American Audacity by William Giraldi
Over the last decade William Giraldi has established himself as a charismatic and uncompromising literary essayist. American Audacity gathers Giraldi's fierce and witty considerations of American writers and themes, including a never-before-published appreciation of James Baldwin and an introductory call to arms for twenty-first-century American literature. With deep seeing and enormous learning, Giraldi considers giants from the past (Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Harper Lee), some of our great living critics and novelists (Harold Bloom, Cynthia Ozick, Allan Gurganus, Elizabeth Spencer), and those cultural-literary themes that have concerned him as a novelist (bestselling books, the problem of Catholic fiction, and his viral essay on bibliophilia). Demanding that literature be urgent and audacious, this book is itself an act of intellectual and stylistic daring. At a time when literature is threatened by ceaseless electronic distraction, Giraldi reaffirms the pleasure and wisdom of literary values.
In a wide-ranging and provocative collection of essays.. novelist and memoirist Giraldi examines an array of American writers, praising those who successfully marry style and substance... [A] graceful case for the value of good writing. -- Publishers Weekly
[William] Giraldi is a literature-besotted Midas of prose: within its own purpose, every sentence gleams. And beyond this, whatever the shape of his subject, the soul of his subject is the strenuous daring of art. Nearly alone in his generation, he is willing to invoke Matthew Arnold, and on a single page can call forth Cesare Pavese, Conrad, Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor, Emily Dickinson! -- Cynthia Ozick
A gorgeous fury of language and sensibility, Giraldi's indispensable paean to American literature clears the head and stimulates the nerves. He reminds us that the written word, when deployed with genius, is always dangerous, and he does so in dynamic prose that sparks and swishes like a downed power line. -- Walter Kirn, author of Blood Will Out and Up in the Air
In one of the essays in his American Audacity, William Giraldi describes an eminent fellow critic as 'thrillingly authoritative, wholly convinced, giddy with aptitude.' I read this as an instance of inadvertent self-characterization. We have been waiting some time for an emboldened and emboldening critical voice and here it is. -- Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies and Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age
A rich mine of splendid essays.... Giraldi correctly sees himself as part of a tradition. In this way he resembles Harold Bloom, Edmund Wilson, and his beloved Lionel Trilling... Giraldi is at his best when examining intra-traditions of prose authors like the Catholic writers who emerged in the middle of the last century... [and] provides probably the best assessment ever written on [Denis] Johnson's precarious collection [Jesus' Son] and its magnetizing influence on younger writers. -- San Francisco Daily Journal
Giraldi's encounters with writers and critics are invariably vigorous, fresh, and enriched by a voice entirely his own, attuned to language and alive to the pulse of art. This is an exemplary gallery of critical portraits. -- Morris Dickstein, author of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression and Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties
[William] Giraldi is a literature-besotted Midas of prose: within its own purpose, every sentence gleams. And beyond this, whatever the shape of his subject, the soul of his subject is the strenuous daring of art. Nearly alone in his generation, he is willing to invoke Matthew Arnold, and on a single page can call forth Cesare Pavese, Conrad, Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor, Emily Dickinson! -- Cynthia Ozick
A gorgeous fury of language and sensibility, Giraldi's indispensable paean to American literature clears the head and stimulates the nerves. He reminds us that the written word, when deployed with genius, is always dangerous, and he does so in dynamic prose that sparks and swishes like a downed power line. -- Walter Kirn, author of Blood Will Out and Up in the Air
In one of the essays in his American Audacity, William Giraldi describes an eminent fellow critic as 'thrillingly authoritative, wholly convinced, giddy with aptitude.' I read this as an instance of inadvertent self-characterization. We have been waiting some time for an emboldened and emboldening critical voice and here it is. -- Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies and Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age
A rich mine of splendid essays.... Giraldi correctly sees himself as part of a tradition. In this way he resembles Harold Bloom, Edmund Wilson, and his beloved Lionel Trilling... Giraldi is at his best when examining intra-traditions of prose authors like the Catholic writers who emerged in the middle of the last century... [and] provides probably the best assessment ever written on [Denis] Johnson's precarious collection [Jesus' Son] and its magnetizing influence on younger writers. -- San Francisco Daily Journal
Giraldi's encounters with writers and critics are invariably vigorous, fresh, and enriched by a voice entirely his own, attuned to language and alive to the pulse of art. This is an exemplary gallery of critical portraits. -- Morris Dickstein, author of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression and Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties
William Giraldi is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Busy Monsters and Hold the Dark; the memoir The Hero’s Body; and a collection of criticism, American Audacity. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is master lecturer in the Writing Program at Boston University.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781631493904 |
| ISBN 10 | 1631493906 |
| Title | American Audacity |
| Author | William Giraldi |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 2018-08-21 |
| Number of pages | 336 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |