“I've always loved writing emotionally rich, character-driven novels that explore the way people fall in love and deal with life's triumphs and tragedies. I enjoy writing the contemporary and historical books equally, though perhaps 'enjoy' is the wrong word.” PeopleWayWritingBookCharacterFallEnjoyDealsNovelRichTragedyHistoricalFalling In LoveDrivenContemporaryTriumphWrong Words Author:Susan Wiggs
“In How to Be an American Housewife Margaret Dilloway creates an irresistible heroine. Shoko is stubborn, contrary, proud, a wonderful housewife and full of deeply conflicted feelings. I wanted to shake her, even as I was cheering her on, and this cunningly structured novel allowed me to do both. It also took me on two intricate journeys, from post-war Japan and the shadow of Nagasaki to contemporary California, and from motherhood to daughterhood and back again. A profound and suspenseful debut.” TwoWarFeelingsWantedNovelWonderfulJourneyProudShadowProfoundMotherhoodContraryContemporaryPostsCaliforniaShakesJapanCheerStubbornIrresistibleHousewifeBack AgainHeroinesIntricateDebutPost War Author:Margot Livesey
“Sex annihilates identity, and the space given to sex in contemporary novels is an avowal of the absence of character.” CharacterGivenSexSpaceNovelIdentityAbsenceContemporary Book:The humanist in the bathtub Source: The humanist in the bathtub
“There are some short essays that are very grave, and most contemporary novels are lighter than air.” NovelAirGravesContemporaryEssaysLighters Author:Fran Lebowitz
“I think that if the novel's task is to describe where we find ourselves and how we live now, the novelist must take a good, hard look at the most central facts of contemporary life - technology and science.” IfsThinkingLooksHardFactsTechnologyNovelTasksContemporaryNovelistsContemporary Life Author:Richard Powers
“I'd love to adapt more contemporary novels. But there isn't really enough story and character to make a really satisfying serial, so they tend to be single dramas.” EnoughCharacterStoriesNovelDramaContemporarySatisfyingSerials Author:Andrew Davies
“If any art form can accommodate contemporary culture, it's the novel. It's so malleable - it can incorporate essays, poetry, film. Maybe the challenge for the novelist is to stretch his art and his language, to the point where it can finally describe what's happening around him.” IfsArtFilmFormCultureLanguageChallengesNovelHappeningsContemporaryNovelistsEssaysAccommodate Author:Don DeLillo
“I am delighted if people find that kind of sustenance in novels, but perhaps it's because they don't read the Scripture that they are comparing it to, which would perhaps provide deeper sustenance than many contemporary novels.” PeopleIfsKindNovelDeeperScriptureContemporaryCompareDelightedSustenance Author:Marilynne Robinson
“I have written millions of words about contemporary England - in journalism. Why don't I take it as the background for a novel? I may do one day. But the simple answer is that it does not excite the novelistic part of my brain; it does not fire it up.” MayDoeSimpleAnswersBrainMillionsNovelFireWrittenOne DayEnglandBackgroundsContemporaryJournalism Author:Sebastian Faulks
“The contemporary memoir is playing an important role in at least just bringing certain relationships out into the open in American society, and also it's a place where the novel of development, the novel of consciousness, has gone.” ImportantCertainConsciousnessRolesNovelGoneDevelopmentMemoirContemporaryAmerican Society Author:Marco Roth
“Not a lot of contemporary fiction is written about brothers and sisters. Salinger's Franny and Zooey was an inspiration for me. In Franny and Zooey, the sister gets in trouble and the brother comes to help her out. But I wanted to make sure that in my novel the sister had more to do than lie around on a sofa muttering, which is what Franny does for two-thirds of Salinger's novel.” DoeTwoHelpingInspirationWantedLyingFictionNovelWrittenTroubleBrotherThirdsContemporaryBrothers And SistersContemporary FictionSofasMutteringSalinger Author:K. M. Soehnlein
“I like all sorts of things, not necessarily just Victorian. Even though I tend to read a lot of Victorian novels, I like a lot of contemporary stuff.” StuffNovelContemporaryVictorian Author:Colin Meloy
“I'm not entirely sure what a historical novel absolutely has to be, but you don't want a reader who loves a very traditional historical novel to go in with the expectation that this is going to deliver the same kind of reading experience. I think what's contemporary about my book has something to do with how condensed things are.” ThinkingWantKindBookReadingNovelReaderExpectationsHistoricalContemporaryTraditionalHistorical NovelsReading Experience Author:Danielle Dutton
“One of my favourite contemporary fiction writers is a Texan, Ben Fountain. His extraordinary novel, Billy Lynn's Long Half-Time Walk, all takes place within the half-time show at a Dallas Cowboys football game. No one has better summed up the American appetite for spectacle, the link between sports and politics, and the absolute madness of George W. Bush's Iraq War.” LongWarShowsGamesSportsWalksHalfFictionNovelFootballMadnessAbsolutesExtraordinaryIraqContemporaryLinksAppetiteFavouriteCowboyFountainIraq WarFiction WritersDallasContemporary FictionFootball GameTexanHalf TimeDallas Cowboy Author:Adam Hochschild