| Author |
Message |
    
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 527
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008 - 07:03 pm: | 
|
Hello All,
I just discovered that Albert French, one of my favorite authors, published a new novel last year titled Cinder. 
I just found it on Amazon.com. Now, Cynique or Carey should have told me about this as soon as I got back! *eyebrow raised* What's up with that?? *LOL* Just kidding.
If you all haven't read Albert French yet, do yourself a favor and check him out. And start with his first novel Billy. It's magnificent. |
Carey
Veteran Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 875
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 01:10 am: |
|
Hello Thump
I can only assume that others may be watching but I think I have arrived at a place where I am secure enough to say the following.
You've been missed. You bring your own special flavor to the room. No one can ever replace you! I just know that when your name hits the board everyone pays attention. I am just so pleased that we are still here!
The storms can get thick, can't they man.
If I could, I'd give you a big hug, as long as you didn't talk  . Just do what you do. Do that thang you do so well.
Okay, enough of that mussy mess.
Now, how could I ever forget Billy by Albert French. You called it magnificent, dang, I can't say anymore. He also has a thang with his covers, don't he.
The book is called Cinder huh? Okay, I think I'll get it tomorrow. See you on the corner, at the discussion table. But look Thump, you can't make the book read the way you think it should. If my memory serves me well (sometimes it does not), you even argued with the author. Now what kind of mess is that *smile*. We ain't going to go there but I just want you to practice a few lines. Work on this one: Yes Carey, you are right. |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 292
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 09:08 am: |
|
Albert French is a Pittsburgh treasure that people here like to "discover" (in the press, at least) ever so often. He and John Edgar Wideman are cousins. I'd love to meet them both. Wideman comes for literary festivals from time to time, but I've always missed him. Literary crush! ;-)
Thanks for the heads up on "Cinder", Thumper. |
Troy
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 1374
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 02:42 pm: |
|
Billy by Albert French (http://aalbc.com/authors/albert.htm) was one of my favorite books. I was completely unaware of this title until now.
It looks like it was published in the UK, but that does not explain the lack of promotion... Actually this lack of promtion of characteristic of literary works.
Ferocious Kitty, over a decade ago, before I stared AALBC.com (which is why I have no photos), I attended a book signing with both French and Wideman. There may have been about 15 people in attendance -- you would have enjoyed with. They are both smart, passionate people. They both have an empathy for others which comes across in their writing.
Thump: ditto what Carey wrote.
Peace |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 299
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 03:05 pm: |
|
Troy: I'm so jealous!
Wideman is one of my all-time favorites. He writes so many gems but there is one a sex scene he wrote in particular, in "Two Cities", that literally took my breath away in its simplicity. One of those passages that makes you say, "I want to write like THAT." That whole book was stunning, actually. |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 529
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 04:00 pm: |
|
Hello All,
Carey: Naw man, your memory aint your friend. I did not argue with Albert French. I felt and still feel that Billy was the bomb! I loved Holly, but not as much as I loved Billy! I do not believe that I have ever spoken to French. I would love to...maybe one day we can have him stop by. But the closest I came to speaking to him was speaking to John Edgar Wideman simply because they are cousins. Naw, man, it wasn't me. |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 530
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 04:06 pm: |
|
Hello All,
Carey: I just reread your post, you gonna make me cry. I missed all of you too, well not all of you...*eyebrow raised*, but its good to be back.
FK: I think we are going to get along just fine. Two Cities was off the hook! I love Wideman! Have you read his The Cattle Killings (I think that's the title)? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12389
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 04:23 pm: |
|
"Cinder" sounds like something I would like to read because I'm partial to books set back in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. And guess what else? I like its cover!
John Wideman has certainly gotten mixed reviews on this board but I like him OK. |
Carey
Veteran Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 878
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 04:55 pm: |
|
Thump
Let me clear up a few things. Yes, it was not French, my dangling modifiers tend to jumble my messages.
Now we ain't going to go on about this but it was Tramble's work that you just couldn't get with. Not her book, oh no, you loved that. You know what I am talking about. Second, my memory may be a little flat but....
Now Thump, I don't want to hear it, go write something.
I miss Ann, I wish she was here. |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 300
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 04:57 pm: |
|
FK: I think we are going to get along just fine.
Whew! For a sec, I thought your lawyers were going to be after me on copyright infringement because I stole your patented raised eyebrow in another thread. ;-)
Two Cities was off the hook!
Here's how much of a book nerd I am: I live down the road from some of the places he writes about in Two Cities, and I once rode down those streets and got all tingly!
I love Wideman! Have you read his The Cattle Killings (I think that's the title)?
That's one I started and had to put down, with every intention of coming back. However, I've probably re-read "Two Cities" three times since then, lol.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Brothers and Keepers". His brother, Robbie, is still incarcerated, and to this day, the issue of his release is still a charged one in this city whenever he comes up for parole. The victim's family wants him to stay in prison, even though he has been a model prisoner and teaches college classes, etc.
Sadly, Wideman's son is also now imprisoned for murder.
I don't know anything about his other son, but I do know that his daughter Jamila was in the WNBA when it first launched. |
Mike_e
Regular Poster
Username: Mike_e
Post Number: 28
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 - 10:26 am: |
|
Wideman's son Daniel used to show up at his father's readings here in Chicago when he was a student at Northwestern University back in the early nineties.He co-edited an anthology of young AA male writers entitled Soulfires with Rohan B. Preston which included a piece by his brother Jake in 1996. I read where he published his first volume of poetry in 2004. |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 531
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 - 06:45 pm: |
|
Hello All,
Carey: I miss Miss Ann Too!! Miss Ann would have corrected you before I got to you. *smile* Yeah, I disagree with you and Nichelle (Tramble) about ol' Gramps (the old man was still in the wrong that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Frankly, she took it better than you did. I am in the mood for a Maceo Redfield mystery.
FK: I'm sorry to hear about Wideman's family. What was the last fiction book he's written. I can't find anything beyond Two Cities. |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 304
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 - 11:34 pm: |
|
Thumper:
Wideman and straight fiction? I'm stumped. I believe there was a memoir called "Hoops", and then some creative nonfiction about Emmett Till (but maybe that was just an essay...or a documentary?). But fiction post-Two Cities? Can't recall. |
Mike_e
Regular Poster
Username: Mike_e
Post Number: 29
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 08:15 am: |
|
Wideman's most recent novel was Fanon. I believe there was an earlier post about it on this board. I just finished it & enjoyed his meditations on writing, family , prison, love, death & Fanon. |
Email This Page