New Ways to Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families

New
Paperback
2013
$16.56

From Colm Toibin comes New Ways to Kill Your Mother, a fabulously entertaining book about writers and their families. In this wonderfully entertaining and enlightening collection, Colm Toibin not only explores the often tense relationship between writers and their families but also conveys, with a rare tenderness and wit, the great joy of reading their work. Here is W.B. Yeats harshly responding to his own father's literary efforts; Thomas Mann ruining his children's prospects; Tennessee Williams haunted by his sister's mental illness; and John Cheever being beastly to his wife. Praise for New Ways to Kill Your Mother: A brilliant book...Toibin is a supple, subtle thinker, alive to hints and undertones, wary of absolute truths. (Robert Hanks, New Statesman). A penetrating and often very funny inquiry into the fraught complicity between parent and child, brother and sister. (Daily Telegraph). Insightful and compassionate, assured and knowledgeable, never less than fascinating. An impressive, fine and engaging collection. (Independent on Sunday).

Synopsis

From Colm Toibin comes New Ways to Kill Your Mother, a fabulously entertaining book about writers and their families. In this wonderfully entertaining and enlightening collection, Colm Toibin not only explores the often tense relationship between writers and their families but also conveys, with a rare tenderness and wit, the great joy of reading their work. Here is W.B. Yeats harshly responding to his own father's literary efforts; Thomas Mann ruining his children's prospects; Tennessee Williams haunted by his sister's mental illness; and John Cheever being beastly to his wife. Praise for New Ways to Kill Your Mother: "A brilliant book...Toibin is a supple, subtle thinker, alive to hints and undertones, wary of absolute truths." (Robert Hanks, New Statesman). "A penetrating and often very funny inquiry into the fraught complicity between parent and child, brother and sister." (Daily Telegraph). "Insightful and compassionate, assured and knowledgeable, never less than fascinating. An impressive, fine and engaging collection." (Independent on Sunday).

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: 1
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 07 Mar 2013
ISBN 10: 0141041765
ISBN 13: 9780141041766

Media Reviews

A brilliant book...Toibin is a supple, subtle thinker, alive to hints and undertones, wary of absolute truths. * New Statesman *
Insightful and compassionate, assured and knowledgeable, never less than fascinating. An impressive, fine and engaging collection * Independent on Sunday *
These are foxy essays. Toibin knows lots of things, and his characteristic approach is to sneak up on things steadily. Toibin, with great subtlety and sometimes with splendid impudence, is interested here in what you might call the higher gossip * Spectator *
Toibin's engaged in white heat. A masterly writer, working at the full stretch of his powers * Guardian *
A consistently revealing look at how writers' relationships have influenced their work * Sunday Telegraph *
'Calm and pure, a tone that's unfailingly warm and compassionate...Colm Toibin's prose meets Orwell's standard: it's like a pane of clear glass * Irish Times *
Toibin is a particularly compelling guide to fellow novelists. A wide-ranging and enlightening study of the potentially stifling family and the individual spirit of the writer * Sunday Times *
He writes in muscular prose with a keen eye for detail * Economist *
Penetrating and often very funny...Toibin is a master * Telegraph *
Colm Toibin is an exceptionally fine writer...He puts his natural empathy to good use in these essays...outstanding * Mail on Sunday *

Author Bio

Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. He is the author of nine novels including The Master, Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary and Nora Webster. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, has won the Costa Novel Award and the Impac Award. His most recent novel is House of Names. He has also published two collections of stories and many works of non-fiction. He lives in Dublin.