Waxwings novel jonathan raban biography

  • Julia raban
  • Jonathan raban daughter
  • Jonathan raban books in order
  • Waxwings: A Novel

    August 24, 2015
    I wasn't sure whether to class it as American or British fiction, but settled on American. While Raban writes within the British tradition, this was written in American, and is very much a novel of America... more specifically, my lovely adopted city of Seattle. I'd never read a novel set predominantly in Seattle before, and Raban writes about it almost rhapsodically, treating it with a reverence and sweetheartedness, even when he's describing the vacuous, emotionally hollow lives of its techies. Hey, I'm a vacuous, emotionally hollow wage slave at a start-up in Seattle! Woooo!!!!

    While his characters are wonderfully sketched, I can't say I'm terribly enamored of his writing bygd and large. He's a fantastic travel writer, but his witty, journalistic, descriptive tone doesn't translate all that well to the novel struktur. His utställning was chunky, almost stagey. The dust jacket compared him to Tom Wolfe, and in this sense, they're right, and that's not

    Jonathan Raban

    British travel writer, critic, and novelist (1942–2023)

    Jonathan Raban

    Raban in 2013

    BornJonathan Mark Hamilton Priaulx Raban
    (1942-06-14)14 June 1942
    Hempton, Norfolk, England
    Died17 January 2023(2023-01-17) (aged 80)
    Seattle, Washington, U.S.
    Alma materUniversity of Hull
    Genres
    • Travel writing
    • journalism
    • fiction
    Spouse
    • Bridget Johnson

      (divorced)​
    • Caroline Cuthbert

      (divorced)​
    • Jean Lenihan

      (divorced)​
    Children1

    Jonathan Mark Hamilton Priaulx Raban (14 June 1942 – 17 January 2023) was a British award-winning travel writer, playwright, critic, and novelist.

    Background

    [edit]

    Jonathan Raban was born on 14 June 1942 in Norfolk.[1][2] He was the son of Monica Raban (née Sandison) and the Rev Canon J. Peter C.P. Raban, whom he did not actually meet until he was three due to his father's

    Waxwings (novel)

    2003 novel by Jonathan Raban

    Waxwings 2003 is the second novel by Jonathan Raban

    Ideas for the novel

    [edit]

    Raban muses over the idea for a Seattle-based novel near the end of his American road trip in Hunting Mister Heartbreak. Whilst sailing on Lake Union, he portrays himself as a fictional writer called Rainbird who, in toying with the idea for a novel, invents a character called Woon Soo Rhee. Woon Soo Rhee materializes as Chick in Waxwings:

    Rainbird was keen on Woon Soo. His face would be a reef-knot of bunched muscle. His furious hands would fill the gaps of his fractured, F.O.B. American English. His body would be like the kind of steel spring that tough guys use to strengthen their hands. Woon Soo would be a creature of tragic aggression. (p. 361)

    The main themes running through the novel are Tom Janeaway's parental love for his son, the bubble of the Internet boom, and the characters' mistaken identities. Janeaway himself is confuse

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