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Diaries: Wicked Comments and Hedonistic Quests

Started by tomwatson · 11 months ago

Coming back from Dublin a few weeks ago, I had several books with me, but found myself immersed, virtually the whole trip, in Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories — a smorgasbord of memoir, diaries, lectures and other writings that the playwright published in 2005, an ... Continue reading »

2 comments

  • Dan Leo

    2 years ago

    There's a whole category of writers whose diaries or letters are as good or better than their "official" stuff. I think I first thought about this when I picked up William Burroughs's "Collected Letters". I remember thinking, "This shit is fucking great! Too bad so much of his published fiction is so impossible to read." Another one is Bukowski; I love his poems and fiction, but his letters are just as brilliant. One more: Kingsley Amis. I've been a fan of his ever since I accidentally discovered "One Fat Englishman" in the library when I was about 14. He never wrote or even tried to write a "great" novel; I think the whole concept of the "great" novel kind of annoyed him, and he probably also knew his limits; but, his "Collected Letters", all 11,000 pages of it, are -- to me -- like a great novel.
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  • Cheap Textbooks

    4 months ago

    wonderful book. Bennett has described it very nicely in this diary a life with unwavering honesty of a dying man. every character is so real. I love this book. great work bennett as usual.
    reply
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