Joanna Walsh (1) (1970–)
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Verk av Joanna Walsh
Associerade verk
I Am Because You Are: An Anthology of Stories Celebrating the Centenary of the Theory of General Relativity (2015) — Bidragsgivare — 3 exemplar
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Namn enligt folkbokföringen
- Walsh, Joanna Margaret
- Andra namn
- Badaude
- Födelsedag
- 1970
- Kön
- female
- Nationalitet
- UK
- Kort biografi
- Joanna Walsh's writing has been published by Dalkey (Best European Fiction 2015), Granta, Salt (Best British Short Stories, 2014 and 2015), and others. Her books include Hotel (Bloomsbury) Vertigo (Dorothy, a Publishing Project), and Fractals (Blue Pavilion/3:AM Press). She writes criticism for The Guardian, The New Statesman, and The National (UAE). She is fiction editor at 3:AM Magazine, and she runs #readwomen, described by the New York Times as "a rallying cry for equal treatment for women writers". She is also an illustrator. [Amazon.co.uk]
Medlemmar
Recensioner
Girl Online: A User Manual av Joanna Walsh
there were some compelling ideas in this book, but i struggled with the framing and the mixed metaphors, and a lack of coherence between what seemed like three unconnected theses/chapters. i also just hate alice in wonderland and didn't find it in any way an apt metaphor for MY experience as a girl online - walsh's experience of girlblogging is dated and this book would've been a lot more relevant if it came out 10 years ago. unfortunately for her, the internet moves too fast. still her thoughts on confessional blogging and chick lit were interesting and the book was consistently thought-provoking even if i didn't agree with what was on the page.… (mer)
Sometimes you come across a book which nudges you out of your comfort zone, like an exotic literary dish which looks and tastes different, exciting and that wee bit dangerous. This slender collection of short (and some very short) stories had that effect on me.
This was the first time I read anything by Joanna Walsh and her style struck me for its whimsical invention and clever wordplay. The title piece – Worlds from the Word’s End – is a perfect example. It features a narrator who writes a final letter to an estranged partner in a world where words are no longer in use and language has become an old-fashioned means of communication only current amongst immigrants. It is a post-apocalyptic scenario with a metaphorical weirdness worthy of China Miéville. Yet the title also instantly reveals an author who delights in linguistic virtuosity and brilliant, startling puns. Much of the story in fact keeps up the title’s play on wor(l)ds, as in “We were always words apart”, “I’m dead to the word and you don’t have a care in it”, “Love’s a word that makes the word go round … I love you and I’m not aloud…”
A similar approach can be seen in “Bookselves”, which imagines a ghostly presence which inhabits our bookshelves and voraciously reads all the books we’ve left unopened or uncompleted: the relics of a more intense age of reading…washed up on a beech of elegant shelves. The imagery is fantastical, but the insight into common reading habits is all too real.
Some stories emphasize the surreal and border on the obscure – I’m still grappling with the opening story, “Two” whose meanings yet escape me. Other pieces include an Angela-Carteresque retelling of “Clever Hans”, now renamed Simple Hans and laced with blood and sex, and the one-pager “Exes” which is at once a reflection on kisses in text messages (x’s) and a bittersweet memoir of past relationships (“exes”).
Too clever by half? Yes, but only if you want to keep living in the same old words.… (mer)
This was the first time I read anything by Joanna Walsh and her style struck me for its whimsical invention and clever wordplay. The title piece – Worlds from the Word’s End – is a perfect example. It features a narrator who writes a final letter to an estranged partner in a world where words are no longer in use and language has become an old-fashioned means of communication only current amongst immigrants. It is a post-apocalyptic scenario with a metaphorical weirdness worthy of China Miéville. Yet the title also instantly reveals an author who delights in linguistic virtuosity and brilliant, startling puns. Much of the story in fact keeps up the title’s play on wor(l)ds, as in “We were always words apart”, “I’m dead to the word and you don’t have a care in it”, “Love’s a word that makes the word go round … I love you and I’m not aloud…”
A similar approach can be seen in “Bookselves”, which imagines a ghostly presence which inhabits our bookshelves and voraciously reads all the books we’ve left unopened or uncompleted: the relics of a more intense age of reading…washed up on a beech of elegant shelves. The imagery is fantastical, but the insight into common reading habits is all too real.
Some stories emphasize the surreal and border on the obscure – I’m still grappling with the opening story, “Two” whose meanings yet escape me. Other pieces include an Angela-Carteresque retelling of “Clever Hans”, now renamed Simple Hans and laced with blood and sex, and the one-pager “Exes” which is at once a reflection on kisses in text messages (x’s) and a bittersweet memoir of past relationships (“exes”).
Too clever by half? Yes, but only if you want to keep living in the same old words.… (mer)
Sometimes you come across a book which nudges you out of your comfort zone, like an exotic literary dish which looks and tastes different, exciting and that wee bit dangerous. This slender collection of short (and some very short) stories had that effect on me.
This was the first time I read anything by Joanna Walsh and her style struck me for its whimsical invention and clever wordplay. The title piece – Worlds from the Word’s End – is a perfect example. It features a narrator who writes a final letter to an estranged partner in a world where words are no longer in use and language has become an old-fashioned means of communication only current amongst immigrants. It is a post-apocalyptic scenario with a metaphorical weirdness worthy of China Miéville. Yet the title also instantly reveals an author who delights in linguistic virtuosity and brilliant, startling puns. Much of the story in fact keeps up the title’s play on wor(l)ds, as in “We were always words apart”, “I’m dead to the word and you don’t have a care in it”, “Love’s a word that makes the word go round … I love you and I’m not aloud…”
A similar approach can be seen in “Bookselves”, which imagines a ghostly presence which inhabits our bookshelves and voraciously reads all the books we’ve left unopened or uncompleted: the relics of a more intense age of reading…washed up on a beech of elegant shelves. The imagery is fantastical, but the insight into common reading habits is all too real.
Some stories emphasize the surreal and border on the obscure – I’m still grappling with the opening story, “Two” whose meanings yet escape me. Other pieces include an Angela-Carteresque retelling of “Clever Hans”, now renamed Simple Hans and laced with blood and sex, and the one-pager “Exes” which is at once a reflection on kisses in text messages (x’s) and a bittersweet memoir of past relationships (“exes”).
Too clever by half? Yes, but only if you want to keep living in the same old words.… (mer)
This was the first time I read anything by Joanna Walsh and her style struck me for its whimsical invention and clever wordplay. The title piece – Worlds from the Word’s End – is a perfect example. It features a narrator who writes a final letter to an estranged partner in a world where words are no longer in use and language has become an old-fashioned means of communication only current amongst immigrants. It is a post-apocalyptic scenario with a metaphorical weirdness worthy of China Miéville. Yet the title also instantly reveals an author who delights in linguistic virtuosity and brilliant, startling puns. Much of the story in fact keeps up the title’s play on wor(l)ds, as in “We were always words apart”, “I’m dead to the word and you don’t have a care in it”, “Love’s a word that makes the word go round … I love you and I’m not aloud…”
A similar approach can be seen in “Bookselves”, which imagines a ghostly presence which inhabits our bookshelves and voraciously reads all the books we’ve left unopened or uncompleted: the relics of a more intense age of reading…washed up on a beech of elegant shelves. The imagery is fantastical, but the insight into common reading habits is all too real.
Some stories emphasize the surreal and border on the obscure – I’m still grappling with the opening story, “Two” whose meanings yet escape me. Other pieces include an Angela-Carteresque retelling of “Clever Hans”, now renamed Simple Hans and laced with blood and sex, and the one-pager “Exes” which is at once a reflection on kisses in text messages (x’s) and a bittersweet memoir of past relationships (“exes”).
Too clever by half? Yes, but only if you want to keep living in the same old words.… (mer)
2.5 stars really. I could appreciate this book of short stories, but they were difficult to engage with. They are almost more like prose poems or reflections, because there is no sense of character or plot development, but some really sharp, sometimes barbed insights and some beautiful turns of phrase. For example: "Elegance is a function of failure. The elegant always know what it is to have failed. There is no need for elegance in success: success itself is enough. But elegance in failure is essential." Hmm. Walsh writes from a European perspective which is much broader and she is more willing to take risks both in style and content. Most of the "stories" are expressive of the many roles of women today: mothers, daughters, wives, mistresses, workers, -- typically all-in-one in many of the works. There is an abstract quality to them -- skimming along the surface of things, definitely outside looking in. It was published by the Dorothy Project (dorothyproject.com) a small press, and "a publishing project dedicated to works of fiction or near fiction or about fiction, mostly by women." My favorite in the book was the entry "Young Mothers" in which she points out the ways (most) mothers of young children take on qualities of the toddlers: wearing comfy, wash-n-wear clothing, using non-breakable items, flat shoes, "colors were bright so our children did not lose us, so we could not lose each other, or ourselves no matter how hard we tried." She turns these observations around on an edge, which I like. Another plus: It is purse-sized and most "stories" are a mere 2 or 3 pages. But they are not quick or light per se; they need digestion. With a little more time and attention, I may have liked them even more.… (mer)
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Statistik
- Verk
- 7
- Även av
- 4
- Medlemmar
- 283
- Popularitet
- #82,295
- Betyg
- 3.4
- Recensioner
- 9
- ISBN
- 74
- Språk
- 3