An American Marriage also has links to Greek myth Jones told the Guardian that every novel she has written “harks back to the Greeks”, with Celestial being a twist on Penelope, the faithful wife who waits for years for Odysseus – “only modern, independent and famous for her art”. The whole shortlist was timely, added Williams, from Barker’s retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of a princess who is made a slave to Achilles, to Madeleine Miller’s twist on Homer’s witch, Circe. I have no real hope or desire that the current occupant of the White House will read my book.” “I’m delighted that Obama read my book and I’m delighted that I had a president in my time that read books and recommended them, who cared about the past and history, who used it to guide us to the future. With her win coinciding with Donald Trump’s trip to the UK, Jones said she had no desire for the president to read her novel. “I decided to look under the bed and tackle it head on.” Incarceration is the “boogeyman of black America,” she added. The shortlist was so strong and I was honoured to be among them but I had no idea whether I would win. How hard it is even when you’re on the outside and are free, how you’re not really free when you have someone in prison.” “The prose is luminous, striking and utterly moving. “It’s an incredible examination of America and American life, focusing on the intimacy of a marriage but on a huge political canvas,” she said.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |