Friday, September 22, 2017

Books that made me / Franzen / 'I defy anyone to finish it without wetting the pages with tears'

‘Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children remains the most fabulous book that hardly anyone I know has read’ …Jonathan Franzen. Photograph: Morgan Rachel Levy for the Guardian

Books

that

made me

Jonathan Franzen: 'I defy anyone to finish it without wetting the pages with tears'

The American novelist on the books that changed his life, made him cry and the ones he wishes he’d written

JONATHAN FRANZEN

22 SEP 2017

The book that changed my life

To read is to have experiences; every book changes my life at least a little bit. The first time I can remember this happening was when I was 10, with a biography of Thomas Edison.

The book I wish I’d written

I aborted a third novel, and it’s interesting (for about five seconds) to imagine what I would have produced had I soldiered on through to the end of it. I might have liked to do groundbreaking work such as Haruki Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, but why would I want Murakami and Ferrante not to have written those books themselves?

The last book that made me cry

I defy anyone to finish Halldór Laxness’s Independent Peoplewithout wetting the pages with tears.

The book that had the greatest influence on my writing

Maybe CS Lewis’s Narnia books, because I wanted to read them again and again and because writing begins with that kind of reading.

The book I think is most underrated

The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead’s masterpiece, remains the most fabulous book that hardly anyone I know has read.

The book I couldn’t finish

Ulysses. I needed a graduate thesis adviser to crack a whip over my head, and didn’t have one.

The book I’m most ashamed not to have read

I can speak very knowledgeably of Proust, as if I’ve read all seven volumes of In Search of Lost Time. But I’m a terribly slow reader, especially of Proust.

The book I am currently reading

I just finished reading the manuscript of Rachel Kushner’s forthcoming novel, The Mars Room. It’s her best book yet, another big step forward. A California novel set in the world of prisons and strip clubs.

The book I most often give as a gift

Lately it has been Michael Frank’s brilliant and recently published memoir, The Mighty Franks. I’m responsible for more than 50% of its sales at our local bookstore.

The book I’d most like to be remembered for

I’d rather be alive than remembered.

THE GUARDIAN