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Lucie Elven

@lucieelven.bsky.social

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Lucie Elven @lucieelven.bsky.social · May 6

Given the republication of The Edge of the Alphabet (@fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social), I wrote about the brilliant Janet Frame for @lrb.co.uk.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

The TLS @thetls.bsky.social · 29d

'Schweblin uses successive crises as a means to break open her characters’ mechanical routines and force them to locate raw feelings.'

Lucie Elven: Finding the soul beneath the skin

www.the-tls.com

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Sep 5

‘David Lynch had a peculiarly subtractive aesthetic. Just as the more you see, the less comprehensible it becomes, the less you can see (the lower the lighting, the poorer the quality) the more there is to look for.’

Ruby Hamilton on the filmmaker: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Ruby Hamilton · Things go kerflooey: David Lynch’s Gee-Wizardry

For years, his biography on press releases was just four words long: ‘Eagle scout, Missoula, Montana.’ David Lynch...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Aug 9

‘Likely, he won’t come to her anymore, despite the fact that she has avoided any ethical question and thinks there is no need for them to be led into a discussion of the difference between, say, truthfulness and truth.’

Read a new story by Diane Williams: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Diane Williams · Story: ‘No Heartburn, Flatulence, Nausea or Muscular Cramps Either’

Reposted by Lucie Elven

Creative Writing at NEIU @neiu-cw.bsky.social · Apr 30

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Jun 21

‘As J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, she criss-crossed the Atlantic in pursuit of rare manuscripts to add to his collection, outbidding and outsmarting rivals wherever she went.’

Francesca Wade on Belle da Costa Greene:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Francesca Wade · Why waste time hot airing? The Best-Paid Woman in NYC

Belle da Costa Greene was a trainee librarian at Princeton University when J.P. Morgan hired her to dust and pack his...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

Jen Calleja @jencalleja.bsky.social · May 15

Books have arrived @prototypepubs.bsky.social HQ, out 29 May prototypepublishing.co.uk

Two books from above on a wooden table. They’re identical but in different colours. The one on the left is yellow with red and green chunky text that says Fair, the one on the right is blue with chunky black text. Fair the life-art of translation by Jen Calleja

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 4

‘Frame hated noise. She claimed that her street became too loud when, after Macmillan came to power, the residents had the money to buy TVs and record players, though she herself blasted out Schubert to disguise her illicit typing when her landlord was sleeping.’

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 14

‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’

@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 14

‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’

@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

Jo Lloyd 🌍🐎 @jolloyds.bsky.social · May 13

Nathan Dragon's collection The Champ is Here sounds really interesting - in a peak NOON way I'd say :) - if you're not convinced by Lucie Elven's lovely review, there's some samples available at nathandragon.com

Lucie Elven @lucieelven.bsky.social · May 13

I loved making a guest appearance on Rachel’s substack to write about (and recommend) Nathan Dragon’s beautiful short story collection, The Champ Is Here.
open.substack.com/pub/rachelco...

A seafood freak

A guest post by beloved friend of the substack Lucie Elven

open.substack.com

Lucie Elven @lucieelven.bsky.social · May 13

Worth every penny!

Lucie Elven @lucieelven.bsky.social · May 13

I loved making a guest appearance on Rachel’s substack to write about (and recommend) Nathan Dragon’s beautiful short story collection, The Champ Is Here.
open.substack.com/pub/rachelco...

A seafood freak

A guest post by beloved friend of the substack Lucie Elven

open.substack.com

Lucie Elven @lucieelven.bsky.social · May 13

I’m talking to Vijay Khurana about his extremely tense and impressive novel THE PASSENGER SEAT (Peninsula) on Thursday 22 May at @burleyfisher.bsky.social. It’s the London launch. Free tickets!
burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...

LAUNCH: The Passenger Seat By Vijay Khurana

Thursday 22nd May 6.30 to 9pm Join us to celebrate the launch of The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana, published by Peninsula Press. Vijay will be discussing his new novel with Lucie Elven; author of...

burleyfisherbooks.com

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 12

‘Janet Frame’s writing is often compared to Faulkner’s, and her family history reads like a Southern Gothic novel. Yet Frame can be an extraordinarily cheerful, funny writer. Language was a source of continual revelation.’

@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 12

‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’

@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

foldedsunset.bsky.social @foldedsunset.bsky.social · May 12

As a gift, she bought him silkworms, which they kept in a shoebox. Frame picked mulberry leaves for the worms to eat and ‘in the silence of the night as I lay in bed I heard a sound like the turning of tiny pages in a tiny library ... the sound of steady chewing and chomping.’

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

Peter Scott Reid @peterscottreid.bsky.social · Apr 1

I love this essay from Rachel Connolly about her friendship with the painter Felix Higham

Some paintings I love

open.substack.com

Reposted by Lucie Elven

Gregory P. Marchildon @gmarchildon.bsky.social · May 10

Wouldn’t you like to be normal? www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

bobbygw @bobbygw.bsky.social · May 10

#booksky for #womenwriters 📚💙

A beautiful, wondrous & deeply thoughtful essay about Janet Frame, her key works and life; she was one of the most remarkable, accomplished memoirists (Angel at My Table), novelists, & story writers of the 20th century. By Lucie Elven, novelist.

archive.is/W65Zp

Lucie Elven @lucieelven.bsky.social · May 11

Thank you!

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 10

‘Janet Frame’s writing is often compared to Faulkner’s, and her family history reads like a Southern Gothic novel. Yet Frame can be an extraordinarily cheerful, funny writer. Language was a source of continual revelation.’

@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 2

‘Before the second volume of her autobiography was even published, Janet Frame was being called a neglected genius, recommended for the Nobel Prize, awarded a CBE (she would have preferred to be styled Dame Frame, but “that’s my wack”).’

Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 9

‘Frame’s letters were opened by the doctors, who deemed them “foolish”. A line about gorse smelling of peanut butter was singled out as a sign of her disordered mind and reason enough to prevent contact with the outside world for a time.‘

Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

Macca @macca77.bsky.social · May 1

Great review this

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 1

‘Janet Frame hated noise. She claimed that her street became too loud when the residents had the money to buy TVs and record players, though she herself blasted out Schubert to disguise her illicit typing when her landlord was sleeping.’

Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...

Reposted by Lucie Elven

j alfred postrock @seriouslyreadmore.bsky.social · May 2

Janet Frame was just days away from a scheduled lobotomy when her first story collection won a New Zealand national literary award, convincing her doctors to cancel the procedure.

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · May 2

‘Before the second volume of her autobiography was even published, Janet Frame was being called a neglected genius, recommended for the Nobel Prize, awarded a CBE (she would have preferred to be styled Dame Frame, but “that’s my wack”).’

Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place

There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...