Renata Adler

This novel gives voice to the experiences and feelings of discontinuity in modern life through a series of vignettes which follow the life and travels of Jen Fain, a beautiful and intelligent journalist

Speedboat

Pitch Dark

For decades, Renata Adler's writing has upheld and defined the highest standards of investigative journalism. A staff writer at The New Yorkerfrom 1963 to 2001, Adler has reported on civil rights from Selma, Alabama; on the war in Biafra, the Six-Day War, and the Vietnam War; on the Nixon impeachment inquiry and Congress. She has also written about cultural matters, films (as chief film critic for The New York Times), books, politics, and pop music. Like many journalists, she has put herself in harm's way in order to give us the news, not the "news" we have become accustomed to-celebrity journalism, conventional wisdom, received ideas-but the actual story, an account unfettered by ideology or consensus. The peril that Adler places herself in comes specifically from speaking up (on the basis of careful research, common sense, original thought) when too many other writers have joined the pack. In this most basic and moral sense, Adler is one of the few independent journalists writing in America today. This collection of Adler's nonfiction draws on her early essays, reporting, and criticism, which describe the major crises and hopeful turmoil of the 1960s, and more recent pieces concerned with, in her words, "misrepresentation, coercion, and abuse of public process, and the journalist's role in it." Also included arewritings on film, television, and music, and several uncollected essays on Jayson Blair and the Times, and the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore. A new epilogue by Adler provides an invaluable and long-overdue assessment of our culture today from one of its foremost chroniclers.

Collected Nonfiction

After the Tall Timber

Journeying to Ireland to escape her affair with a married man and discover new meaning for her life, Kate Ennis finds her trip takes on a sinister and absurd aspect when she becomes, or thinks she becomes, a fugitive

Essays on Politics and Media

Canaries in the Mineshaft

Renata Adler is one of the most original, incisive and witty writers active in American letters today. Whether it be fiction, reportage or essay, her work is marked by a truly extraordinary intellect and a luminous prose that is penetrating, precise, deft and, often, very funny. In this new collection-which includes the early and definitive profile of the National Guard; the widely discussed and still controversial review of Pauline Kael; and the first major piece about foreign contributions to American political campaigns-Adler's wide-ranging reflections become focused on two increasingly fused interests: the politics which govern our public world and the media, which now actively distort and misrepresent information about that world. For anyone seriously interested in politics and the media Canaries in the Mineshaft is yet another proof that Renata Adler is one of the most delightful and brilliant writers of our day.

What really happened in the 2000 presidential election - and can it happen again? It was the most tumultuous and uncertain transition of power in the history of the United States, and yet, to most Americans, what really happened in the 2000 presidential election remains unclear something went wrong in Florida, but the Supreme Court cleared it up and then, er, everyone was happy . . . right? But who actually won the Florida vote recount? What, exactly, did the Supreme Court decide? Was there truly no dissent? What role did the mass media play? In Irreparable Harm, Renata Adler, the long-time star of The New Yorker magazine who is also an attorney and a life-long Republican, takes a blistering look at the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision, and uncovers numerous problems, including instances where the judges mis-cited their own previous decisions, or reversed them. Irreparable Harm is one of three hard-hitting books published by Melville House (The Road to Illegitimacy, Irreparable Harm and The Big Chill) that take a close look at the 2000 election - based on three pieces of investigative journalism originally filed at the time, by three of the country's top journalists. These three insightful books are riveting history. But more importantly, they may help troubled Americans with one of the most pressing questions we face: Can it happen again?

The U.S. Supreme Court and the Decision that Made George W. Bush President

Irreparable Harm

From a legendary journalist and star writer at The New Yorker -- one of the most revered institutions in publishing -- an insider's look at the magazine's tumultuous yet glorious years under the direction of the enigmatic William Shawn. Renata Adler went to work at The New Yorker in 1963 and immediately became part of the circle close to editor William Shawn, a man so mysterious that no two biographies of him seem to be about the same person. Now Adler, herself an unrivaled literary force, offers her brilliant take on the man -- and the myth that is The New Yorker -- disputing recent memoirs by Lillian Ross and Ved Mehta along the way. With her lucid prose, meticulous eye for detail, and genuine love of The New Yorker, Adler re-creates thirty years in its history and depicts Shawn as a man of robust common sense, amazing industry, and editorial genius, who nurtured innumerable major talents (and egos) to produce a magazine that was -- and remains -- unique. Her ensemble cast -- all involved in legendary friendships, feuds, and love affairs -- includes Edmund Wilson, S. N. Behrman, Brendan Gill, Calvin Trillin, Dwight MacDonald, Donald Barthelme, Hannah Arendt, Pauline Kael, S. I. Newhouse, Robert Gottlieb, Tina Brown, and practically everyone of note in and around The New Yorker. Above and beyond the fascinating literary anecdotes, however, Adler's is a striking narrative that follows the weakening of Shawn's hold over the magazine he loved, his reluctant attempts to find a successor, and the coup by which he was ultimately overthrown. It is a wonderful piece of reporting, full of real-life drama of Shakespearean dimensions, which Shawn himself surely would have loved.

The Last Days of The New Yorker

Gone

Fourteen Pieces of Reporting and Criticism

Toward a Radical Middle

A Year in the Life of a Film Critic 1968-1969

A Year in the Dark

A trained lawyer who served with the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation and a respected critic, Adler analyzes the libel cases of Sharon vs. "Time" and Westmoreland vs. CBS

Westmoreland V. CBS Et Al., Sharon V. Time

Reckless Disregard

The U.S. Supreme Court and the Decision That Made George W. Bush President

Movie Criticism

The Problem of Poetic Opacity in Translating Die Aufzeichnungen Des Malte Laurids Brigge

"Wat is nieuw. Wat nog meer. Wat nu. Wat is hier gebeurd." Pikdonker is een boek over de liefde. Kate Ennis is op een cruciaal moment beland in een affaire met een getrouwde man. De complicaties en tegenstrijdigheden achtervolgen haar van een huis in het landelijke Connecticut naar een appartement in New York City, een klein eiland voor de kust van Washington en een pikdonkere nacht op het Ierse platteland. Pikdonker, dat is geschreven in de stijl van Renata Adlers gevierde roman Speedboot, is een gedurfd en verbazingwekkend kunstwerk. Het boek etaleert haar journalistieke blik en haar even eenvoudige als sublieme taalbeheersing. De romans van Adler erkennen de noodzaak om fictie sneller, bondiger en minder gedetailleerd te maken dan te doen gebruikelijk in de traditionele roman, niet zozeer uit respect voor de gekrompen aandachtsspanne, maar als de meest plausibele manier om de verstrooide, fragmentarische kwaliteit van het hedendaagse bewustzijn weer te geven. [...] Ze beschrijven hoe het is om nu te leven, in dit tijdsgewricht, in ons land en in deze wereld. Dit is wat de beste romans altijd hebben gedaan, en met een beetje geluk ook zullen blijven doen. -Gary Indiana, Bookforum Pikdonker straalt net als Speedboat een zekere openheid uit, zelfs kwetsbaarheid. Adler neemt afstand van de gebaande paden van het traditionele verhaal, en van de verwachtingen ten aanzien van het verloop der gebeurtenissen, en stelt in plaats daarvan een collage van bewustzijn samen. -Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review Renata Adler is briljant, en haar personage Kate Ennis is beminnelijk in haar volledige desinteresse om zichzelf beminnelijk te maken. Het is perfect en vooruitziend, en een enorm invloedrijk boek. -Chris Kraus, Slate Fantasierijk, intelligent en origineel. -Elizabeth Hardwick Als je gewoon toestaat dat [Adler's fragmenten] zich in hun eigen patronen nestelen, licht uitstralend waar ze maar willen, zal Pikdonker een heldere caleidoscoop van een boek blijken te zijn. - Anne Tyler vertaling Patricia Moerland Bron: Flaptekst, uitgeversinformatie.

Renata Adler

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