Novelist Patrick McGrath on Writing, Setting, and Psychology

Patrick McGrath

Novelist Patrick McGrath on Writing, Setting, and Psychology

Patrick McGrath is a convivial sort. Pushing hair from his eyes with a smile, he'll have you seated, snug, and sipping tea on the couch before you've had a chance to say hello.

By Ryan D. Matthews, Contributor

Ryan D. Matthews is a writer and editor in New York. 

Jun 10, 2013, 02:15 PM EDTUpdated Aug 10, 2013, 05:12 AM 

Patrick McGrath is a convivial sort. Pushing hair from his eyes with a smile, he'll have you seated, snug, and sipping tea on the couch before you've had a chance to say hello. He's a man who loves a joke and laughs easily; it's difficult to imagine him underdressed. One does, however, imagine sightseeing with Patrick to be a chore. Point out a placid canoe-filled expanse of lakefront brimming with delightful lily pads, and he is as likely to point out an excellent place to dump a pallid and bloated body. 

Patrick McGrath

 

Patrick McGrath
by Richard V. Hirst

I wrote the below for the Curious Tales blog.

You may well have noticed we've a new book in the works. As mentioned earlier, Congregation of Innocents takes its inspiration from the late great Shirley Jackson who passed away fifty years ago this year.

My mother by Patrick McGrath

 

My Mother

By Patrick McGrath

April 13, 2008

My mother's first depressive illness occurred when I was seven years old, and I felt it was my fault. I felt I should have prevented it. This was about a year before my father left us. His name was Fred Weir. In those days he could be generous, amusing, an expansive man — my brother, Walt, plays the role at times — but there were signs, perceptible to me if not to others, when an explosion was imminent. Then the sudden loss of temper, the storming from the room, the slamming door at the end of the hall and the appalled silence afterward. But I could deflect all this. I would play the fool, or be the baby, distract him from the mounting wave of boredom and frustration he must have felt at being trapped within the suffocating domestic atmosphere my mother liked to foster. Later, when she began writing books, she fostered no atmosphere at all other than genteel squalor and heavy drinking and gloom. But by then my father was long gone. 

Interviews / László Krasznahorkai

 

INTERVIEWS

László Krasznahorkai

The Nobel laureate insists on the reality of the present

by Hari Kunzru

THE LAST TIME I saw László Krasznahorkai, he declared his love for me. Admittedly, he was making a rhetorical point about his singular prose style, and we were speaking in front of an audience at an art gallery, but it still felt good. Krasznahorkai is the author of an extraordinary body of fiction, which has made him one of Hungary’s most prominent writers and a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize. His collaborations with the filmmaker Béla Tarr have brought the bleak, existentially freighted atmosphere of his early work to cinema audiences around the world. His narratives consist of single unbroken sentences that seem to have an almost infinite flexibility, swerving from labyrinthine philosophical musings to earthy humor. In his opinion, experiences such as love—particularly love that has taken time and courage to express—cannot be contained in short phrases. The full stop, he has said in the past, “belongs to God,” and the flow of his writing has a profound humanism. It isn’t the fragmented interiority of the old modernist “stream of consciousness,” but a kind of all-encompassing curiosity about the world, which carries the reader along in its current.

An Angel Passed Above Us by László Krasznahorkai

 

An Angel Passed Above Us

by László Krasznahorkai  

Translate by

 John Batki

“. . . stets das Böse will, und stets das Gute schafft.”

“. . . forever strives for Evil, and forever does Good.”

—Goethe, Faust

Lanternfly by Emma Copley Eisenberg

 

Edvard Munch, Boys Bathing, 1899. Courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection

Lanternfly

by Emma Copley Eisenberg

A WEEK INTO MY SOJOURN with Rob, we’d established a routine: black coffee in his swan mug; the slow, puffing two-block walk to the beach; the selection of the day’s spot and the digging of the hole for the umbrella; the rise and fall of a book on each of our bellies; lunch from the cooler and then a nap when the sky turned hazy. By late afternoon, Rob would wobble to the beach snack bar, returning with a sheaf of fries for himself and a Chipwich for me. Though covered in a fine layer of ice crystals, the Chipwich was soon soft. I ate the edges first, the mini chocolate chips crunching between my back molars. 

Julia Soboleva males portals to another world

 

JULIA SOBOLEVA MAKES PORTALS TO ANOTHER WORLD

Julia Soboleva discusses dislocation, how parenthood shaped her practice, and the relationship between her artworks. 

Fam by Julia Soboleva

“Fam” (2023)
by Julia Soboleva

Julia Soboleva’s artwork resonates with themes of identity, cultural dislocation, and resilience. Her unique approach to blending past and present through altered photographs offers a poignant commentary on the immigrant experience and the impact of historical events on personal identity.

Born in 1990 in Latvia to a Russian minority family, her family's history is closely connected to the changes during the Soviet era. In 2008, she moved to the UK and later completed a Master of Arts in Illustration in 2018.

Her art often reflects feelings of displacement, transgenerational trauma, and the surreal nature of living through significant socio-political changes. Her work is characterized with a dream-like, eerie quality, blending humor with darker themes to illustrate the complexity of human experiences.

Soboleva is known for her mixed-media approach, combining painting, collage, and illustration. She often works on found photographs, layering oil and watercolor paint, and collage to create new narratives that challenge perceptions of reality and memory. This technique imbues her art with a profound sense of realism, making her work both evocative and thought-provoking.

FACEBOOK

Interviews / Julia Soboleva

 

Julia Soboleva

INTERVIEWS

Julia Soboleva

The Latvian born artist discusses her transcending through different mediums, remaining open to her intuition and exploring the spectrum of opposing forces

JUL 14, 2024

Julia Soboleva is a Latvian mixed-media artist based in the UK. Her process involves painting and collage on found photographic imagery. Meditating on the themes of madness and reality, Soboleva constructs mysterious narratives with ominous overtones and absurd humour. Being born and raised in a post-Soviet era and not being able to find her own place against the complicated past of her nation, Soboleva explores the notions of family, taboo and trans-generational trauma in her work. She obtained a Master's Degree in Illustration at Manchester School of Art in 2018, and has gone on to work as an independent creator and freelance designer.

Henry Jackson / LewAllen Galleries

Henry Jackson, Ava (detail), 2026. Courtesy of LewAllen Galleries

Primal field. Interval

15 May — 20 Jun 2026 at the LewAllen Galleries in Santa Fe, United States

24 APRIL 2026

LewAllen Galleries is pleased to announce Primal field / Interval, an exhibition of new paintings and monotypes by San Francisco-based artist Henry Jackson. The exhibition runs from May 15, 2026, through June 20, 2026.

 

Joana Vasconcelos, Gestalt, 2017. Courtesy of Museo Picasso Málaga

Joana Vasconcelos. Transfiguration

28 May — 26 Sep 2026 at the Museo Picasso Málaga in Málaga, Spain

24 APRIL 2026

The Museo Picasso Málaga presents Joana Vasconcelos. Transfiguration, an exhibition that emphasizes transfiguration as the core of the artist’s work, referring to how Vasconcelos transforms and re-signifies different aspects of reality. It brings together a selection of pieces that together offer a survey of the artist’s career, spanning works dating from the late 1990s to recent creations, casting a new light on her artistic evolution.

Regards sur l’art espagnol, 1945–2025

Joan Miró, Femme, oiseaux (detail), 1977. Courtesy of Opera Gallery

Regards sur l’art espagnol, 1945–2025

22 May — 17 Jun 2026 at the Opera Gallery in Paris, France

30 APRIL 2026

Opera Gallery is pleased to present Regards sur l’art espagnol, 1945–2025, a curated selection of works tracing the evolution of Spanish art from the postwar period to today. Spanning 80 years—from paintings and drawings by Pablo Picasso to Pedro Almodóvar’s photography—the exhibition offers a nuanced reflection on the continuities and ruptures shaping modern and contemporary Spanish art.

Rebecca Gabriel / Frances Carlene / Cross currents

 

Frances Carlene, Fragments of landscape 802 (detail), 2025. Courtesy of Bitfactory Gallery

Cross currents

15 May — 13 Jun 2026 at the Bitfactory Gallery in Denver, United States

30 APRIL 2026

Bitfactory Gallery brings together the luminous, contemplative works of Carlene Frances and the psychologically charged figurative paintings of Rebecca Gabriel for Cross currents, a new exhibition on view May 15-June 13, 2026, at 851 Santa Fe Drive. Their individual practices, showcased in tandem, invite viewers into a space that balances stillness and introspection with intimate, human complexity. The public is invited to an opening reception on May 15, 6-9 p.m., the June 5 First Friday Art Walk, 5-9 p.m., and to view the show during regular hours on Tues. – Sat, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

 

Bird of México City
Photo by Pierre Henket

My best shot

A ‘bird of Mexico City’ strikes a revolutionary pose: Pieter Henket’s best photograph

‘In Mexico, which has a strong macho culture, the lucha libre wrestling mask is a symbol of masculinity. Ixchel was taking that back’

Interview by Simon Bainbridge

Wed 6 May 2026

Itook this picture, called La Mujer [The Woman], on the very first day of a project called Birds of Mexico City. I remember thinking, in that moment, that this is one of those rare pictures where you know immediately something special is happening.