If certain books are to be termed 'immigrant fiction,' what do we call the rest? Native fiction? Puritan fiction? This distinction doesn't agree with me.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
I wish more Italian literature were translated and read in English. I've discovered so many extraordinary and diverse writers: Lalla Romano, Carlo Cassola. Beppe Fenoglio, Giorgio Manganelli, just to name a few.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of translating and reading Italian literature to appreciate its diverse voices.
Jhumpa Lahiri expresses her desire for greater accessibility to Italian literature in the English-speaking world. By mentioning extraordinary writers like Lalla Romano, Carlo Cassola, Beppe Fenoglio, and Giorgio Manganelli, she highlights the richness and diversity found in Italian literary works, suggesting that these voices should be celebrated and understood by a broader audience.
In practice
Using this quote during a book club discussion focused on international literature.
If certain books are to be termed 'immigrant fiction,' what do we call the rest? Native fiction? Puritan fiction? This distinction doesn't agree with me.
When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough.
When I am experiencing a complex story or novel, the broader planes, and also details, tend to fall away.
I think each time you start a story or novel or whatever, you are absolutely at the bottom of the ladder all over again. It doesn't matter what you've done before.
The sky was different, without color, taut and unforgiving. But the water was the most unforgiving thing, nearly black at times, cold enough, I knew, to kill me, violent enough to break me apart. The waves were immense, battering rocky beaches without sand. The farther I went, the more desolate it became, more than any place I'd been, but for this very reason the landscape drew me, claimed me as nothing had in a long time.
On the technical side, I hope that my writing is evolving and maturing, ripening, deepening.
Literature exists at the same time in the modes of error and truth; it both betrays and obeys its own mode of being.
There are three difficulties in authorship;-to write any thing worth the publishing-to find honest men to publish it -and to get sensible men to read it. Literature has now become a game; in which the Booksellers are the Kings; The Critics the Knaves; the Public, the Pack; and the poor Author, the mere table, or the Thing played upon.
I defy anyone to finish Halldor Laxness's 'Independent People' without wetting the pages with tears.
Over-certified adjectives are the mark of most best-seller writing
And I desperately needed books that would take me out of my environment and show me a world where being smart and brave and prepared was more important than being cute or cheerful or knowing the right thing to say. And that's what science fiction and fantasy gave me.
All literature, is, finally autobiographical.
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