Jeremaiah Lesking Professor Garneau English 100 16 September 2013 David Sedaris, a wizard with words Anyone can write a story, but a person that can brainstorm thoughts in his head and combine originality, humor and creativity is considered a genius. This “genius” is David Sedaris, a compelling writer who often writes about his life experiences. David Sedaris is a famous author who wrote many books such as “April and Paris” and “Journey into the Night.” Sedaris was also featured on a television show called “the late show” In class, we read two of his articles, “Journey into the Night” and “April and Paris.” After reading the first article, “Journey”, one thing that fascinates me about Sedaris is that he is able to incorporate metaphors in his stories. For instance, Sedaris is comparing the inside of a plane to a hospital ward “Their slow-footed padding gives the cabin the feel of a hospital ward: the dark aisles, corridors; the flight attendants, nurses” (Paris 1). Another example would be, “Chipmunk-like, my cheeks packed with warm nuts, I cocked my head” (Journey 2).
However, a meeting with François Mauriac, the 1952 Nobel Laureate in Literature, who ended up becoming one of Wiesel's closest friend, talked him into writing about his experiences. His book “Night” was a pretty big hit. The book sold just 1,046 copies over the next 18 months, but attracted interest from reviewers, leading to television interviews with Wiesel and meetings with literary figures like Saul
Journal Assignment The book Maus is written by Art Spiegeleman, a son of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish Holocaust survivor. It is not a conventional book, Art writes his dad's survival story as a novel, a documentary, and a comic book. While on its surface it appears to be a documentary of a Holocast survivor, the central narrative of the book deals extensively with the relationship between Vladek and his son. It seems that Art wrote his dad's story as a way of coping with his own feelings of guilt. As I started to read this book, I could not put it down, mainly because the relationship between Vladek and Artie resembles the relationship of my dad and my grandfather.
Snow in the suburbs is a poem written by Thomas Hardy, an English novelist, short story writer and poet of the natoralist movement. Hardy saw himself mostly as a poet and wrote novels purely for financial gain, although he wrote a great deal of poetry that went mostly unpublished until after 1898. Thomas was remembered for the series of novels and short stories he wrote between 1871 and 1895. In 1898 Hardy published his first volume of poetry, Wessex Poems, a collection of poems written over 40 years. Hardy did not get the recognition he deserved from the contemparies of his time, however recently his poems have been applauded because of the influence of Philip Larkin but they are still not as highly regarded as his prose.
Patrick describes how he knows his father and what some of his father’s last wishes were. He also advices to read Ernest Hemingway’s letters instead of all of the biographies available. I was surprised with the amount of information that I was able to find that supported my theme/main idea of “Heart break”. In my opinion Soldiers Home is really about a man with a broken heart. Most of the work I used suggests that Hemingway was a man who could not live without being in love.
Trent Miera Professor Donnell English 1A (6339) 15 January 2013 Edgar Allan Poe With a life of despair foreshadowing, he fought his way through the hard ships and did more than deemed possible. This could be a very short and concise summary of the life of Edgar Allan Poe, too short a life at that. A phenomenal writer, well known and much admired. Poe didn’t live the life of luxury though, beginning with some difficult times towards his early life. Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston Massachusetts, but his legacy was cut short, passing at age 40.
Stephen King In 1947 on the Twenty First of September, Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King gave birth to one of the greatest mystery fiction writers in our time. Stephen King was born in Maine General Hospital in Portland Maine(Wukovits 11). King had a normal upbringing despite the absents of a father. At the age of two King’s father, Donald Edward King, had disappeared while serving as a merchant marine in World War II (11). King started his education in a small school where he quickly took an interest in reading and writing.
This cooperation lasted until the end of Verne's career. Hetzel had also worked with Balzac and George Sand. He read Verne's manuscripts carefully and did not hesitate to suggest corrections. One of Verne's early works, Paris in the Twentieth Century, was turned down by the publisher, and it did not appear until 1997 in English. Verne's novels gained soon a huge popularity throughout the world.
Published back in 1949, along came a book called 1984 written back one of my heroes, the great George Orwell. I read it again, and again: it was right up there among my favorite books. Nineteen Eighty-Four describes what it's like to live entirely within such a system. Its hero, Winston, has only fragmentary memories of what life was like before the present dreadful regime set in: he's an orphan, a child of the collectivity. His father died in the war that has ushered in the repression, and his mother has disappeared, leaving him with only the reproachful glance she gave him as he betrayed her over a chocolate bar - a small betrayal that acts both as the key to
Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, most known for his novel The Grapes of Wrath, also wrote two collections of short stories. With over thirty works in his career, Steinbeck developed a unique style of his own. A few of the commonalities in his work include a setting in the Salinas Valley, his works also often have “a recurring theme [of] frustration resulting from isolation, loneliness, or sexual repression” (Werlock). These elements of Steinbeck’s writing provide “open-ended and thought provoking” ideas that allow new generations to relate to his characters (Werlock). For example, in John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums”, he reveals that in the patriarchal society of the 1930s women serve more as a decoration and have little purpose in the world; he does so through character, symbolism, and point of view.