I know this was supposed to be a bi-weekly column, but sometimes it'll be a weekly one.
So a new week, a new Author Profile.
Evan S. Connell
Born: Kansas City, 1924
Career: He graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.A. in English in 1947 and later studied creative writing at Stanford and Columbia. He was a pilot in the Air Force and then lived in Europe for a period in the early 1950s. Most of his writing career he spent in San Francisco, but he now lives in Santa Fe. He has never married. Before he received some success in 1984 for his Son of the Morning Star, Connell worked as an interviewer in a S.F. unemployment office; he also founded a literary magazine, Contact. He is somewhat reclusive - rumor is, he doesn't have a computer - and conducts few interviews.
Noted Books: The above-mentioned Son of the Morning Star, a daring, inventive biography on George Custer, and one of the Modern Library's 100 Best Nonfiction novels of the 20th century; Mr. Bridge (1958) and, a decade later, its companion piece, Mrs. Bridge (1969), poignant, short-chaptered accounts of a mannered, reserved, upper-class couple negotiating the changes of American life in the first half of the 20th century, Kansas City.
Style, Range, etc: Range is really the thing with Connell. He isn't particularly prolific - nineteen novels, nonfiction bios, essay and short story collections, and books of book-lengthpoetry - in over 50 years, but he can seemingly do a little bit of everything. His 2000 novel, Deus Lo Volt, was a novel of the Crusades. His 1966 novel, The Diary of a Rapist, was a well-received, controversial novel about a man's descent into madness. The Aztec Treasure House (2001) is a series of essays about humanity's search for treasures - with dips into anthropology, stories of the Anasazi, linguistics, etc. He wrote a biography of Francisco Goya in 2004. His latest work is 2008's collection of stories, Lost in Uttar Pradesh.
Based on what I've read of his, he is a delicate, intelligent writer. The American West is a common subject for him.
Books I'd Recommend By Him: Mr. Bridge and Mrs. Bridge, the latter in particular being one of my favorite books ever and one of the most underrated American novels ever written. They are devastating, ironic, detailed, oblique and touching accounts of a particular, dying generation, a vanishing way of life. They are extremely accessible, not difficult at all. The style is unique - each book is divided into over 100 chapters - so that the novels read like, fleeting photos - almost journalistic accounts of the character's life. (Bleh! James Patterson related on NPR once that these novels influenced his own style - 150+ chapters in a 300-page novel - more than any other). I could read these novels once a year and never get tired of them; they are truly exhilarating. I read Mr. Bridge and thought it was the greatest 'unsung' novel I had ever read. Both works reveal Connell's subtle, stylish approach to characterization.
The two novels were the basis of the 1990 film Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, starring Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Newman was a Connell admirer and Woodward was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for the role.
Son of the Morning Star was adapted into a popular, award-winning miniseries, starring Gary Cole, Patricia Arquette, and David Strathairn.
Books I Want to Read: The Connoiseur (1974), a man who becomes obsessed with pre-Columbian figurines, Son of the Morning Star, Francisco Goya, the hard-to-find Double Honeymoon (1976).
The author has no website, naturally.
It's a sporty time of year, isn't it? We got the NFL Draft, the NBA playoffs, baseball wrapping up its first month, the Olympics hovering overhead...
That said, here are my 15 favorite sports movies... (I hope I'm not forgetting any here)...(and I'm not including documentaries)...
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| Bull Durham |
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| Costner again, Field of Dreams |
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| Hoosiers |
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| The Wrestler |
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| Win Win |
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| The Fighter |
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| Million Dollar Baby |
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| Miracle |
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| Secretariat |
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| Tin Cup |
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| Raging Bull |
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| Bend it Like Beckham |
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| White Men Can't Jump |
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| A League of Their Own |
For my last pick, I had a tough choice. Without Limits, one of two films about ill-fated Oregon runner Steve Prefontaine? The chess-prodigy drama Searching for Bobby Fischer? The basketball underdog drama The Winning Season with Sam Rockwell? Any of Paul Newman's pool dramas - The Hustler or The Color of Money? Cool Runnings? Caddyshack? Rudy?
Let's go with Newman:
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| The Color of Money |
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