Two English Literary Gentlemen: On Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes

 Two English Literary Gentlemen: On Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan are both one of the most popular English writers today. THE ZEIT published an interview with both writers, which made me become more interested in Barnes's work. Peter Kümmel wrote, "Ian McEwan und Julian Barnes gehören zu den bedeutendsten Erzählern der Gegenwart. Nie zuvor haben die beiden Engländer ein gemeinsames Interview gegeben. Ein Werkstattgespräch unter Schriftstellern, aber auch der Dialog zweier Männer über die Frage: Wie lebt man richtig? [Freunde und Spione, in:  Die ZEIT vom 17. Oktober 2016 DIE ZEIT Nr. 41/2016, 29. September 2016.  [See also http://ianmcewan.com/ and http://www.julianbarnes.com/ ]

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Back in 1980 I had the chance to attend a reading by Ian McEwan from some his two collections of short stories from hist books In Between the Sheets (1978) and First Love, Rast Rites (1979) at the University of Exeter, where I studied English Literature. I saw him again in 1999 at the Literary Festival in Cheltenham. He read from his book Atonement, which was not published back then. In 2007 the  film version was released. [see ImDb)  Since then I have bought almost all of his books.

 

His most recent book  In a Nutshell came out in September 2016.

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Books by Julian Barnes have stood on my book shelves for years. Yet since the German weekly

His latest book, published in 2016 about the Russian Composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Interestingly enough I also attended a symphony concert in Exeter performing Shostakovich's 5th Symphony.

The novels narrates the life and difficulties of the composer, especially after 1936, when he saw Stalin attending the performance of his opera "Lady Macbeth of Mensk". Shortly after that Communist Paper Prawda published an article characterizing the opera as muddle instead of  music.(see review Starker Roman über Schostakwotisch by Jürgen Kanold].  

"Julian Barnes erzählt in seinem neuen Roman mit einer Fülle funkelnder Details das Leben Schostakowitschs, der seit diesem 28. Januar zu feige war, gegen die Macht zu opponieren. Das Buch dient dem Zweck, genau diesen Satz, für den die äußeren Tatsachen sprechen, zu widerlegen. Was ist Feigheit? Wer kann sich erlauben, darüber zu urteilen?", schreibt Michael Maar in seiner Rezension (M.Maar,  Bloß die Musik fehlt, in Die Zeit v. 16. Februar 2017, 49.) And he finishes, that it  be too easy to judge artists, ".... die sich mit der Macht arrangieren müssen. Dass der Vorwurf der Feigheit zu gedankenlos verwendet wird. Dass niemand sich vorstellen kann, wie der Terror die Seele zersetzt. Dass am Ende nur die Kunst, das Flüstern der Geschichte, durch den Lärm der Zeit zu hören ist.". So here you can listen to some of his music on youtube.

Willy Russel - Blood Brothers

Willy Russel - Blood Brothers
Originally a play about the story of of twins who were separated by their mother because she could not afford to raise two more kids and so sold one of the two was later turned into a wonderful and fabulous musical which ran for over two decaeds in London's West end. I had the chance to attend three performances, back in 1989, 1995 and again in 2005. The story as well as the music has been thriling me ever since. Being funy and witty at times it also contains a lot of scoial criticism To fullly understand the play one has to look deeper into the background of English society during the early Thatcher years. More on BBC GCSE Bitesize:

Novels on Multiculturalism in Great Britain.

Novels about Multiculturalism in Great Britain

Zadie Smith, London NW (2014) Zadie Smith is besides Andrea Levy and Monika Ali a leading writer about multi-cultural issues in today's Britain. See Review in die ZEIT, Ijoma Mangold "Ein Buch kalt wie Marmor".

Zadie Smith: White Teeth (2000). "White Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones, and their families in London."  [Source: White Teeth. (2014, January 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:42, March 26, 2014 

See also: Sigrid Löffler, "Die neue Weltliteratur und ihre Erzähler, München 2013. 

The Novelist Monika Ali, famous writer of the novels Brick Lane and Untold Story speeks about immigration Britishness.