Jonathan Raban
| Jonathan Raban |
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Jonathan Raban, 2013 |
| Born |
(1942-06-14) 14 June 1942
Hempton, Norfolk, UK |
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| Nationality |
British |
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| Occupation |
Writer |
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Jonathan Raban (born 14 June 1942, Hempton, Norfolk, UK) is a British travel writer and novelist. He has received several awards, such as the National Book Critics Circle Award,[1] The Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award,[2] the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award,[3] the PEN West Creative Nonfiction Award,[4] the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award,[5] and a 1997 Washington State Governor's Writer's Award.[6] Since 1990 he has lived with his daughter in Seattle.[7]
Though he is primarily regarded as a travel writer, Raban’s accounts often blend the story of a journey with rich discussion of the history of the water through which he travels and the land around it. Even as he maintains a dispassionate and often unforgiving stance towards the people he meets on his travels, he does not shirk from sharing his own perceived foibles and failings with the reader. Frequently, Raban’s autobiographical accounts of journeys taken mirror transformations in his own life or the world at large: Old Glory takes place during the buildup to Ronald Reagan’s victory in the 1980 presidential election, Coasting as the Falklands War begins, and Passage to Juneau as the failure of the author’s marriage becomes apparent. Similarly melancholic and personal themes of turmoil and loss can be detected in his novels.
Bibliography
- The Technique of Modern Fiction (1968)
- Mark Twain: Huckleberry Finn (1968)
- The Society of the Poem (1971)
- Soft City (1974), ISBN 0-525-20661-2
- Arabia Through the Looking Glass (1979), ISBN 0-00-654022-8
- Old Glory: An American Voyage (1981), ISBN 0-671-25061-2
- Foreign Land (1985), ISBN 0-670-80767-2
- Coasting (1986), ISBN 0-00-272119-8
- For Love & Money: A Writing Life, 1968-1987 (1989), ISBN 0-06-016166-3
- God, Man and Mrs Thatcher (1989), ISBN 0-06-016166-3
- Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America (1991), ISBN 0-06-018209-1
- The Oxford Book of the Sea (1992), ISBN 0-19-214197-X
- Bad Land: An American Romance (1996), ISBN 0-679-44254-5
- Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings (travel writing; 1999), ISBN 0-679-44262-6
- Waxwings (2003), ISBN 0-375-41008-2
- My Holy War: Dispatches From the Home Front (2006), ISBN 1-59017-175-6
- Surveillance (2006), ISBN 978-0-375-42244-7
- Driving Home: An American Journey (2011), ISBN 978-0-307-37991-7
Book reviews
Awards
Inspiration and writing style
| “ |
Mr. Raban's ... style ... can be described as a sort of English Capote: vivid, funny, accurate, full of hyperbolic wit and outrageous metaphor; no reticence at all. But at least as important is the author's ability to make an instant connection with virtually any human being whomsoever. Noel Perrin, New York Times |
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References
External links
Articles and interviews
