Benjamin Markovits (Contemporary Writers)

Benjamin Markovits is a leading Anglo-American novelist with a varied and ambitious body of work, ranging from a trilogy of historical fictions on the life of Lord Byron (Imposture, 2007; A Quiet Adjustment, 2008; Childish Loves,2011) to an award-winning portrayal of a gentrification project in Obama-era Detroit (You Don’t Have to Live Like This,2015) to intimate studies of contemporary family life (A Weekend in New York,2018; Christmas in Austin,2019). Prolific and unpredictable, Markovits is one of the most interesting realist writers working today. Featuring contributions from emerging and established scholars, this collection provides fresh perspectives on Markovits’s place in the contemporary literary field, as well as offering a detailed survey of his work to date. The collection begins with Markovits’s early ‘campus novel’, The Syme Papers (2004), before exploring his celebrated ‘Byron Trilogy’, and the 2005 story cycle, Either Side of Winter. Contributors consider Markovits’s best-known book, You Don’t Have to Live Like This, which won the James Tait Memorial Prize, as well as his more recent fictions focusing on the trials and tribulations of the Essinger family. Taken together, this authoritative collection brings to light the many preoccupations of Markovits’s singular oeuvre―from Byron to basketball, from race relations to real estate. It also includes a frank and wide-ranging interview with the author. The collection will be a first port of call for students and scholars in search of a comprehensive introduction to the work of one of our most exciting contemporary novelists. Benjamin Markovits is a leading Anglo-American novelist with a varied and ambitious body of work, ranging from a trilogy of historical fictions on the life of Lord Byron (Imposture, 2007; A Quiet Adjustment, 2008; Childish Loves, 2011) to an award-winning portrayal of a gentrification project in Obama-era Detroit (You Don't Have to Live Like This, 2015) to intimate studies of contemporary family life (A Weekend in New York, 2018; Christmas in Austin, 2019). Prolific and unpredictable, Markovits is one of the most interesting realist writers working today. Featuring contributions from emerging and established scholars, this collection provides fresh perspectives on Markovits's place in the contemporary literary field, as well as offering a detailed survey of his work to date. The collection begins with Markovits's early ‘campus novel', The Syme Papers (2004), before exploring his celebrated ‘Byron Trilogy', and the 2005 story cycle, Either Side of Winter. Contributors consider Markovits's best-known book, You Don't Have to Live Like This, which won the James Tait Memorial Prize, as well as his more recent fictions focusing on the trials and tribulations of the Essinger family. Taken together, this authoritative collection brings to light the many preoccupations of Markovits's singular oeuvre—from Byron to basketball, from race relations to real estate. It also includes a frank and wide-ranging interview with the author.The collection will be a first port of call for students and scholars in search of a comprehensive introduction to the work of one of our most exciting contemporary novelists. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Contributors Foreword Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: A Life Elsewhere Works Cited 1 The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Academic: The Syme Papers and Singularity Works Cited 2 The Byron Novels Imposture A Quiet Adjustment Childish Loves Works Cited 3 ‘What Hasn’t Happened to You’: Telling Failure in Either Side of Winter and You Don’t Have to Live Like This Either Side of Winter You Don’t Have to Live Like This Works Cited 4 ‘Everybody Got They Role to Play’: Basketball and Belonging in Playing Days ‘nervously Stepping Into the Role That His Talents Had Thrust Upon Him’ (PD, 28) ‘the Bright Reflected Heat of My Father’s Court’ (PD, 9) ‘Yes, a Very Good Dolmetscher’ (PD, 293) Note Works Cited 5 ‘The World Seemed Very Large Around Me’: Urban Regeneration and the Sublime in Benjamin Markovits’s You Don’t Have to Live Like This Works Cited 6 Temporary Concerns: The Limits of Meritocracy in You Don’t Have to Live Like This Notes Works Cited 7 Strategies of Self-Detachment and ‘The Business of Daily Life’ in the Fiction of Benjamin Markovits Notes Works Cited 8 Manners, Morals, and the Essingers: A Weekend in New York and Christmas in Austin Notes Works Cited 9 A Conversation With Benjamin Markovits Notes Index