Sheer Fiction (Volume Two).

Kingston, NY McPherson & Company, 1991. Hardcover First Edition (1991), so stated. First Printing indicated by a complete numerical sequence. First Edition (1991), so stated. First Printing indicated by a complete numerical sequence. Very Near Fine in Very Near Fine DJ: The Book shows a hint of dusting to the top edge of the text block; else flawless; the binding is square and secure; the text is clean. Free of creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of any underlining, hi-lighting or marginalia or marks in the text. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. very nearly-new copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing a minor, unobtrusive cosmetic imperfection . Bright, Crisp and Clean. Corners sharp. Virtually 'As New'. The DJ shows the mildest rubbing to the rear panel and the faintest resultant soiling thereto; else flawless; the price has not been clipped; mylar-protected. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches). 198 pages. Language: English. Weight: 16 ounces. Hardback with DJ. Paul West (1930 – 2015) was a British-born American novelist, poet, and essayist. He was born in Eckington, Derbyshire in England. After graduating with honors in English from the University of Birmingham, West studied at Lincoln College, Oxford, and then as a Smith-Mundt scholar at Columbia University in the United States from 1952 to 1953, from which he graduated with a master's degree. From 1957 he taught English literature at Memorial University of Newfoundland until, in 1962, he began teaching at Pennsylvania State University. It was there in the early 1970s that he met Diane Ackerman, a writer, poet, and naturalist. West is the author of more than 50 books. Among other honors, West's literary awards have included the American Academy of Arts and Letters award for literature (1985), the Lannan Prize for fiction (1993), and the Grand-Prix Halpèrine-Kaminsky Prize (1993) for best foreign book. West was named a "literary lion" by the New York Public Library and a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre des Arts et Lettres) by the French government.West placed high importance on the role of the imagination, as distinguished from convention or dogma, in the creation of fiction and non-fiction. He favored intense flamboyant prose over minimalist writing, which he regarded as generally vapid. His interest in the mutability of what is conventionally thought to be real led to an interest in Latin American fiction and its "penchant for the magical and improbable". Paul West examines the subtleties of Djuna Barnes' almost devilish wit, the Aeschylean tones of Broadway's Les Miserables, and the ideas binding Dickens and Dostoevesky to Faulkner. On the briefer side, West reviews some 50 novels by such diverse authors as Turgunev, J.R.R. Tolkein, Cortazar, Amado, Marie-Claire Blais, Janet Frame, Anthony Burgess, Anita Desai, Katherine Dunn, George Garrett, Kurt Vonnegut, J.R. Salamanca, Stanley Elkin, and more. His writing style is supple, invigorating, intelligent, generous by intention, and clearly the result of nothing less than complete engagement with his subject. He is as unstinting in his praise of what he admires as he is devastating in his criticism of pretense and ineptitude.