-----Original Message-----
>From: John Williams <
johnwilliams@ntlworld.com>
>Sent: Nov 21, 2007 11:40 AM
>To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Newton Thornburg
>>
>Um, actually at Serpent's Tail we have reissued
Cutter & Bone, To Die In
>California and Dreamland, they're all readily
available from Amazon on
>both sides of the pond. We've stopped at those three
as, to my mind,
>they're his three noir classics. And, let's face it,
we chickened out of
>reissuing either the future race-war novel Valhalla,
or the incestuous
>romance, Beautiful Kate! Of the rest, his first novel
Gentleman Born is
>an interesting autobiographical coming of age novel,
Knockover is a
>decent heist novel and Black Angus a good but
depressing book about farm
>failure. The Lion at The Door is an OK noir but
anything after that I
>recall as disappointing, no doubt due to his failing
health.
>
>Ah I've just remembered I wrote Thornburg's entry for
the St James
>encyclopedia. I've pasted it below if anyone's
interested.
>
>John
John, glad to see Serpent's Tale has done their bit in
keeping Thornburg's work alive. Valhalla and Beautiful Kate
are the two books of his I've yet to read (but now I'm
interested). Guess I'll have to hit ABE.
Terrific write up for the encyclopedia. From what I've read
of his personal life over the years (which has been very
little) he seems to have had a great life haunted by tragedy.
Just like one of his books.
I also like the two books he wrote after your entry was
prepared, A MAN'S GAME and EVE'S MEN. You're right that they
weren't up to the standards of his best work, but I still
enjoyed them.
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