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| ‘I wouldn’t have minded being Dostoevsky for a while’ … Eimear McBride. |
Books
that
made me
Eimear McBride: ‘I can never finish Dickens – it’s sacrilege’
The author on the novel that made her cry and how Anne of Green Gables taught her an early lesson in the power of the imagination
Eimear McBride
Friday 13 October 2017
The book that had the greatest influence on my writing
Oh, Ulysses. As a writer, once you have read that, you really have to up your game.
The book I think is most underrated
?
The book I am currently reading
Chris Kraus’s After Kathy Acker – I recommend it. When the energy of the writing matches the energy of the subject, it’s magic.
The book that changed my life
Anne of Green Gables. I read it when I was eight and it was the first time I realised what a weapon the imagination could be. I’m not sure that was the point ...
The book I wish I’d written
I can’t imagine having written anyone else’s books but I wouldn’t have minded being Dostoevsky for a while, just to see how it was done.I don’t know about “most” underrated, as it won the Booker prize, but Keri Hulme’s The Bone People is a beautiful novel, looking at difficult subjects in an uncompromisingly complex way, and it’s really owed more of a following than it has.
The last book that made me cry
Garth Greenwell’s What Belongs to You. It’s a long time since I read a book that made me feel less alone in the world.
The book I couldn’t finish
Any Dickens – sacrilege.
The book I’m most ashamed not to have read
Any Faulkner – the kind of sacrilege I’m bothered by.
The book I most often give as a gift
On balance, I think it’s probably been Susan Faludi’s Backlash. It really helps you get to grips with the media’s war on women and feminism.
The book I’d most like to be remembered for
My multi award-winning, worldwide bestselling, as yet untitled, seventh novel. It’s going to be brilliant.
2017
22 September 2017
Books that made me / Franzen / 'I defy anyone to finish it without wetting the pages with tears'
29 September 2017
Philip Pullman / ‘The book I wish I’d written? My next one’
Books that made me / Franzen / 'I defy anyone to finish it without wetting the pages with tears'
29 September 2017
Philip Pullman / ‘The book I wish I’d written? My next one’
13 October 2017
Eimear McBride / ‘I can never finish Dickens – it’s sacrilege’
20 October 2017
Shami Chakrabarti / ‘Harry Potter offers a great metaphor for the war on terror’
20 October 2017
Shami Chakrabarti / ‘Harry Potter offers a great metaphor for the war on terror’
1 December 2017
Penelope Lively / My debt to roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce
Penelope Lively / My debt to roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce
2018
25 May 201827 July 2018
Richard Powers: ‘I love sci-fi. The more 10-foot reptilians, the better’28 september 2018
Robin Robertson: ‘The poetry world is polarised. I’m in the middle, vaguely appalled’
18 January 2019
Margaret Drabble / ‘Lee Child does all the things I could never do. I’m awestruck’
1 February 2019
Leïla Sliman / ‘I’ve always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe'
8 February 2019
Emma Glass / ‘Game of Thrones is overrated. Give me The Lord of the Rings any day'
1 March 2019
Tom Rachman / ‘Does every author read faster than I do?’
Robin Robertson: ‘The poetry world is polarised. I’m in the middle, vaguely appalled’
2019
18 January 2019
Margaret Drabble / ‘Lee Child does all the things I could never do. I’m awestruck’
1 February 2019
Leïla Sliman / ‘I’ve always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe'
8 February 2019
Emma Glass / ‘Game of Thrones is overrated. Give me The Lord of the Rings any day'
1 March 2019
Tom Rachman / ‘Does every author read faster than I do?’
8 March 2019
Ben Okri / ‘I began Don Quixote as one person and finished as another’
17 April 2020
Sally Rooney / 'I want the next thing I do to be the best thing I’ve ever done'
Ben Okri / ‘I began Don Quixote as one person and finished as another’
2020
17 April 2020
Sally Rooney / 'I want the next thing I do to be the best thing I’ve ever done'
1 May 2020
Edna O'Brien / 'Reading Charles Darwin dislodged my religious education'
24 May 2020
André Aciman: 'I couldn’t finish Moby-Dick. I lacked the patience'
Edna O'Brien / 'Reading Charles Darwin dislodged my religious education'
24 May 2020
André Aciman: 'I couldn’t finish Moby-Dick. I lacked the patience'
9 October 2020
Neil Gaiman / 'Narnia made me want to write, to do that magic trick'
Emma Cline / ‘Reading anything because you “should” doesn’t make sense to me’
6 August 2021
Damon Galgut / ‘After reading Roald Dahl, the world never looked the same’
9 August 2021
Frank Cottrell-Boyce / ‘I read Adrian Mole every year, it gets funnier each time’
13 August 2021
Anuk Arudpragasam / ‘There’s a lot of laughter in my life, but not when I read’
Neil Gaiman / 'Narnia made me want to write, to do that magic trick'
2021
9 April 2021Emma Cline / ‘Reading anything because you “should” doesn’t make sense to me’
6 August 2021
Damon Galgut / ‘After reading Roald Dahl, the world never looked the same’
9 August 2021
Frank Cottrell-Boyce / ‘I read Adrian Mole every year, it gets funnier each time’
13 August 2021
Anuk Arudpragasam / ‘There’s a lot of laughter in my life, but not when I read’
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