien""

Editor's note/An interview with Gerald Murnane by Antoni Jach/Looking for Writers Beyond Their Work by John Griswold/Five Silhouettes by Luis Chitarroni (translated by Sarah Denaci)/Seven and a Half Studies by S.D. Chrostowska/Nine Suppositions Concerning "Bouvard and Pecuchet" by Jacques Jouet (translated by E.C. Gogolak)/Irrationality, Situations, and Novels of Inquiry by Thalia Field/Margins and Mirrors by Warren Motte/The Colon by Lily Hoang and Bhanu Kapil/The Fragile Shelter of the Declarative: On Edouard Leve by Adrian West/Transgressive Autofictions by Jacques Houis/Contributors/Translators/Acknowledgments/Book Reviews/Books Received/Annual Index

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Curtis White and Milorad Pavic Number

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A literary magazine devoted to discussions of contemporary fiction and authors, including selections from works-in-progress and interviews, as well as a lengthy book-review section.

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A re-issue of John O'Brien's debut novel, a masterpiece of modern realism about the perils of addiction and love in a city of loneliness.Leaving Las Vegas, the first novel by John O'Brien, is the disturbing and emotionally wrenching story of a woman who embraces life and a man who rejects it. Sera is a prostitute, content with the independence and routine she has carved out for herself in a city defined by recklessness. But she is haunted by a spectre in a yellow Mercedes, a man from her past who is committed to taking control of her life again. Ben is an alcoholic intent on drinking his way towards an early death. Newly arrived from Los Angeles, he survived the four-hour intoxicated drive across the desert with his entire savings in his wallet and nothing else left to lose. Looking to satisfy hungers both material and existential, Ben and Sera stumble together on the strip and discover in each other a respite from their unforgiving lives. A testimony to the raw talent of its young author, Leaving Las Vegas is a compelling story of unconditional love between two disenfranchised and lost souls - an overlooked American classic.

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Joseph Dewey, "Rick Moody" Brian Evenson & Joanna Howard, "Ann Quin" Zachary Hammerman, Ed., "Casebook Study of Silas Flannery"

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For nearly 20 years, the Review of Contemporary Fiction has celebrated and promoted the study of innovative fiction by featuring some of the most influential authors of the twentieth century.Recently the Review changed its format, and instead of several essays on the work of one or two authors the Review now features three or four authors with one long essay apiece devoted to the discussion of their writing careers.Still providing both an introduction to experimental fiction writers and interpretive strategies for reading their work, this new format allows for the inclusion of younger writers and those whose work has not been widely studied.Occasionally, the Review will feature special issues devoted to new fiction from around the world or to essays and fiction by important novelists and critics.

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In the fall of 1723, two London theaters staged, almost simultaneously, pantomime performances of the Faust story. Unlike traditional five-act plays, pantomime - a bawdy hybrid of dance, music, spectacle, and commedia dell'arte featuring the familiar figure of the harlequin at its center-was a theatrical experience of unprecedented accessibility. The immediate popularity of this new genre drew theater apprentices to the cities to learn the new style, and pantomime became the subject of lively debate within British society. Alexander Pope and Henry Fielding bitterly opposed the intrusion into legitimate literary culture of what they regarded as fairground amusements that appealed to sensation and passion over reason and judgment. In Harlequin Britain, literary scholar John O'Brien examines this new form of entertainment and the effect it had on British culture. Why did pantomime become so popular so quickly? Why was it perceived as culturally threatening and socially destabilizing? O'Brien finds that pantomime's socially subversive commentary cut through the dampened spirit of debate created by Robert Walpole's one-party rule. At the same time, pantomime appealed to the abstracted taste of the mass audience. Its extraordinary popularity underscores the continuing centrality of live performance in a culture that is most typically seen as having shifted its attention to the written text-in particular, to the novel. Written in a lively style rich with anecdotes, Harlequin Britain establishes the emergence of eighteenth-century English pantomime, with its promiscuous blending of genres and subjects, as a key moment in the development of modern entertainment culture.

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The Review of Contemporary Fiction is a tri-quarterly journal that features critical essays on fiction writers whose work resists convention and easy categorization.

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A compelling portrait of a group of boys as they navigate the complexities of being both American teenagers and good Muslims This book provides a uniquely personal look at the social worlds of a group of young male friends as they navigate the complexities of growing up Muslim in America. Drawing on three and a half years of intensive fieldwork in and around a large urban mosque, John O'Brien offers a compelling portrait of typical Muslim American teenage boys concerned with typical teenage issues--girlfriends, school, parents, being cool--yet who are also expected to be good, practicing Muslims who don't date before marriage, who avoid vulgar popular culture, and who never miss their prayers. Many Americans unfamiliar with Islam or Muslims see young men like these as potential ISIS recruits. But neither militant Islamism nor Islamophobia is the main concern of these boys, who are focused instead on juggling the competing cultural demands that frame their everyday lives. O'Brien illuminates how they work together to manage their "culturally contested lives" through subtle and innovative strategies--such as listening to profane hip-hop music in acceptably "Islamic" ways, professing individualism to cast their participation in communal religious obligations as more acceptably American, dating young Muslim women in ambiguous ways that intentionally complicate adjudications of Islamic permissibility, and presenting a "low-key Islam" in public in order to project a Muslim identity without drawing unwanted attention. Closely following these boys as they move through their teen years together, Keeping It Halal sheds light on their strategic efforts to manage their day-to-day cultural dilemmas as they devise novel and dynamic modes of Muslim American identity in a new and changing America.

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'The Review of Contemporary Fiction' was founded in 1981 to promote a vision of literary culture that is not limited to the immediately popular, and to ensure that important world writers outside popular attention continue to be written about and discussed.

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"The Review of Contemporary Fiction" was founded in 1981 to promote a vision of literary culture that is not limited to the immediately popular, and to ensure that important world writers out- side the popular attention continue to be written about and discussed.

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Long before Citizens United and modern debates over corporations as people, such organizations already stood between the public and private as both vehicles for commerce and imaginative constructs based on groups of individuals. In this book, John O'Brien explores how this relationship played out in economics and literature, two fields that gained prominence in the same era. Examining British and American essays, poems, novels, and stories from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, O'Brien pursues the idea of incorporation as a trope discernible in a wide range of texts. Key authors include John Locke, Eliza Haywood, Harriet Martineau, and Edgar Allan Poe, and each chapter is oriented around a type of corporation reflected in their works, such as insurance companies or banks. In exploring issues such as whether sentimental interest is the same as economic interest, these works bear witness to capitalism's effect on history and human labor, desire, and memory. This period's imaginative writing, O'Brien argues, is where the unconscious of that process left its mark. By revealing the intricate ties between literary models and economic concepts, Literature Incorporated shows us how the business corporation has shaped our understanding of our social world and ourselves.

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Susanna Centlivre’s play The Wonder (1714) was one of the most popular works on the eighteenth-century English stage. Set in Lisbon, the plot interweaves two romantic intrigues around one “secret”: the heroine Violante is hiding her best friend, Isabella (who is the sister of her own lover, Don Felix) from Isabella’s father who wishes to marry her off to a rich but decrepit old merchant. Because she is sworn to secrecy, Violante cannot reveal Isabella’s whereabouts, nor can she explain to Felix why Isabella’s new lover, a dashing British soldier, happens to be about the house, prompting Felix’s intense jealousy. Centlivre’s critique on the tyrannical patriarchs in the world of the play is at the same time a veiled critique of similar conditions in Augustan-era Britain.This Broadview edition includes contemporary responses (by Richard Steele and Arthur Bedford), biographical accounts, selections of Centlivre’s poetry, and early nineteenth-century criticism (by Elizabeth Inchbald and William Hazlitt).

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Dane Johnson, Introduction: Chased by Life, Politics, Demons: Flying to Fiction/Luis Rebaza-Soraluz, Demons and Lies: Motivation and Form in Mario Vargas Llosa/Mario Vargas Llosa, The Trumpet of Deya/Mario Vargas Llosa, A Bullfight in the Andes/Efrain Kristal, Captain Pantoja and the Special Service: A Transitional Novel/Elizabeth Dipple, Outside Looking In: Aunt Julia and Vargas Llosa/Alex Zisman, Out of Failure Comes Success: Autobiography and Testimony in A Fish in the Water/Alex Zisman, A Mario Vargas Llosa Checklist/Steve Horowitz, Introduction: The Bittersweet Vision of Josef Skvorecky and a Selected Bibliography of Works by and about Him/Sam Solecki, The Last Decade: An Interview with Josef Skvorecky/Josef Skvorecky, Three Bachelors in a Fiery Furnace, a short story/Josef Skvorecky, Authors, Critics, Reviewers, a lecture/Josef Skvorecky, Keynote Address on Eastern European Literature in Transition/Lubomir Doruzka, A Genial Gossipmonger/Mila Sakova-Pierce, The Cowards: Josef Skvorecky and His Contributions to Czech Humorist Literature/Josef Jarab, This Thing, The Bass Saxophone, Is Anything But Ordinary/Edward Galligan, The Engineer of Human Souls: Skvorecky's Comic Vision/James Grove, Place and Placelessness in Josef Skvorecky's Dvorak in Love/Helena Kosek, American Themes in Skvorecky's Work: The Bride from Texas/Maria Nemcova Banerjee, Josef Skvorecky's Variation on American Themes: The Bride from Texas/Robert L.McLaughlin, A Josef Skvorecky Checklist/Margaret Wehr, The Culture of Everyday Venality: Or a Life in the Book Industry

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George Garrett, "'Once More unto the Breach, Dear Friends, Once More': The Publishing Scene and American Literary Art"/John Barth, "Postmodernism Revisited"/Gilbert Sorrentino, "Writing and Writers: Disjecta Membra"/David Foster Wallace, "Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young"/Claude Ollier, "Conflictual Inscriptions"/Christine Brooke-Rose, "Ill Locutions"/Robert Creeley, "Thinking of You"/Harry Mathews, "Notes on the Threshold of a Book"/Harry Mathews, "Les Marveilleux Nuages"/Robert Kelly, "Poundian Romance: Investigating Thomas McEvilley's Novel, North of Yesterday"/Keith Abbott, "Shadows and Marble: Richard Brautigan"/Paul West, "Inspector Javert's Moment of Pure Aeschylus"/James McCourt, "Strange Attractions: Exaltation and Calculation in the Poetry of James Schuyler"/Thomas McGonigle, "Reactionary"/Mary McCarthy, "Felipe Alfau's Locos"

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A compelling portrait of a group of boys as they navigate the complexities of being both American teenagers and good MuslimsThis book provides a uniquely personal look at the social worlds of a group of young male friends as they navigate the complexities of growing up Muslim in America. Drawing on three and a half years of intensive fieldwork in and around a large urban mosque, John O’Brien offers a compelling portrait of typical Muslim American teenage boys concerned with typical teenage issues—girlfriends, school, parents, being cool—yet who are also expected to be good, practicing Muslims who don’t date before marriage, who avoid vulgar popular culture, and who never miss their prayers.Many Americans unfamiliar with Islam or Muslims see young men like these as potential ISIS recruits. But neither militant Islamism nor Islamophobia is the main concern of these boys, who are focused instead on juggling the competing cultural demands that frame their everyday lives. O’Brien illuminates how they work together to manage their “culturally contested lives” through subtle and innovative strategies—such as listening to profane hip-hop music in acceptably “Islamic” ways, professing individualism to cast their participation in communal religious obligations as more acceptably American, dating young Muslim women in ambiguous ways that intentionally complicate adjudications of Islamic permissibility, and presenting a “low-key Islam” in public in order to project a Muslim identity without drawing unwanted attention.Closely following these boys as they move through their teen years together, Keeping It Halal sheds light on their strategic efforts to manage their day-to-day cultural dilemmas as they devise novel and dynamic modes of Muslim American identity in a new and changing America.

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NCSS/CBC Notable Trade Social Studies BookKansas Reading Circle ChoiceBank Street College Best BookTappantown Historical Society’s Achievement Award Young fans of the Broadway smash "Hamilton" will enjoy this riveting nonfiction picture book that unfolds like a play, telling a story from American history. Gravely injured and with little chance for more military honors, Major General Benedict Arnold seeks reward and recognition another way. He contacts Major John André, the new head of British intelligence and another man determined to prove himself. Arnold and André strike a deal and use Arnold’s intelligence to take over West Point, the strategic American fort. The plan ultimately fails, leading to André’s capture and death and Arnold’s loss of reward and glory. Author Selene Castrovilla and illustrator John O’Brien brilliantly capture the tensions and high drama of these two revolutionary rogues by highlighting their similarities and differences and demonstrating how they brought about their own tragic ends. This title also includes an afterword, timelines of the lives of both men, an extensive bibliography, and a list of key places to visit.

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Functional dairy products have been the focus of intense research and product development over the last two decades. At last, this valuable information has been compiled into one resource that reveals key advances in functional dairy ingredients and products and identifies directions for marketing and product development. Handbook of Functional Dairy Products explores the product development process and the market dynamics driving product innovation. Chapters examine specific ingredients and products, safety and technology issues, the impact of biotechnology, the regulatory environment, and the communication of health benefits. Emphasis is placed on the potential contribution of functional dairy products in the maintenance of health and prevention of disease, and includes in-depth discussions of the selection, production, and benefits of probiotics, dairy-derived carbohydrates and prebiotics, bioactive peptides, the immune modulating effects of dairy ingredients, the health effects of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and calcium and iron fortification. With a wealth of new research findings and insightful guidance for food product developers, this comprehensive reference is a must for everyone involved in the science, development, and marketing of functional dairy products.

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Built in the fifteenth century and tucked away in the mountains of Peru, Machu Picchu was abandoned after the Spaniards conquered the Incan empire in the sixteenth century. It remained hidden until 1911 when Hiram Bingham uncovered the marvelous complex and shared his discovery with the world. Today, hundreds of thousands of people visit the site to climb the 3,000 stone steps, explore the towering monuments, and seethe numerous species that call these famous ruins home.

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This issue of The Review of Contemporary Fiction presents new Slovak fiction in translation, congregating such significant writers as Dusan Dusek, Brano Hochel, Michal Hvorecky, Jan Johanides, Daniela Kapitanova, Monika Kompanikova, and Dusan Simko, among others most of whom have never before been translated into English to form a literary portrait of contemporary Slovak identity, framed by traditionalism and yet striving to engage the modern world with a voice all its own.

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A Nobel Prize-winning singer-songwriter, musician, and artist, Bob Dylan is an American icon. In the past five decades, Dylan's work has influenced everyone from John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and David Bowie to rapper Eminem. Young music lovers will be fascinated by this great artist's life!

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Marco Polo was seventeen when he set out for China ...and forty-one when he came back! More than seven hundred years ago, Marco Polo travelled from the medieval city of Venice to the fabled kingdom of the great Kublai Khan, seeing new sights and riches that no Westerner had ever before witnessed. But did Marco Polo experience the things he wrote about ...or was it all made-up? Young readers are presented with the facts in this entertaining, highly readable Who Was ...? Biography with black and white artwork by John O'Brien.

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The Emperor Titus opened the enormous Colosseum in AD 80 to host 100 days of games and it will astound readers to learn what the ancient Romans found entertaining. Over 50,000 screaming fans watched gladiators battling each other to the death, men fighting exotic wild beasts, and even mock sea battles with warships floating on an arena floor flooded with water. By AD 476 the Roman Empire had fallen, and yet the ruins of the Colosseum remain a world-famous landmark of an unforgettable time.

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From the palaces of Austria to the mirrored halls of Versailles, Marie Antoinette led a charmed life. She was born into royalty in 1755 and married the future king of France at age 15. By 21 she ascended to the throne and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle of masquerade balls, sky-high wigs, and extravagant food. But her taste for excess ruffled many feathers. The poor people of France blamed Marie Antoinette for their poverty. Her spending helped incite the French Revolution. And after much public outcry, in 1793 she quite literally lost her head because of it. Whether she was blameless or guilty is debatable, but Marie Antoinette remains woven into the fabric of history and popular culture. Series Overview: A series of illustrated biographies for young readers featuring significant historical figures, including artists, scientists, and world leaders.

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Like Michelangelo, Galileo is another Renaissance great known just by his first name. A name that is synonymous with scientific achievement. Born in Pisa, Italy, in the sixteenth century, Galileo contributed to the era's great rebirth of knowledge. He invented a telescope with which he was able to observe the heavens. From there, not even the sky was the limit! He turned long held notions about the universe topsy turvy with his support of a sun-centric solar system. Patricia Brennan Demuth offers a sympathetic portrait of a brilliant man who lived in a time when speaking scientific truth to those in power was still a dangerous preposition.

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How did Ben Franklin become an outspoken leader of the American Revolution? Learn all about it in seven (not-so-easy) steps in this humorous, accessible middle-grade chapter book that focuses on Ben’s political awakening.Famous founding father Benjamin Franklin was a proud subject of the British Empire—until he wasn’t. It took nearly seventy years and seven not-so-easy steps to turn Benjamin Franklin from a loyal British subject to a British traitor—and a fired-up American revolutionary. In this light, whimsical narrative, young readers learn how Franklin came to be a rebel, beginning with his childhood lesson in street smarts when he buys a whistle at an inflated price. Franklin is a defiant boy who runs away from his apprenticeship, and while he becomes a deep thinker, a brilliant scientist, and a persuasive writer when he grows up, he never loses that spark. As a community leader who tries his best to promote peace and unity both between the colonies and with Great Britain, he becomes more and more convinced that independence for the American colonies is the way forward.Illustrated throughout with art by noted New Yorker cartoonist and illustrator John O’Brien and sprinkled with quotations from Franklin, this unfamiliar story of a familiar figure in American history will surprise and delight young readers.

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Earth Materials Earth materials encompass the minerals, rocks, soil and water that constitute our planet and the physical, chemical and biological processes that produce them. Since the expansion of computer technology in the last two decades of the twentieth century, many universities have compressed or eliminated individual course offerings such as mineralogy, optical mineralogy, igneous petrology, sedimentology and metamorphic petrology and replaced them with Earth materials courses. Earth materials courses have become an essential curricular component in the fields of geology, geoscience, Earth science, and many related areas of study. This textbook is designed to address the needs of a one- or two-semester Earth materials course, as well as individuals who want or need an expanded background in minerals, rocks, soils and water resources. Earth Materials, Second Edition, provides: Comprehensive descriptive analysis of Earth materials Color graphics and insightful text in a logical integrated format Field examples and regional relationships with graphics that illustrate concepts discussed Examples of how concepts discussed can be used to address real world issues Contemporary references from current scientific journals related to developments in Earth materials research Summative discussions of how Earth materials are interrelated with other science and non-science fields of study Additional resources, including detailed descriptions of major rock-forming minerals and keys for identifying minerals using macroscopic and/or optical methods, are available online at www.wiley.com/go/hefferan/earthmaterials Earth Materials, Second Edition, is an innovative, visually appealing, informative and readable textbook that addresses the full spectrum of Earth materials.

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