The Reading Life: The wisdom of Harry Crews

This is part of the occasional series "The Reading Life" by book critic David L. Ulin.

In the latest issue of the literary quarterly New Letters, there's an interview from the early 1980s with Harry Crews.

Crews, who died in March at the age of 76, was a satirist, but, really, he was more than that: His novels emerge out of the dreamscape, offering bleakly funny, exaggerated portraits of America at the brink.

In his first, "The Gospel Singer," an itinerant preacher ends up in a Georgia town more grotesque than any in Flannery O'Connor's writing; "A Feast of Snakes" (1976) involves a rattlesnake roundup. My favorite is "Car," in which a man eats a full-size automobile, four ounces at a time.

The New Letters interview was conducted at a moment when Crews was on (or just coming off) the skids, at the tail end of a decades-long wrestling match with alcohol -- "I drank with two hands," he once said. "... I was drunk every day for 30 years" -- and unsure of what to do next. Nonetheless, he was feisty, not giving an inch.

Here he is on what it takes to be a writer:

One of the things that prevents people from becoming writers is the inability to look at their lives and look at what they believe. They can't look at themselves honestly and say, "Okay, that's how it is." Society makes it damn near necessary to disguise yourself. To appear "normal." To appear like everybody else. ... Whatever people think of me is fine. I made peace with that a long time ago, and realized that I'm not "gone" be like most people, not "gone" be what most people called decent. I'm not like most people, and I don't act like most people. I can live with that just fine and always have.

And here, on whether or not alcohol had finished him (clearly it hadn't, since he went on to publish five more books):

Wimps always think that things are destroyed. Wimps see a little blood and bone, and they think the game is over. They don't know you can go out and get taped up real good and shot up with a little dope and get back in and hit somebody. No ... I'm a long way from finished.

 Best of all are his thoughts on whether "all writers are congenital liars, as Faulkner said":

Oh, yes. I think the business of being a fabulist, that is to be involved with fabrication and making things up and living in the world of the imagination, all that spills over into lying even when you don't have to lie, just because you want to tell something that is memorable and compelling. In your own mind, this isn't what happened to me at Daytona Beach, but this is the way it should have happened. You tell it, and it's a great story. It's not true to the facts of the matter, but very true to the spirit of what happened -- truer in spirit than the facts are. When you give someone the spirit of the thing, that's better than the facts.

-- David L. Ulin

Photo: Harry Crews in 1998. Credit: The Gainesville (Fla.) Sun

Celebrating Bloomsday and James Joyce

On Saturday, Angelenos can celebrate one of the greatest novels of the 20th century -– by gathering together and raising a glass of Guinness.

June 16 is Bloomsday, so called for Leopold Bloom, the main character in James Joyce's "Ulysses." The notoriously challenging novel blasted through formal conventions and become an iconic work of modernist fiction; its 600-plus pages take place in Dublin over the course of a single day, June 16, 1904.

Although it has now become the focus of public celebrations, “Ulysses” was, at first, the stuff of hushed words and darting glances. Serialized by an American literary journal in the late teens, part of Joyce's novel -- involving masturbation -- was ruled obscene in 1921. Expatriate Sylvia Beach, owner of the famed Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company, published the complete "Ulysses" abroad in 1922, yet it was officially banned in America. In 1933, Random House’s attempt to import copies of the controversial novel were at the center of a major court case; “Ulysses” won, helping to prise open laws regarding “obscene” content.

Of course, just because American readers had access to “Ulysses” didn’t mean it was accessible. The novel is the stuff of semester-long seminars and Ph.D. theses – making it an odd candidate for marathon public readings, city tours and evening dancing.

“The really big breakthrough was in 1982, celebrating the centenary of Joyce's birth with a large Joyce symposium in Dublin,” Dr. Vincent Cheng, co-editor of 2009’s “Joyce in Context,” writes from this year’s conference in Ireland. “Bloomsday 2004 in Dublin was the first time that it felt like a fully public celebration, with lots of locals and tourists joining the Joycean academics in celebrating the day.” People lucky enough to be in Dublin this year can download the JoyceWays iPhone app, three years in the making, a literary tour through the city circa 1904.

Joyce enthusiasm has spread across America, where Symphony Space in New York has presented “Bloomsday on Broadway” for 31 years; this year’s performance will be streamed live online. Also online will be a classic reading by Alec Baldwin, Wallace Shawn and others at Pacifica Radio; at seven hours, it’s still only a portion of the 600-plus-page text.

At the Hammer, which hosts LA’s premiere performance-and-participation Bloomsday event, actors will be reading the book’s “Aeolus” section, or, more plainly, the part of the novel set in the offices of the Freeman’s Journal newspaper. It also includes a visit to a pub.

The Hammer will be offering happy hour Guinness from 6 to 7:30 p.m., accompanied by Irish music. Joyce enthusiasts can arrive up to two hours earlier to participate in an open “Ulysses” reading. When the performance is done, there will be more music, and more Guinness.

Is all this drinking and dancing an appropriate way to celebrate a brilliant work of literature? “I think Bloomsday events absolutely do a service to Joyce's work,” Cheng says. “Not only are they a lot of fun for Joyce aficionados, but they get people who have never read Joyce (and who might otherwise never dare try such challenging reading) interested in looking at these wonderful (but very difficult) books, especially ‘Ulysses.’"

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Celebrating Irish heritage and Bloomsday, named for James Joyce's "Ulysses," at the Hammer in 2011. Credit: Hammer Museum

Kelly Link's 'Stranger Things Happen' returns in limited edition

The first collection of short stories by Kelly Link, "Stranger Things Happen," will be issued in a special edition this fall by Subterranean Press. Link, alongside Southern California's Aimee Bender, is a leading voice in the emergent genre of literary surrealist, speculative fiction.

"I'm assuming I'm not the only writer out there who loves both [H.P.] Lovecraft and Lorrie Moore," Link told the Times in 2008. "What I get when I write is some Lovecraft, plus some Lorrie Moore, hopefully plus a little of me in there as well. So it's about infinite recombinations."

"Stranger Things Happen" was initially released in 2001 by Small Beer Press, the publishing house founded by Link and her husband Gavin Grant, and it put both the writer and publisher on the map, and remains Small Beer's bestselling title. It's still in print, but as always, Small Beer Press sells it in paperback.

That will change with the new Subterranean Press edition of "Stranger Things Happen," which will be in hardcover. It will also feature new illustrations, by the artist Kathleen Jennings; that's her work on the cover, above.

The limited hardcover edition, a run of just 500 copies, will be $75. It comes with an 80-page hardcover chapbook with two previously uncollected short stories by Link. All special edition copies will be autographed by Link, and those ordered here can be personalized.

It's an interesting project -- readers can certainly pick up the more affordable paperback edition for $11.95, or the e-book for just $6.99. The new edition is for collectors, people who value the stories and want to see them in hardcover form, and who see value in a signed and numbered edition that is limited to 500 copies.

This is one of the ways that publishers can distinguish the print work they do from the e-books they issue, focusing on creating an object that's worth having. And Link's work seems a great place to start.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Images: The cover of the new edition of "Stranger Things Happen"  and Kelly Link. Credit: Small Beer Press

Interview: Richelle Mead on 'The Golden Lily,' vampires and alchemists

When Richelle Mead wrapped up her bestselling "Vampire Academy" series in 2010, some die-hard fans wanted it to go on forever. But Mead decided on a different tack: She launched a spin-off that picked up where "Last Sacrifice" left off, centering a new series on an alchemist named Sydney who is tasked with protecting a vampire princess. We caught up with the 35-year-old author, and new mom, to talk about "The Golden Lily," the second installment in her six-book "Bloodlines" series, published Tuesday. Mead is currently on tour and will stop at Barnes & Noble in Santa Monica on June 18.

Jacket Copy: Did you worry about alienating "Vampire Academy" fans with a lead character in the new series who isn't especially fond of bloodsuckers?

Richelle Mead: Sydney is interacting with vampires so much, it's hard to get away from them. But part of this series is looking at the human aspect of the supernatural. In the first series, the narrator was a half vampire, and you were looking at the vampire world from inside out. Sydney lets us look from outside in. To see it through human eyes gives you a different perspective. Things you thought were normal in the first series aren't.

J.C.: The way you kept the two series connected was to import minor characters from "Vampire Academy." What was it about the chemistry between Sydney, Jill, Eddie and Adrian that made you bring them together? And why, in "The Golden Lily," are you adding Dimitri and Angeline to the mix?

R.M.: The stories of these four characters were left incomplete at the end of the first series, by design. All four of them have something startling happen to them, and it was all directly or indirectly a result of Rose, the narrator of the first series. They had these big shocking life changes they're trying to cope with now, so that's how I put them together. As far as Angeline and Dimitri showing up, I knew they were fan favorites. I told people when I wrote the spinoff, I wasn't going to abandon old characters. We'll just see them in the periphery as opposed to the main focus.

J.C.: You live in one of the rainiest cities in the U.S. -- Seattle -- so it's funny that you've set the new series in sunny Palm Springs, but there's another reason, too?

R.M.: The premise of the "Bloodlines" series is they're trying to hide this vampire princess, and they've pretty much chosen the last place anyone would look for a vampire because it's so sunny, so that is by design. It's tricky for her because it's not a particularly pleasant place for her to be. She's in high school, and trying to do mundane things like P.E. outside is strenuous because the sun makes her sick.

J.C.: Palm Springs also sets your vampires apart from the "Twilight" series in rainy Forks, Wash.

R.M.: There is that desire to stay away from that. All the vampire books out there are so different. It's good to throw in some different things.

J.C.: I'm sure you're asked this all the time, but why are vampires so popular?

R.M.: I do get asked this all the time, and I would think by now I would have an answer. I don't know. People have always had a fascination with the supernatural going back to the beginning of time and with vampires in particular. This phenomenon is not new. When I was in high school, it was Anne Rice. Go back farther, and it was Bela Lugosi and Bram Stoker. People like vampires because they're kind of human like, but they're still sort of dangerous and supernatural, so maybe it's a relatable mix. I'm not sure. It's something I would like the answer to as well.

J.C.: You started "Vampire Academy" well before Stephenie Meyer and "Twilight" became household names. Has the success of that series been a help or a hindrance?

R.M.: It's definitely helped. People really want to set up these rivalries because there's a lot of vampire books out there. People want to believe we're all fierce rivals, and really there's just so much camaraderie with authors. Everyone kind of boosts each other. If readers like one vampire book, they'll want to read more, so "Twilight" kicked it off, and it's really helped my series, but I like to think it's more than it being just a vampire book. I like to think it's the characters and stories that appeal to readers.

J.C.: How would you describe the new series' core story?

R.M.: It's a couple different things. One part is the love story. It's a slow burn, so we'll see things progress. Another part is about questioning what you're told. The people Sydney works for have a lot of rules. There's a lot of dogma, and they tell her: This is what vampires are like. This is what these people are like. There's this idea of overcoming prejudice to see things for yourself and ultimately making your own choices. Sydney's working to find her own voice in this series.

J.C.: As a reviewer, it's so great to see such strong female role models in teen fiction.

R.M.: You're absolutely right. It's a great thing to see in books. It's definitely something that's always been important to me. What's fun about "Bloodlines" is it's a different kind of strength we're seeing in a young woman. Rose was obviously strong physically and getting into fights and punching her enemies. She was literally a strong, fierce woman. Sydney is quieter. It's an intellectual strength, and I think that's important to show, too. There's a lot of ways to assert yourself and be a strong person.

J.C.: You're a new mother. How has that impacted your work and creativity?

R.M.: It certainly affects the 9 to 5 schedule. I've had to manage my time better. As far as writing style, I think I'm a little less dark. There's still plenty of that. Don't get me wrong. It hasn't all become rainbows and unicorns, but babies just make you hope for some better things in the world, so there's a little more optimism.

J.C.: Where does film interest stand in the "Vampire Academy" and "Bloodlines" series?

R.M.: There's a lot of rumors. Nothing with "Bloodlines" at all. There's a production company shopping "Vampire Academy" around, so I think that's where the confusion comes from because it sounds more promising than it is. They need to get a studio on board.

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-- Susan Carpenter

Photo: Richelle Mead; "The Golden Lily," "Bloodlines" and "Last Sacrifice" book jackets. Credit: Malcolm Smith Photography; Penguin Group

Thomas Pynchon's novels will finally be released as e-books

For the first time, Thomas Pynchon's back catalog will be available as e-books starting Wednesday. Pynchon was a major writer whose absence from the e-book canon was notable -- particularly since his most avid readers tend to be intellectually curious, the kind of people who are often technology's early adopters.

Many of Pynchon's books deal with technology in one form or another, from the bombings of "Gravity's Rainbow" to the fringes of the aerospace industry of "The Crying of Lot 49" and the oddities of the 1893 World's Fair in "Against the Day." As e-books have emerged, Pynchon has let the technology pass by; not anymore.

“There has been a great desire to have all of Tom’s books in digital format now, for many years. He didn’t want to not be part of that,” Ann Goodoff, president of his publisher, Penguin Press, told the New York Times. “I think he wants to have more readers,” she said. “Every writer wants to have as many readers as they can possibly get. But I don’t think this will change his public profile, in terms of him being out there in public. In fact, I know it won’t.”

Pynchon, 75, is a notoriously private author who has declined to speak to the media for decades. Although it's not easy to be a recluse in the Internet age, Pynchon has largely avoided being photographed and has otherwise stayed out of the public literary sphere. Apparently, his books being available electronically will not change that.

Seven Pynchon novels and his short story collection "Slow Learner" go on sale Wednesday as e-books. Chronologically they are "V" (1963), "The Crying of Lot 49" (1966), "Gravity's Rainbow" (1973), "Vineland" (1990), "Mason & Dixon" (1997), "Against the Day" (2006), and "Inherent Vice" (2009). They will be priced from $9.99 to $12.99.

One technology that Pynchon has welcomed is the fax machine. His old friend, Phyllis Gebauer, when announcing a donation of a (very rare) complete set of signed first editions of Pynchon's books, talked about communicating with Pynchon via fax. "I was planning to skydive into the middle of these proceedings," Pynchon joked in a fax to her. Gebauer donated her Pynchon collection to the UCLA Extension writers program, where she had taught for many years. "Thank you for your teaching," Pynchon's fax continued. "Good work and good vibes to everybody there."

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Remembering Ray Bradbury: What's your favorite book?

For those of us in Southern California, Ray Bradbury wasn't just an author, he was a fixture in our literary culture. Even in recent years, as he moved from his 80s to his 90s, he set up regular events at  bookstores: he could be found at Vroman's on Halloween, and at the Mystery & Imagination Bookshop on his birthday. These were occasions to buy books and get them signed, but they were also something more, a way to check in with Bradbury, to express appreciation for his work. Vroman's event planner Jen Ramos  says she saw the same people come back year after year, sometimes buying additional copies of the same book again and again.

But which book would that be? We asked people who follow @LATimesBooks on Twitter to tell us their favorite book by Bradbury, and got a wide variety of responses. Some people even told us what it was like to meet the man himself.

Ray Bradbury remembered

Readers on Twitter will remember Ray Bradbury for his many appearances around Los Angeles, and his many books and stories. We asked which are your favorites.

Storified by Carolyn Kellogg · Wed, Jun 06 2012 16:20:50

@latimesbooks met him at the thousand oaks library. Seemed a man with incredible curiosity and huge ideasJames Freymuth

@latimesbooks So many favorites, but my favorite of favorites from childhood on is #TheIllustratedMan.Raul Pumpkin

@latimesbooks Fahrenheit 451because of it's beauty in the midst of chaos. I saw him at the 2008 Festival of Books, he was magic.Becky Hope

@latimesbooks Favs were Fahrenheit 451 & Martian Chronicles. Met him several times at writer's events in LA area. A charming & gracious man.Jeanne Lyet Gassman

“@latimesbooks: Sci-fi pioneer Ray Bradbury dies at 91 http://lat.ms/L3qLvb” honored I was able to meet this man....opened my eyes to sci-fiKrysten Klein

@latimesbooks Saw him speak @ UCLA med school, in his 80s & still writing 3 books a year. Amazing.lirivera

@latimesbooks Book: Something Wicked This Way Comes. I did meet him, as a painfully young writer. He was generous and encouraging.Peggy Riley

@latimesbooks As a fellow Poe fanatic, I have a special love for The Exiles. Never met RB, but a friend did once. Said he was a lovely man.Undine

@latimesbooks My favorite Ray Bradbury book is my favorite book of all time: Dandelion Wine. It just makes me happy.M. E. Pickett

@latimesbooks Something Wicked This Way Comes inspired a lifelong love of wicked carnivals that eventually spawned my own writing career.Katy Towell

@latimesbooks "Fahrenheit 451" - Best critique of media-besotted society until "White Noise" was written. Never met but saw him speak.Bruce Watson

@latimesbooks can I be an honorary angelino? SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES changed the landscape if my family.Jennifer Wilson

@latimesbooks Read Farenheit 451 when Champaign-Urbana picked it as a their book for the whole community.Joanna Sholem

@latimesbooks #Ray Bradbury met him when he spoke at Bakersfield Business Conf circa 2000. Had him sign my copy of Fahrenheit 451. RIP.Charlie Powell

@latimesbooks Met him briefly at a book signing. My favorite is Martian Chronicles. The pictures he painted of another world still haunt me.Stephanie Thompson

Sand news. I always wanted to meet him. Science fiction pioneer Ray Bradbury, 91, has died http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/06/science-fiction-pioneer-ray-bradbury-91-has-died.html via @latimesbooksM. E. Pickett

We will miss you: Science fiction pioneer Ray Bradbury, 91, has died http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/06/science-fiction-pioneer-ray-bradbury-91-has-died.html via @latimesbooksPaolo Fior

What's your favorite book by Ray Bradbury?

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Ray Bradbury in 1997. Credit: Steve Castillo / Associated Press Photos

 

Science fiction pioneer Ray Bradbury, 91, has died

Ray Bradbury, an iconic science fiction author who helped bring the genre into the mainstream, has died, his family confirms. He was 91.

Bradbury was the recipient of many awards, including a National Medal of Arts, a special citation from the Pulitzer board, a medal for distinguished contribution to American letters from the National Book Foundation, and an Emmy. He is a member of the SF Hall of Fame, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a crater on the moon was named for one of his works and an asteroid is named in his honor.

Bradbury served as an affable emissary for science fiction. His futuristic ideas were much sought after: he consulted with both Disney and NASA.

Bradbury wrote his classic "Fahrenheit 451" at a pay-as-you-go typewriter in the basement of UCLA's library. In the book's futuristic world, reading is banned and books are burned. First published in 1953, it has sold more than 10 million copies, been published in 33 languages in 38 countries, and has never gone out of print.

Other notable works by Bradbury are "The Martian Chronicles," "Dandelion Wine" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes." In his career, he wrote more than 30 books, hundreds of short stories, plus poetry, plays and books for children. He is credited as a writer on dozens of movie and television projects and worked with John Huston on the screenplay of the 1956 film version of "Moby Dick."

Bradbury was born Aug. 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Ill. He moved to Southern California, where his efforts to become a writer took hold. According to legend, he gave a copy of "The Martian Chronicles" to Christopher Isherwood, and his career was underway.

We'll have a full obituary of this Los Angeles legend coming soon.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

 

Harry Potter 'Book of Spells' by J.K. Rowling launches Wonderbook

As the publishing business is gathered in New York's Javits Center for Book Expo America, some of the most exciting book news of the week was being announced 3,000 miles away. It was at the E3 electronics conference in Los Angeles, and the company with the news was Sony.

The Harry Potter universe just got bigger, and more interactive, with an impressive new game-slash-ebook for Playstation. The tool is called the Wonderbook; its first book is "Book of Spells," written by JK Rowling herself.

Rowling has been trying to forge a unique path for bringing her Harry Potter books to life. Of course, there was the movie series. Then in 2011, she launched Pottermore, an interactive website designed to allow fans to do their own Harry Potter-inspired storytelling. If that was a bit of a disappointment to some, "Book of Spells" may pick up the slack. It does seem to be a leap forward.

"Book of Spells" for Wonderbook lets readers -- or is it players? -- use a wand and an interactive book to make things happen on the screen. In the demonstration Monday, players released a video dragon, which lighted  the book on fire, and players patted  the book with their hands and put the fire out. Apparently, after reading more of the book, a player could learn spells to put the fire out.

The demonstration is pretty impressive. And it's interesing that as e-books continue to evolve, the place to find the most innovative new books may not be in the hands of publishers, but the industries that put the "e" in "e-books."

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Photo: Two players demonstrate "Book of Spells" and the Wonderbook. Credit: David McNew/Getty Images.

See a video of the demonstration after the jump.

The origins of '50 Shades of Grey' go missing

People who know about "50 Shades of Grey" have probably heard that author E.L. James began the story as post-"Twilight" fan fiction. But now the Internet evidence of its start has been deleted, so its origins have been erased.

That's what the website Galleycat discovered when it went to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine allows anyone to look at websites as they appeared on days past, when the Internet Archive's computer systems took a snapshot of the site.

Galleycat had previously visited the site to look at the history of James' website 50Shades.com, where she began posting writing in earnest after a beginning on Fanfiction.net. It found lots there to demonstrate that James' early writings were meant to be a continuation, or detour, of the characters in Twilight, including images of actors Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. That was in James' online serial "Masters of the Universe," which begat "50 Shades of Grey." Now only Galleycat's screenshots of the site remain online -- the Internet Archive no longer has them.

“The Internet Archive honors requests from domain and site owners to exclude pages from the Wayback Machine at their request,” the site told Galleycat.

Why take down those pages? Could it be that fan fiction is in the crosshairs?

So far, fan fiction -- in which devoted readers revivify characters from their favorite works in their own writing -- has been left largely to flourish unimpeded. Vibrant online communities have sprung up around some books -- think the "Harry Potter" series -- in which people write and share their own versions of the characters in different places, time periods, and relationships. Sometimes, as in the case of "50 Shades of Grey," those relationships get sexual. But the sex isn't the problem -- it's the copyright.

"Copyright issues are at the core of fan fiction because using the characters and fictional worlds of commercial authors to create fan works is arguably a violation of the law from the outset," explains Steven Hechter in the British magazine Times Higher Education.

James' agent told Deadline, "This did start as 'Twilight' fan fiction, inspired by Stephenie Meyer’s wonderful series of books. Originally it was written as fan fiction, then Erika [E.L. James] decided to take it down after there were some comments about the racy nature of the material. She took it down and thought, I’d always wanted to write. I’ve got a couple unpublished novels here. I will rewrite this thing, and create these iconic characters, Christian and Anna. If you read the books, they are nothing like 'Twilight' now." Her American publisher told the Associated Press that James' "Masters of the Universe" (which was fan fiction) and "50 Shades of Grey" are "two distinctly separate pieces of work."

That point was countered by romance-focused site Dear Author, which compared the two works side by side. In one test, using the plagiarism-checker TurnItIn, the texts had 89% similarity.

I'm not a lawyer, so I certainly can't sort any of that out. It is interesting that the early version has now disappeared.

Or maybe the disappearance has nothing to do with the old connection between "50 Shades of Grey" and "Twilight" -- maybe the reason someone requested those pages be taken down is simply so "50 Shades of Grey" can stand -- firmly on the top of bestseller lists -- on its own.

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First-time author Madeline Miller wins last-ever Orange Prize

American author Madeline Miller was awarded the Orange Prize for fiction at a ceremony in London on Wednesday. It was for Miller's first book, the novel "The Song of Achilles," and marked the occasion of the last Orange Prize, worth about $47,000.

This month it was announced that telecom company Orange would cease sponsoring the 17-year-old prize, which is awarded to a female author for a work of fiction written in English.

Newcomer Miller was the dark horse in this year's race. In the surprise win, she beat out prior Orange Prize winner Ann Patchett, octogenarian Cynthia Ozick, Man Booker Prize finalist Esi Edugyan, Brit Georgiana Harding and Irish Man Booker Prize winner Anne Enright. They posed some serious literary competition.

Miller, however, won over the judges with "The Song of Achilles," told by Patroclus, a peripheral but significant figure in "The Illilad." Click here to read an online excerpt.

Miller was born in Boston and grew up with a lasting love of the classics; she currently teaches Latin in New England. On her website, the author explains where she got the idea for a key element of story -- that Patroclus and Achilles had a love affair.

I stole it from Plato! The idea that Patroclus and Achilles were lovers is quite old.  Many Greco-Roman authors read their relationship as a romantic one—it was a common and accepted interpretation in the ancient world.  We even have a fragment from a lost tragedy of Aeschylus, where Achilles speaks of his and Patroclus’ “frequent kisses.”

There is a lot of support for their relationship in the text of the Iliad itself, though Homer never makes it explicit.  For me, the most compelling piece of evidence, aside from the depth of Achilles’ grief, is how he grieves: Achilles refuses to burn Patroclus’ body, insisting instead on keeping the corpse in his tent, where he constantly weeps and embraces it—despite the horrified reactions of those around him. That sense of physical devastation spoke deeply to me of a true and total intimacy between the two men.

In a press release, Joanna Trollope, chair of the judges, praised the book, saying, "This is a more than worthy winner — original, passionate, inventive and uplifting. Homer would be proud of her."

Prior winners of the Orange Prize include Tea Obreht, Barbara Kingsolver, Lionel Shriver, Carol Shields, Marilynne Robinson and Zadie Smith. After the departure of its sponsor, the prize plans to continue, but presumably with a new, not-yet-identified name.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Madeline Miller, right, gets the news of her win from judge Joanna Trollope. Credit: Lefteris Pitarakis / Associated Press