Fusing old-world academia with the spirit of the YBAs in 90s London ➡️📖
art is something life-affirming – as well as, for some within its pages, ultimately life-destroying. Tracing a tumultuous summer in the life of a Cambridge don , this cosseted existence within the world of academia is thrown into chaos with the arrival of a radical piece of assemblage art by a YBA in the quad of his college.
JC: I think that’s right, and I think it becomes a sort of cocoon in my novel for this man. This small, closed, recondite community is his entire world – he’s never even particularly physically moved beyond it. And I think that probably was much more the case in the fairly recent past of this novel, in the 90s. The kind of world I presented there at the beginning of the story, that Cambridge society, is like the vestige of something from earlier in the 20th century.
But then on the other hand in the novel, you’ve got Ben, the younger guy, who has almost moved past this gay identity again into something that’s more fluid and indefinable, because at various moments you don’t really know what Ben’s sexuality or sexual desires even are. It’s not clear, because perhaps he doesn’t feel the need to announce them or define them for people. But Don is in between these two characters, both in terms of his generation and his sensibility.
JC: I’m glad to hear that, because it’s the kind of response I want people to have. I’ve always been interested in characters in fiction who are to some extent disagreeable or difficult, or hard to empathise with, if not impossible to. But you know, his character has been sort of cauterised or damaged by some of his experiences, or lack of experience. Is it just this fatal inexperience of love or life or the world has turned him into quite an objectionable kind of man.
“It was before social media, so those bars and clubs – places like Heaven, where Don ends up on his wild night out – they had a particularly important role in terms of finding that identity and being able to express it and meet other people who shared it” – James Cahill
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Tube strike: All London Underground lines hit by walkout - BBC NewsTube strike: All London Underground lines hit by walk out. Transport Correspondent BBCTomEdwards and HarryLow49 with updates on how it is affecting commuters. More live updates here:
Read more »
London Tube strike: Services running as industrial action endsThe industrial action which saw all lines affected with closures for 24 hours has ended.
Read more »
London Tube strike: Further disruption as Tube strike continuesCommuters are set to face further disruption as a strike by London Underground staff continues.
Read more »
Off-market sales soar in London amid fierce competition for homesA record 23 per cent of sales in the capital were agreed off market in the first five months of 2022 as buyers seek to beat the ‘stock starved’ market
Read more »