McEwan: Sweet Tooth (CBS Interview)

"My name is Serena Frome (rhymes with plume) and almost 40 years ago, I was sent on a secret mission for the British security service. I didn't return safely. Within 18 months of joining, I was sacked, having disgraced myself and ruined my lover, though he certainly had a hand in his own undoing"

(Opening line)

Sweet Tooth is a sort of "spy" novel, set in England in the early 1970s, which is also (or mainly) a book on books & literature. And of course, another must for McEwan fan(atic)s.

"I was the basest of readers. All I wanted was my own  world, and myself in it, given back to me in artful shapes and accesible form".

"I turned the pages so fast. And I suppose I was, in my mindless way, looking for something, a version of myself, a heroine I could slip inside as one might a pair of favorite shoes."

Here is the audio of an interview with Ian McEwan on Sweet Tooth (from 2012). By Eleanor Watchtel (Writers and Company, CBS, Toronto)

Sweet Tooth (Amazon)

Jane Austen: "unseen" portrait

Here's a nice clip on Jane Austen's "lost portrait" that has just been attributed to the powerful subtle creator of Emma Woodhouse and other equally unforgettable characters. Located in a private collection for quite a while, the drawing had so far been considered some kind of posthumous "imaginary portrait" of the lady writer. But since it has been dated to around 1815 (and Austen's fame and recognition having not begun until 1870) Dr Paula Byrne, the discoverer of this "lost portrait", is quite certain that it must be original.

As she explained, this portrait shows us quite a different picture of Jane Austen from the one we had until now: it speaks of a woman who seems to consider herself a professional writer, and is happy to be presented as such. She's not a "grumpy spinster" nor anything of the sort, but a "confident woman at the height of her powers". Those unbelievable literary powers that led her, in the course of the following two centuries, to be regarded as the greatest female writer of English literature, and maybe of all literature.

Like in the case of the other "English literary queen" Emily Bronte, her life experiences, in a conventional way, might appear to be "limited". But never before (or after) has such a relatively small vital sphere resulted in a creative explosion of this magnitude. (With the exception of Emily Dickinson, of course). A combination of subtlety and depth in observation, a supreme delicate depiction of characters and actions. All in a dreamy quite recollected life. Something to give a thought to.