Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography Through Essays

Description

'A profound book about the intrication of literature and life, about the modest, miraculous ways art helps us to live' Garth Greenwell 'I can think of few writers capable of such thrilling seriousness expressed with so lavish a gift' Rachel Cusk, Evening Standard In her fiction, Claire Messud 'has specialised in creating unusual female characters with ferocious, imaginative inner lives' (Ruth Franklin, New York Times Magazine). Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write opens a window on Messud's own life: a peripatetic upbringing; a warm, complicated family; and, throughout it all, her devotion to art and literature. In twenty-nine intimate, brilliant and funny essays, Messud reflects on a childhood move from her Connecticut home to Australia; the complex relationship between her modern Canadian mother and a fiercely single French Catholic aunt; and a trip to Beirut, where her pied-noir father had once lived, while he was dying. She meditates on contemporary classics from Kazuo Ishiguro, Teju Cole, Rachel Cusk and Valeria Luiselli; examines three facets of Albert Camus and The Stranger; and tours her favorite paintings at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. In the luminous title essay, she explores her drive to write, born of the magic of sharing language and the transformative powers of 'a single successful sentence'. Together, these essays show the inner workings of a dazzling literary mind. Crafting a vivid portrait of a life in celebration of the power of literature, Messud proves once again 'an absolute master storyteller' (Rebecca Carroll, Los Angeles Times).

Claire Messud is a recipient of Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The author of five other works of fiction including, most recently, The Burning Girl, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her family.

Powerful and inspirational: Messud is as fine a critic as she is a novelist - Publishers Weekly (Starred review) In this moving and evocative essay collection, novelist Messud reflects on family, art, and why she writes . . . These intimate, contemplative and probing essays reveal Messud's rich inner life and generosity of spirit - Publishers Weekly (Starred review) Messud is magnificent on female fury . . . The Burning Girl is an astute, subtle novel that conceals an eloquent and clear-eyed rage simmering beneath its surface - Financial Times (on The Burning Girl) Messud captures young adolescence vividly and unjudgementally . . . this is a hard book to stop reading - Guardian (on The Burning Girl) This is a terrific novel, beautifully written and crafted; I don't believe Messud could write a duff sentence if she tried - The Times (on The Burning Girl) A novel of deep emotional intelligence . . . There are insightful, psychologically astute meditations throughout the narrative, written in the precise, elegant prose we've come to expect from this master storyteller . . . The Burning Girl is reminiscent of My Brilliant Friend - Independent (on The Burning Girl) All writing is autobiographical, but almost never in the ways we presume. This is a profound book about the intrication of literature and life, about the modest, miraculous ways art helps us to live. Claire Messud, with her lapidary intelligence and dizzying sense of history, is among the most luminous writers at work today