Notes :
3 October 2002, Sunday
Alex,
Having kept myself aware of Donna's work through your site for some time, I
thought it time to throw something back.
On Wednesday 30th October my partner and I went to see Donna at the Oxford
Union (England, that is!).
She was introduced to a full house (around 290 people - or more) and read
some (possibly all, I haven't checked yet) of the prologue to The Little
Friend. It was really worth listening to - her voice will follow me right
through the book when I actually read it. Most surprising was that at the
appropriate juncture (the gospel radio station) she broke into song - and
what a lovely singing voice she has. I have never heard that mentioned in
any interview or article I have read! Though still obviously not comfortable
with a large number of people, she appeared much more relaxed than in her
television interview with Kirsty Wark (BBC 4, Sunday 27th October).
I was also quite amazed when - after a few questions from her friend and
introducer (name unfortunately not remembered) - she answered questions from
the floor. So amazed that I only managed to come up with questions of my own
as she answered the last one of the session.
Unfortunately she was not dedicating books - but she had signed 600 for
Borders bookshop (who organised the event). So we happily each have a signed
copy.
Regards
Rod
23 September 2002, Monday
update: thanks to paul of the netherlands for this translation of the keizerin van de hype AND the popster article.
thanks to pete of the netherlands for this update:
Donna Tartt is currently on tour in the
Netherlands and during the tour her Dutch publisher confirmed that "The
Secret History" will be made into a movie by Gwyneth Paltrow. She'll be
producing and starring in it. and he sent links to these articles (I looked for an online translator for this, but no luck):
Donna Tartt, popster en beste vriendin and Tot op de zesde verdieping voor de keizerin van de hype
oh, and Pete? now that you mention it, you're right, my Dutch is a bit rusty.
16 May 2002, Thursday
cut 'n' pasted from my inbox today:
Hi Alex,
I love your site and just wanted to send you infos about the book that we have waited for all these years:
the American version:
On Mother''s Day, 1964, nine-year-old Robin Cleve Dusfresnes was found dead, hanging from a tree in the back yard. His killer was never identified, nor has his family ever recovered from this trauma. His father works in far-off Nashville, his mother lives in her cloud of grief, and his little sisters grow up in a kind of limbo, presided over by four great-aunts. Though the teenaged Allison was four at the time of her brother's death, she can scarcely recall him. It is Harriet- now a twelve year old - for whom Robin has become, if anything, more real than the people around her...
the UK-Version:
In a small Mississippi town, Harriet grows up haunted by the murder of her brother, who was found hanging from a tree when she was just a baby. Robin''s killer was never identified, and the family has never recovered from the tragedy. Harriet lives largely in the world of her imagination, obsessed by Robin who is a link to the happier past. Then one summer, the year she turns twelve, Harriet decides to find his murderer and exact his revenge...
There are also little pics of the slightly different covers.
Bye!
Frank
Cologne, Germany
11 April 2002, Thursday
Alex
A quick comment regarding the update on the 'Abridged' version of the new
book offered by Amazon.com. This relates to the audio version. However, it is possible to preorder both the Hardback and Paperback editions of the new book on Amazon.co.uk now. The date for both editions is stated as 15th October 2002.
SL
click for aforementioned link
click for amazon.co.uk
13 December 2001, Thursday
I tend to forget that news trickles out to people at different rates, so I rather assumed that everyone knew, but here it is anyway: yes, Gwyneth Paltrow seems to have picked up the reins for the TSH movie project. Her brother Jake is slated to direct; here's the link to his imdb page. As of this writing, he's 26 years old, and his cv consists entirely of:
2000 : "Others, The" TV Series (episode "Mora") - director
1996 : Sydney - set production assistant
1995 : Eviction Notice, An - director
1993 : "NYPD Blue" TV Series - director
let's say she wanted to fast track this pic; we still wouldn't see anything for about two years. as usual, all comments welcome on the b-board to your left.
and, on an unrelated note, there's still this:
Dear Alex
We are publishing, this week, a book about The Secret History, by Tracy
Hargreaves at the University of Leeds in England. [...]
Best wishes,
[Editor, Continuum Publishers]
. . . and that would be:
continuum-books.com, specifically:
Donna Tartt's The Secret History: A Reader's Guide
now, I know a lot of you knew about this already (hi b), but this announcement happens to come from the publisher, so I thought I'd just quote them.
molon labe,
--alex.
2 May 2001, Wednesday
from Mark Coles' BBC piece/Radio 4/Today
BBC's page with edited text interview
RealAudio Link with interview:
She has finished her second novel - well almost - "I'm editing it down at the moment," she says.
"It's a book about children - but not for children - its a frightening scary book about children coming into contact with the world of adults in a very frightening way".
So why had it taken so long to write? "I can't write quickly. If I could write a book a year and maintain the same quality I'd be happy. I'd love to write a book a year but I don't think I'd have any fans".
Donna Tartt's new novel - with the provisional title "Tribulation" is scheduled for publication early next year.
from an interview with Scott Hicks:
What do you see as your next step, where are you going now?
A: Oooh…um [laughs] you never really know in one sense. I mean each stage for me has been an enormous learning process and I firmly believe that you keep applying yourself to what you do and the chances are, if you have a sliver of ability, you're going to get better. So now, this leap I've taken has been an enormous experience, learning how to maintain control over a gigantic studio production. Any film has a life of its own and if you're not careful you end up just strapped to the front of the locomotive - but you want to be driving it. The next film most likely will be one of two or three American films, which all have scripts that are well advanced. Maybe the next challenge is working with a colossal movie star and still trying to be true to my lights as a filmmaker.
Q: Are you looking for a particular genre?
A: They seem to self select; the material that interests me tends to have a certain brooding, obsessive nature to it [laughs]. For example, The Secret History (novel based), is set up at Warner Bros and that I've been developing even before Snow Falling on Cedars, and now they're very excited about this draft I've written and they're talking about cast and so on. And there is Enduring Love, which Sony has, which I've been developing with writer Jeremy Brock (Her Majesty Mrs Brown) - a story of obsessive love and a study in paranoia . . .
how about that? contact info, if you want it:
Amanda Urban, her agent
International Creative Management (ICM)
40 West. 57th Street
New York NY 10019
Knopf
knopfpromotion@randomhouse.com
knopfpublicity@randomhouse.com
1.800.733.3000 (in the U.S. - answers as Random House) or 1.410.848.1900 (for international calls) for books published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Knopf publicity 212.577.2104; 212.572.2600; 212.572.2104
speak softly and carry a big stick,
- alex, caveat browsorr
16 July
"the Henry Darger (DAR-jer) thing was something to do with a Library of Contemporary Thought series, a Ballantine deal, and it's probably not going to happen." -- somebody at Random House, once upon a time
so: given the major themes of TSH regarding seductive appearances hiding an evil nature and what happens as a result of embracing that evil, can we find parallels (direct or inverse) in Darger's life? What do we make of the (predictably) unscheduled piece in The Library of Contemporary Thought, in which DT is expected to focus on Darger as she "explores the creative and the business sides of modern art?"
we shall see.
in connection to the new book. what struck me about this man -- besides the bizarre sado-pedo-sexual imagery -- was the fact that he accomplished a truly massive corpus of work without anyone's knowledge; his landlord discovered it after his death entirely by accident. another "secret history" of sorts, if you don't mind stretching the metaphor.