312- English Literature
John Gardner
John Gardner
John Gardner was a
British author, born on November 20, 1926, in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland,
known for his contributions to the mystery and espionage genres, particularly
through his work extending the legacy of iconic characters like James Bond and
Dr. Moriarty. He began his writing career after leaving the Anglican priesthood
and gained early recognition with his Boysie Oakes series, which blended humor
with crime narratives. Gardner's notable achievement was his selection in 1981
to continue Ian Fleming's James Bond series, resulting in a total of sixteen
novels that adapted the character to contemporary themes while maintaining some
of the original's essence.
His writing often
integrated elements of comedy and historical detail, showcasing his ability to
imitate various styles while also developing his unique voice. Gardner's
attention to historical accuracy and his interest in the occult were evident in
works like the Kruger trilogy and the Moriarty series. Despite facing criticism
for his Bond novels, which some felt strayed too far from Fleming's spirit,
Gardner's storytelling captured a wide audience, with his books translated into
over fourteen languages. He continued to write until health challenges slowed
him down, ultimately passing away on August 3, 2007.
Published in: 2023
By: Delaney,
Bill<br />Barratt, David
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John Gardner
(1933-1982) was a popular and controversial author. He wrote several
best-selling novels, including Grendel, The Sunlight Dialogues, Nickel
Mountain, and October Light (which won the National Critics Circle Award in 1976),
and The Art of Fiction, an essay text now standard in university writing
classes, and On Moral Fiction, a book so scandalous it almost destroyed his
career.
Mickelsson’s Ghosts
Fiction by John
Gardner
The final novel by
John Gardner, Mickelsson’s Ghosts, originally published in 1982 just months
before his untimely death in a motorcycle accident, is a tour de force. The
protagonist Peter Mickelsson, a former star philosophy professor at Brown,
relocates to Binghamton University. On the verge of bankruptcy, separated from
his wife, in questionable mental health, and drinking heavily, Mickelsson
decides to buy a country house in northeastern Pennsylvania. What he encounters
there are impassioned and shameless love affairs (one of which results in a
regrettable pregnancy), a Mormon extremist cult, small town mythologies, the
robbery of a robber, multiple murders, the ghosts of an incestuous family,
Plato, and our hero’s own possible insanity.
The Sunlight
Dialogues
Fiction by John
Gardner
In The Sunlight Dialogues,
John Gardner’s vision of America in the turbulent 1960s embraces an
unconventional cast of conventional citizens in the small rural town of
Batavia, New York. Sheriff Fred Clumly is trying desperately to unravel
mysteries surrounding a disorderly, nameless drifter called “The Sunlight Man,”
who has been jailed for painting the word “LOVE” across two lanes of traffic,
and who is later suspected of murder. The men battle over morality, freedom and
their opposing notions of justice, leading each to find his own state of grace.
Their conflict is mirrored in the community of middlebrow politicians and their
church-going wives, Native Americans, working-class immigrants, farmers,
soldiers, petty thieves, and even centenarian sisters too stubborn to die. Gardner’s
alchemy is existential: from the most raw, vulnerable, and conflicting
characters in the American melting pot, he transmutes common denominators of
human isolation and longing. With unnerving suspense, his acute ear for
American speech, and permeated by his deep-rooted belief in morality, this
expansive, sprawling, and ambitious novel is John Gardner’s masterpiece: “A
superb literary achievement,” noted
Nickel Mountain
Fiction by John
Gardner
At the heart of John
Gardner’s Nickel Mountain is an uncommon love story: when at 42, the obese,
anxious and gentle Henry Soames marries seventeen-year-old Callie Wells–who is
pregnant with the child of a local boy–it is much more than years which define
the gulf between them. But the beauty of this novel is the gradual revelation
of the bond that develops as this unlikely couple experiences courtship and
marriage, the birth of a son, isolation, forgiveness, work, and death in a
small Catskill community in the 1950s. The plot turns on tragic events–they
might be accidents or they might be acts of will–involving a cast of rural
eccentrics that includes a lonely amputee veteran, a religious hysteric
(thought by some to be the devil himself) and an itinerant “Goat Lady.”
Questions of guilt, innocence, and even murder are eclipsed by deeds of
compassion, humility, and redemption, and ultimately by Henry Soames’ quiet
discovery of grace. Novelist William H. Gass, a friend and colleague of the
author, has written an introduction that shines new light on the work and career
of the much praised but often misunderstood John Gardner.
October Light
Fiction by John
Gardner
October Light is one
of John Gardner’s masterworks. The penniless widow of a once-wealthy dentist,
Sally Abbot now lives in the Vermont farmhouse of her older brother,
72-year-old James Page. Polar opposites in nearly every way, their clash of
values turns a bitter corner when the exacting and resolute James takes a
shotgun to his sister’s color television set. After he locks Sally up in her
room with the trashy “blockbuster” novel that has consumed her (and only apples
to eat), the novel-within-the-novel becomes an echo chamber providing glimpses
into the history of the family that spawned these bizarre, sad, and stubborn
people. Gardner uses the turbulent siblings as a stepping-off point from which
he expands upon the lives of their extended families, and the rural community
that surrounds them. He also engages larger issues of how liberals and
conservatives define themselves, and considers those moments when life
transcends all their arguments.
Nickel Mountain is
shapely and moving enough to make you believe, while you are reading it, in
ancient forms and permanent truths.
— New York Times Book
Review
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