James Wood

James Wood’s books include The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel, The Book against God, a novel, and, most recently, How Fiction Works. He is a staff writer for the New Yorker and Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard.

In the LRB Archive:

• The Author in the Age of the Internet · 24 April 2010

• In a Spa Town: ‘A Hero of Our Time’ · 11 February 2010

  • A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, translated by Natasha Randall

• Bristling with Diligence: A.S. Byatt · 8 October 2009

  • The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt

• James Wood writes about the manipulations of Ian McEwan · 30 April 2009

• Nothing in a Really Big Way: Adam Mars-Jones · 24 April 2008

  • Pilcrow by Adam Mars-Jones

• Metaphysical Parenting: Edward P. Jones · 21 June 2007

  • All Aunt Hagar’s Children by Edward P. Jones

• Anxious Pleasures: Thomas Hardy · 4 January 2007

  • Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man by Claire Tomalin

• Bastards: St Aubyn’s Savage Sentences · 2 November 2006

  • Mother’s Milk by Edward St Aubyn

• Damaged Beasts: Peter Carey’s ‘Theft’ · 8 June 2006

  • Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey

• At the tent flap sin crouches: The Fleshpots of Egypt · 23 February 2006

  • The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter

• Puffed Wheat: How serious is John Bayley? · 20 October 2005

  • The Power of Delight: A Lifetime in Literature: Essays 1962-2002 by John Bayley, selected by Leo Carey

• Tides of Treacle: Nicole Krauss’s schmaltz · 23 June 2005

  • The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

• Overloaded with Wasps: Tales from Michigan · 17 March 2005

  • The Secret Goldfish by David Means

• A Long Day at the Chocolate Bar Factory: David Bezmozgis · 16 December 2004

  • ‘Natasha’ and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis

• Inside Mr Shepherd: in conversation with Jane Austen · 4 November 2004

  • Jane Austen and the Morality of Conversation by Bharat Tandon
  • Jane Austen, or The Secret of Style by D.A. Miller

• The Slightest Sardine: a literary dragnet · 20 May 2004

  • The Oxford English Literary History, Vol. XII: 1960-2000: The Last of England? by Randall Stevenson

• The Lie-World: D.B.C. Pierre · 20 November 2003

  • Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre

• A Frog’s Life: Coetzee’s Confessions · 23 October 2003

  • Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons by J.M. Coetzee

• How’s the Empress?: Graham Swift · 17 April 2003

  • The Light of Day by Graham Swift

• Bobbery: Pushkin’s Leave-Taking · 20 February 2003

  • Pushkin: A Biography by T.J. Binyon

• Credulity: ‘Life of Pi’ · 14 November 2002

  • Life of Pi by Yann Martel

• Fundamentally Goyish: Zadie Smith · 3 October 2002

  • The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith

• Phut-Phut: The ‘TLS’ · 27 June 2002

  • Critical Times: The History of the ‘Times Literary Supplement’ by Derwent May

• From a Novel in Progress: From a Novel in Progress · 9 May 2002

• Mixed Feelings: Italo Svevo’s Last Cigarette · 3 January 2002

  • Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo, edited by William Weaver
  • Memoir of Italo Svevo by Livia Veneziani Svevo, translated by Isabel Quigly
  • Emilio's Carnival by Italo Svevo, translated by Beth Archer Brombert

• Gossip in Gilt: John Updike’s Licks of Love · 19 April 2001

  • Licks of Love: Short Stories and a Sequel, ‘Rabbit Remembered’ by John Updike

• Cold-Shouldered: John Carey · 8 March 2001

  • Pure Pleasure: A Guide to the 20th Century’s Most Enjoyable Books by John Carey

• Bohumil Hrabal: the life, times, letters and politics of Czech novelist Bohumil Hrabal · 4 January 2001

  • Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal, translated by Michael Henry Heim
  • Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal, translated by Michael Henry Heim
  • I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal, translated by Paul Wilson
  • Closely Observed Trains by Bohumil Hrabal, translated by Edith Partiger
  • Total Fears: Letters to Dubenka by Bohumil Hrabal, translated by James Naughton

• Can this be what happened to Lord Lucan after the night of 7 November 1974?: The Emaciation of Muriel Spark · 7 September 2000

  • Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark

• Like a Mullet in Love: Homage to Verga · 10 August 2000

  • Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories by Giovanni Verga, translated by G.H. McWilliam

• Rambling: Speaking our Minds · 1 June 2000

• Buckets of Empathy · 30 March 2000

  • On Trust: Art and the Temptations of Suspicion by Gabriel Josipovici

• Tell me what you talked: V.S. Naipaul · 11 November 1999

  • Letters between a Father and Son by V.S. Naipaul

• Watering the Dust: Saint Augustine · 30 September 1999

  • Saint Augustine by Garry Wills

• Too Many Alibis: Geoffrey Hill · 1 July 1999

  • Canaan by Geoffrey Hill
  • The Truth of Love: A Poem by Geoffrey Hill

• Empire of Signs: Joseph Roth · 4 March 1999

  • The String of Pearls by Joseph Roth, translated by Michael Hofmann

• Addicted to Unpredictability: Knut Hamsun · 26 November 1998

  • Knut Hamsun: Selected Letters, Vol. II 1898-1952 edited by Harald Næss and James McFarlane
  • Hunger by Knut Hamsun, translated by Sverre Lyngstad

• Ceaseless Anythings: Robert Stone · 1 October 1998

  • Damascus Gate by Robert Stone

• The Crotch Thing: Alan Hollinghurst · 16 July 1998

  • The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst

• The Great Dissembler: Thomas More’s Bad Character · 16 April 1998

  • The Life of Thomas More by Peter Ackroyd

• Faulting the Lemon: Iris Murdoch · 1 January 1998

  • Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature by Iris Murdoch

• A Snack before I Die · 21 August 1997

  • Anton Chekhov: A Life by Donald Rayfield

• Things happen all the time · 8 May 1997

  • Selected Stories by Alice Munro

• Seeing in the Darkness · 6 March 1997

  • D.H. Lawrence: Triumph To Exile 1912-22 by Mark Kinkead-Weekes

• Child of Evangelism · 3 October 1996

  • The Quest for God: A Personal Pilgrimage by Paul Johnson
  • Is There a God? by Richard Swinburne
  • God in Us: A Case for Christian Humanism by Anthony Freeman
  • Robert Runcie: The Reluctant Archbishop by Humphrey Carpenter

• Scruples · 20 June 1996

  • The Redress of Poetry: Oxford Lectures by Seamus Heaney
  • The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney

• Charmed Quarantine · 21 March 1996

  • Soul Says: On Recent Poetry by Helen Vendler
  • The Breaking of Style: Hopkins, Heaney, Graham by Helen Vendler
  • The Given and the Made: Strategies of Poetic Redefinition by Helen Vendler

• Apologising · 24 August 1995

  • The Burning Library: Writings on Art, Politics, Sexuality 1969-93 by Edmund White
  • Skinned Alive by Edmund White

• Bewitchment · 8 December 1994

  • Shadow Dance by Angela Carter
  • Flesh and the Mirror: Essays on the Art of Angela Carter edited by Lorna Sage

• Beware of shallowness · 7 July 1994

  • Art & Lies by Jeanette Winterson

• Ever so comfy · 24 March 1994

  • Collected Poems 1953-1993 by John Updike
  • Dante’s Drum-Kit by Douglas Dunn
  • Old Men and Comets by D.J. Enright
  • Plato’s Ladder by Stephen Romer
  • The Country at My Shoulder by Moniza Alvi
  • British Subjects by Fred D’Aguiar
  • Night Photograph by Lavinia Greenlaw
  • Nil Nil by Don Paterson
  • Out of Danger by James Fenton

• Jihad · 5 August 1993

  • The New Poetry edited by Michael Hulse, David Kennedy and David Morley
  • Who Whispered Near Me by Killarney Clary
  • Sunset Grill by Anne Rouse
  • Half Moon Bay by Paul Mills
  • Shoah by Harry Smart
  • The Autonomous Region by Kathleen Jamie
  • Collected Poems by F.T. Prince
  • Stirring Stuff by Selwyn Pritchard
  • News from the Brighton Front by Nicki Jackowska
  • Translations from the Natural World by Les Murray

• The Glamour of Glamour · 19 November 1992

  • The Secret History by Donna Tartt
  • A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

• Seeing Curt Lemon blown up · 26 July 1990

  • The things they carried by Tim O’Brien

Letters

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