Home
/
Non-Fiction
/
Shop Talk
Shop Talk
Oct 22, 2024 2:03 PM

Author:Philip Roth

Shop Talk

Philip Roth is the voice of our times.

In a sequence of intimate conversations with some of the most influential and insightful writers of the twentieth century, Roth explores the importance of region, politics and history in their work and that of their predecessors.

What qualities helped Primo Levi survive the demented laboratory of Auschwitz? What does Milan Kundera make of being denounced as a subversive writer in communist Czechoslovakia? What does Edna O'Brien think drove generations of Irish writers into exile?

Between colleagues and friends there is a startling candour seldom found in formal interviews, a sense that the guard is dropped, the ideas unbounded, as the conversations crackle with an urgency of ideas. Shop Talk is a literary symposium of the highest calibre, profoundly revelatory and consistently enlightening.

Reviews

Riveting

—— Sunday Times

Roth brings out something adamantine and irreducible about each of his interlocutors... Rings with what his readers will recognise as Rothian intelligence

—— New York Times

The questions are serious, respectful and intelligent, and the interviewees respond in kind

—— Times Literary Supplement

Roth manages to tease from his subjects the convictions that fuel their work and the vulnerabilities that make them human... Yet another example of [his] clarity of purpose and singular intelligence

—— New York Times Book Review

Fascinating glimpses of some of the deans of postwar literature [and] a working diagram of the very engine that makes Roth run

—— Los Angeles Times Book Review

You come away from it full of admiration for the subject’s resilience and the writer’s forensic compassion, but not without a certain despair too.

—— Dan Brotzel, 5 stars , UK Press Syndication

A real-life picaresque tale, it doesn't contain a single dull sentence... hugely topical at a time when Europe is contemplating what it means to be a refugee… extraordinarily poignant.

—— Michela Wrong , Spectator

An extraordinary account of resilience that ends on a hopeful note.

—— Colette Sheridan , Irish Examiner

A well written account.

—— Nicholas Cutler , Nudge

Entertaining, fact-packed...He is a cheery,idiosyncratic guide, eclectic rather than scholarly, a true populariser. At Home will have every reader eyeing home rather differently.

—— Financial Times

By now, Bryson is certainly famous enough to have got away with a a far less bulging compendium. Instead, on our behalf, he's been through those hundreds of books (508 according to the bibliography)....He's then extracted their most arresting material and turned the result into a book that, for all its winning randomness, is not just hugely readable but a genuine pageturner...None of these things, needless to say, are as easy as Bryson in his ever-genial way makes them seem.

—— James Walton , Daily Telegraph

Effortlessly digestible prose, wry self-deprecating humour and lightly-worn erudition...everyone will find something to surprise them.

—— Economist

Join this amiable tour guide as he wanders through his house...it takes a very particular kind of thoughtfulness, as well as a bold temperament, to stuff all this research into a mattress that's supportive enough to loll about on while pondering the real subject of this book- the development of the modern world....Bryson's enthusiasm brightens any dull corner. I recommend that you hand over control and simply enjoy the ride. You'll be given a delightful smattering of information about everything but, weirdly, the kitchen sink.

—— New York Times Book Review

For blockbuster Bill Bryson, no subject is too vast...So he could write a history of the world without leaving home. And very genially and quirkily he does...His theme is how nowadays we take home comfort for granted, but how recently we obtained it...he is very good company indeed.

—— Daily Mail

Delightful...Considering our homes means a dash through history, politics, science, sex, and dozens of other fields. If this book doesn't supply you with five years' worth of dinner conversation, you're not paying attention.

—— People Magazine

Compelling, quirky and wonderfully original.

—— Mail on Sunday

Immensely readable.

—— Guardian

Immediate, fast-moving … fascinating

—— The Times on the Audiobook

Extraordinary . . . At each stage, the meticulous quality of [Stangneth’s] research and her distinctive moral outrage make the journey enthralling . . . Stangneth’s book has the flavor of a detective story . . . [A] fine, important book

—— The Daily Beast

Stangneth uses new documents to reconstruct the post-war lives of Nazis in exile, revealing an egotistical and skilled social manipulator.

—— Daily Telegraph

How [Stangneth] put all this complex information relative to Eichmann together in one book is astounding. Freshly sourced archives and statements are used throughout, building into a full depiction of Eichmann.

—— Reg Seward , Nudge

An engaging history-cum-memoir… Strongest when exploring the tender relationship between Nicolson and her father after her mother’s death as a result of alcoholism, her own struggles with the same condition, the knife-twist of grief when one loses a parent, and the emotional rush of motherhood.

—— Natasha Tripney , Guardian

I would recommend everyone to read this book

—— CB Patel , Asian Voice

Juliet Nicolson is firing on all cylinders ... She is able to write about powerful emotion in a way that is both heartfelt and unselfconscious ... It makes the book perfectly personal as well as a fascinating history

—— William Boyd

This book is a marvellous illustration of the often forgotten fact that people in history were real, with real ambition, real passion and real rage. All these women took life by the throat and shook it. It’s a wonderful read, and a powerful reminder of the significance of our matrilineal descent

—— Julian Fellowes

Juliet Nicolson's book will engage the hearts and minds of daughters and sons everywhere. She has turned my attention to much in my life, and I am full of admiration for her clarity and gentleness

—— Vanessa Redgrave

I loved A House Full of Daughters. I was initially intrigued, then gripped, and then when she began writing about herself, deeply moved and admiring of the way in which she charted her own journey. An illuminating book in which she charts the inevitability of family life and the damage and gifts that we inherit from the previous generations

—— Esther Freud

A fascinating, beautifully written, brutally honest family memoir. I was riveted. This is a book to read long into the night

—— Frances Osborne

I was riveted... She is so astute about mother/daughter relationships and the tenderness of fathers and daughters. She deeply understands the way problems pass down through generations... I congratulate her on her fierce understanding.

—— Erica Jong

Juliet Nicolson’s writing is so confident and assured. She combines the magic of a novelist with the rigour of a historian, and the result is thrilling and seriously powerful

—— Rosie Boycott

Once I started it was impossible to stop. I was totally absorbed by Juliet Nicolson's large-souled approach to family memoir down the generations, drawing the reader into lives that reverberate with achievement and suffering... movingly original

—— Lyndall Gordon

A moving and very revealing account of seven generations of strong and yet curiously vulnerable mothers and daughters

—— Julia Blackburn

An outstanding book about a gifted, unconventional family told through the female line. Insightful, painfully honest, beautifully written and full of love, wisdom, compassion, loss, betrayal and self-doubt. A House Full of Daughters will resonate down the years for all who read it

—— Juliet Gardiner

An engaging memoir in which Nicolson lays bare discoveries about herself, but also gives a fascinating inside take on her renowned, and already much scrutinized, forebears. She also has much that is thought-provoking to say about mothers and daughters, marriage and the way in which damaging patterns can repeat down generations.

—— Caroline Sanderson , Bookseller

Nicolson is perceptive on difficult mother-daughter relationships.

—— Leyla Sanai , Independent

A fascinating personal look at family, the past and love.

—— Kate Morton , Woman & Home

Beautifully written history… She has as easy and elegant a style as her many writer relations, so this book is seductively readable. It could be described as a late addition to the ‘Bloomsbury’ shelves, but that should not put off anyone who feels enough has been said about that particular group. I found it touching and fascinating. In admitting that Nigel Nicolson was a friend, I can say with confidence that he would have been painfully proud of his daughter’s candid confession.

—— Jessica Mann , BookOxygen

Highly readable, no-holds barred tale.

—— Jenny Comita , W Magazine

Nicolson has written a poignant and courageous history.

—— Daily Telegraph

The most enjoyable book to take on holiday would undoubtedly be Juliet Nicolson’s A House Full of Daughters… It is ideal holiday reading.

—— Lady Antonia Fraser , Guardian

A simple premise looking at seven generations of women in one family, but it's got all the juicy bits of several novels in one

—— Sarah Solemani , You Magazine

[An] ambitious memoir.

—— Lady, Book of the Year

An entrancing book… A poignant, well-written memoir-cum-social history

—— Sebastian Shakespeare , Daily Mail, Book of the Year

A fine family memoir.

—— Daily Mail

This engrossing book charts seven generations of a family who were obsessive documenters of their lives through diaries, letters, memoirs and autobiographical novels… Interwoven with the personal is a portrait of society’s changing expectations of women, and the struggle to break free from patriarchy. Here, brilliantly laid bare, are both the trials of being a daughter and of documenting daughterhood in all its complexity.

—— Anita Sethi , Observer

A charming book about the female side of Nicolson’s family tree.

—— i
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2024 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved