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Author Nicholas Delbanco - Anywhere out of the World: Essays on Travel, Writing, Death - 9780231133845 - V9780231133845
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Anywhere out of the World: Essays on Travel, Writing, Death

€ 57.11
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Description for Anywhere out of the World: Essays on Travel, Writing, Death Hardback. Weaves varied reflections to reveal an understanding of the relationships among literature, the past, and the world around us. Describing trips to such diverse destinations as Namibia; Afghanistan; Bellagio, Italy; and the Bellagio in Las Vegas, this book conveys the apprehension of visiting new places. Num Pages: 208 pages. BIC Classification: DNF. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 250 x 150 x 19. Weight in Grams: 499.
Nicholas Delbanco-who, John Updike says, "wrestles with the abundance of his gifts as a novelist the way other men wrestle with their deficiencies"-ventures forth to discover and illuminate various writers and places. In this follow-up to his acclaimed The Lost Suitcase, Delbanco weaves varied reflections to reveal a singular understanding of the relationships among literature, the past, and the world around us. Describing trips to such diverse destinations as Namibia; Afghanistan; Bellagio, Italy; and the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Delbanco conveys the wonder and the apprehension of visiting new places. However, he goes beyond commonplace travelogues, examining our desire to travel and to write and read about distant lands. In the title essay, which surveys the state of travel and travel writing in a world that has grown smaller and less strange, he explores the continuing allure of new locales and the ways in which familiar places change in our imagination over time. Delbanco's reflections on literature look to past writers and literary traditions as a way of enriching the present. Delbanco begins by asking us to reconsider society's infatuation with novelty and proposes the paradoxical notion of imitation as a source of originality. Remembering his friendships with two colorful departed figures, John Gardner and James Baldwin, and celebrating the now somewhat-and regrettably-neglected works of John Fowles and Ford Madox Ford, he pays tribute to these writers' generosity of spirit and commitment to literature. In "Strange Type," Delbanco explores his own recent brush with death. Here too, he draws on a range of subjects and reflections, describing his recovery from heart problems via a poem by Malcolm Lowry, the surprising persistence of typos despite advances in word-processing technology, and Ernest Hemingway as literary celebrity.

Product Details

Format
Hardback
Publication date
2005
Publisher
Columbia University Press United States
Number of pages
208
Condition
New
Number of Pages
208
Place of Publication
New York, United States
ISBN
9780231133845
SKU
V9780231133845
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-1

About Author Nicholas Delbanco
Nicholas Delbanco is the author of more than twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Vagabonds, What Remains, Old Scores, The Countess of Stanlein Restored, Running in Place: Scenes from the South of France, and The Lost Suitcase: Reflections on the Literary Life. A founding director of the Bennington Writing Workshops, he is Robert Frost Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan, where he directs the Hopwood Awards Program and teaches writing.

Reviews for Anywhere out of the World: Essays on Travel, Writing, Death
A guide bleu for the literary armchair. Kirkus These essays combine Delbanco's personal reflections with his well-informed grasp of literary tradition, which results in compelling meditations on the shifting nature of travel writing, death and loss in both literature and life. Library Journal His stories are rich in insight, making even a momentary perusal of Anywhere Out of the World worthwhile.
Nick Owchar Los Angeles Times Delbanco's "Letter from Namibia" is as compelling and original a piece of travel writing as one is likely to find, paying meticulous attention to both physical surroundings and human companions.
Wayne Hoffman Washington Post The outstanding piece in the collection, 'Letter from Namibia', reveals a novelist's eye for detail.
Eric J. Iannelli Times Literary Supplement

Goodreads reviews for Anywhere out of the World: Essays on Travel, Writing, Death


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