The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love

Here is an obituary in the LA Times.

It's always sad news, but I'm sad she never seemed to finish The Cut Man, the novel she has been working on for over twenty-five years. The excerpt published in The Paris Review, "Rhonda Discovers Art," was excellent.

Peter Shaffer, author of Amadeus and Equus.

BBC obituary.

Gregory Rabassa, you brought Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude into English - the book that hooked me on translated literary fiction.

Also translator of Julio Cortazar, Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa, Machado de Assis, Clarice Lispector, António Lobo Antunes, Jorge Amado ...

Lovely tribute from Susan Bernofsky http://translationista.net/2016/06/gr...

Poet Geoffrey Hill (The Guardian)

Elie Wiesel (BBC)

The obituary in The New York Times.

Péter Esterházy (NYTimes)

Here is a Words Without Borders interview with him

On Facebook, George Szirtes writes: "The funniest, most humane of postmodernists he was a much loved an popular writer, one of the four great novelists of the later 20C alongside Imre Kertész, Péter Nádas and László Krasznahorkai."

Sadly, we lost Kertész earlier this year as well. Let's hope we have many more years with Nádas and Krasznahorkai.

Nigerian author Elechi Amadi (The Guardian)

Mexican author Ignacio Padilla (The Complete Review)

Trevor wrote: "Mexican author Ignacio Padilla (The Complete Review)" I have fond memories of Shadow without a Name, although they seem to be false ones as looking back I gave it one star!

I remember reading that one too, but I can't remember anything about the book - I think I found it a little disappointing.

Edward Albee (The New York Times)

One of my favourite lines:

"I swear to God George, if you even existed I'd divorce you."

Dario Fo (BBC)

Thom Jones (NYTimes)

William Trevor, mutliple Booker short-listee and winner of the Whitbread Prize (BBC)

He wrote several of my favorite stories, including "The Piano Tuner's Wives," which I think is my favorite story of all time. I was so hoping we might get another story from him before he died. To my knowledge, the last he published was "The Women," in the January 14, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. It's brilliant! Another favorite is another that is, so far, uncollected, "An Idyll in Winter," which was published in The Guardian in 2011.

Shirley Hazard

Richard Adams

John Berger

Harry Mathews, American member of Oulipo. Can't find a link yet, but reported on Twitter here.

I'm not sure how I missed this, but Bharati Mukherjee died on February 1.

Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott

I had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Walcott about a decade ago, and his readings were still quite powerful. If you haven't read it yet, I'd recommend Omeros , a worthy run-up to the big prize.

From The New York Review of Books Twitter feed: Robert B. Silvers

With great sadness we must announce that Robert B. Silvers, founding editor of The New York Review, died this morning after a short illness.

— NY Review of Books (@nybooks) March 20, 2017

David Storey - author of Booker Winner novel Saville died yesterday (27-03-17).

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...

João Gilberto Noll

We were saddened to learn of the death of 70 yr old Brazilian writer João Gilberto Noll. May his words continue to mystify and inspire. pic.twitter.com/fUJurO2cvQ

— CATranslation (@CATranslation) March 29, 2017

William McPherson

His Testing the Current is fantastic.

Translator Eric Dickens

Some of you may have known Eric a bit online. He would often contribute at world lit forums.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Robert Pirsig
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

I loved Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values so much I even taught it in an advanced rhetoric class I taught some years ago. I am not at all sure I'd like it any more, but it definitely strikes a nerve at a certain time of life (and it really works well as something to analyze with students).

Trevor wrote: "I loved Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values so much I even taught it in an advanced rhetoric class I taught some years ago. I am not at all sure I'd like it..."

Yes! totally agree. Over here in Malta it is a set text as part of a subject called Systems of Knowledge (basically it's a subject which has elements of art,philosophy,science,world religions and classics, which is taught at post secondary/pre tertiary level) so the majority of Maltese students are exposed to this book due to it's philosophical teaching. Unfortunately this also means that Zen and the Art is equally loved and reviled among Maltese 17 year olds. I'm in the love category. Apparently one of Pirsig's other books, Lila, is even better.

Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson, at his best, was pretty much as good as anyone. Train Dreams, Tree of Smoke, Jesus' Son. Very sad news. Anyone who hasn't tried him, do yourself a favour.

I loved Train Dreams. I'm still a bit upset that the Pulitzer committee recommended it and a couple of others for the Pulitzer but then the Pulitzer heads declined to give any award that year. It would have been my choice over Swamplanida! and The Pale King for sure, and a very worthy winner to boot. My hope is that they didn't give it to him because it had been published previously in The Paris Review. I'd at least understand that logic.

I was at a talk given by Michael Chabon in January, promoting Moonglow .
Chabon specifically referenced Train Dreams, and spoke glowingly of the importance of the book to him. He said that he had drawn on its essence as an inspiration for Moonglow.

Maya Angelou

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-wa...

Jonathan wrote: "I was at a talk given by Michael Chabon in January, promoting Moonglow .
Chabon specifically referenced Train Dreams, and spoke glowingly of the importance of the book to him. He said that he had drawn on its essence as an inspiration for Moonglow."

I have a review copy of Moonglow, and if I had even had an inkling that this was the case I'd have read it by now!

Robert wrote: "Maya Angelou

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-wa..."

Angelou died a couple of years ago in May 2014, but definitely no harm bringing her up here in the In Memoriam thread.

What a fool i am! My apologies

Helen Dunmore : https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Ah dang. I see she has a book out this year. I haven't read any of her work, but I have been interested.

Juan Goytisolo

Michael Bond

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Sam Shepard

One of those I've always taken for granted, he was so steady and constant, both in his writing and his performing.

Trevor wrote: "Sam Shepard

One of those I've always taken for granted, he was so steady and constant, both in his writing and his performing."

:-( RIP ... one of the great contemporary American playwrights. Damn fine actor also.

Jack Rabinovitch, founder of the Giller Prize, which has been going strong since 1994. Mr. Rabinovitch set up the prize, which has exceptional coverage in Canada, as a memorial to his wife Doris Giller, who had died the year before.

Brian Aldiss

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Incidentally 19th August is the author's birthday which puts him in the league of Shakespeare i.e authors who die on their birth date.

Wow. He won his first Hugo back in 1962 and his Nebula in 1966. Quite the long career, and not one I'm terribly familiar with, though I've known of his work for decades now.

Mark Merlis

https://www.lambdaliterary.org/featur...

Bernard Pomerance