Renata Adler
Author of Speedboat
Works by Renata Adler
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1938-10-19
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Milan, Italy
- Places of residence
- Milan, Italy
Danbury, Connecticut, USA
Paris, Île-de-France, France
New York, New York, USA
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA - Education
- Bryn Mawr College (AB summa cum laude|1959)
Harvard University (AM|Comparative Literature|1962)
The Sorbonne
Yale University (JD) - Occupations
- journalist
film critic
novelist
essayist - Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature ∙ 1978)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature ∙ 1987)
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Reviews
Speedboat by Renata Adler
153
What fun.Poking at people who need to be poked. But, What
about Renata Adler ? (see Pauline Kale?
about Renata Adler ? (see Pauline Kale?
Plot: none. Arch: some. Characters: none interesting. Anecdotes: some amusing. Ennui of the privileged: vraiment.
Less a story than an image of a time presented experimentally through usually short (3 line - one page) anecdotes. The reader learns little about any character; the goal of the novel instead is for the reader to gain an understanding of the fractured, uncertain but materially well-off world the characters inhabit. "Malaise" is a cliched term for the period of the late 1970s before Reagan appeared to sweep all that away, but it would apply here, in a more existential sense than an economic one.
Adler is sometimes hilariously biting about the strata of society she is writing about, in a slightly meaty passage:
Less a story than an image of a time presented experimentally through usually short (3 line - one page) anecdotes. The reader learns little about any character; the goal of the novel instead is for the reader to gain an understanding of the fractured, uncertain but materially well-off world the characters inhabit. "Malaise" is a cliched term for the period of the late 1970s before Reagan appeared to sweep all that away, but it would apply here, in a more existential sense than an economic one.
Adler is sometimes hilariously biting about the strata of society she is writing about, in a slightly meaty passage:
The concept of the jig itself being up, however, had retreated into thrillers. Intelligent people, caught at anything, denied it. Faced with evidence of having denied it falsely, people said they had not done it and had not lied about it, and didn't remember it, but if they had done it or lied about it, they would have done it and misspoken themselves about it in an interest so much higher as to alter the nature of doing and lying altogether.or in a one-liner:
At twenty-six, Kate, though not promiscuous, had slept with most of the decent men in public life.In the end, despite the occasional amusements, I am unsatisfied. Fiction remains for me about telling stories and creating character, and I remain unconvinced by the plotless novel.… (more)
Brilliant experimental writing that's frequently funny and occasionally deep. I'm glad NYRB reissued this.
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- 18
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- Popularity
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- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 35
- ISBNs
- 47
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