U AND I by Nicholson Baker
When Nicholson Baker, one of the most linguistically talented writers in America, set out to write a book about John Updike, the result was no ordinary biography. Instead Baker's account of his relationship with his hero is a hilarious story of ambition, obsession, talent and neurosis, alternately self-deprecating and self-aggrandizing. More memoir than literary criticism, Baker is excruciatingly honest, and U & I reveals at least as much about Baker himself as it does about his idol. Written twenty years before Updike's death in 2009, U & I is a very smart and extremely funny exploration of the debts we owe our heroes.
Nicholson Baker is a canny modern writerHe is building a sharp and singular library of the interior life and U and I is a decisive and welcome addition -- Robert Winder * Independent *
An intense, touchy, rivalrous extended essay on his obsession with John Updike ... neither Updike nor anyone else could write a book quite like this * Observer *
A subtle, funny and, in its way, profoundly serious study of the means by which art and artists are made -- John Banville * Irish Times *
One of the most entertaining and penetrating studies of literary admiration since Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire * San Francisco Chronicle *
A meditation on how we remember, and how we celebrate, writers and writing. * Harper's *
Ridiculously talented * Craig Raine *
An offbeat homage and confession of authorial anxiety * Sunday Herald *
An intense, touchy, rivalrous extended essay on his obsession with John Updike ... neither Updike nor anyone else could write a book quite like this * Observer *
A subtle, funny and, in its way, profoundly serious study of the means by which art and artists are made -- John Banville * Irish Times *
One of the most entertaining and penetrating studies of literary admiration since Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire * San Francisco Chronicle *
A meditation on how we remember, and how we celebrate, writers and writing. * Harper's *
Ridiculously talented * Craig Raine *
An offbeat homage and confession of authorial anxiety * Sunday Herald *
NICHOLSON BAKER was born in New York in 1957. He is the author of eight novels, including The Mezzanine, Vox and Room Temperature (all Granta Books), and five non-fiction works, including U & I (also Granta) and Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, for which he won the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781847083517 |
| ISBN 10 | 184708351X |
| Title | U AND I |
| Author | Nicholson Baker |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Granta Books |
| Year published | 2011-07-07 |
| Number of pages | 192 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |