Original Bliss (Magill’s Literary Annual 2000)
At a glance:
- Author: A. L. Kennedy
- First Published: 1997
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1990’s
- Setting: Glasgow, London, and Stuttgart
- Principal Characters: Helen Brindle, Mr. Brindle, Edward E. Gluck
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Self-discovery, Suicide, Authors or writers, Domestic violence, Adultery, London, Lectures or lecturing, Existentialism, Scotland or Scottish people, 1990’s, Germany or German people, Pornography
- Locales: London, England, Glasgow, Scotland, Stuttgart, Germany
There is, for want of a better word, an almost Jamesian quality to the young but already highly and justly acclaimed Scottish writer A. L. Kennedy’s work. Unlike Henry James, however, whose fiction grew increasingly difficult as his career progressed and his readership dwindled, Kennedy, although equally intent on depicting states of mind and feeling, writes in a way that seems transparent and effortless on one hand, finely wrought and slyly calculating on the other, with a bit of understated, offbeat humor thrown in for good measure. The opening of Original Bliss—Kennedy’s...
[The entire page is 2083 words long]
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