Dawn Powell

https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/features/2021/11/16/ohio-novelist-dawn-powell-a-time-to-be-born-my-home-is-far-away-author/6387725001/

>> "New Yorker" ... film critic Richard Brody became the latest media figure to celebrate Powell, declaring her nine novels written from 1929 to 1948 (including three about Ohio) “one of the most extraordinary outpourings of sustained literary artistry that the United States can boast.” <<

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Earlier this evening I enjoyed the satisfaction of coming to the end of a book I enjoyed very much, Dawn Powell's 1948 novel "The Locusts Have No King".

I've posted about this author before; this is the fifth novel of hers I have read, and it impressed me as possibly the best so far. Beneath the sharp observation of literary New York and mid-century Manhattan mores lies a tale full of insight about the relations between men and women. The author provides plenty of amused skepticism about what we tell ourselves and others about our motives and hopes in the ups and downs of love and friendship, but this skepticism never lapses into a shallow cynicism about human nature. Instead, as happens with a comedy at its best, we are left both amused and moved.

Andrew Wheeler had a slightly different but thoughtful take on the book here:
https://antickmusings.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-locusts-have-no-king-by-dawn-powell.html

As Wheeler notes, "The Locusts Have No King" is not a book for everyone; you must have a taste for adult satire that is never coarse but which can sting at times. If you are, or aspire to be, that adult, I would strongly recommend that you hurry along to your library or bookshop now!

#Books #DawnPowell #TheLocustsHaveNoKing #Fiction #Novels #AmericanLiterature #USLiterature #NewYork #LiteratureInEnglish #1940s

One of my greatest pleasures recently has been discovering the writing of Dawn Powell.

I've just finished her 1942 novel "A Time To Be Born", which combines both her first hand understanding of the journalistic and literary New York of her time with a midwesterner's skeptical amusement at metropolitan self advancement and snobbery.

The novel also provides insights into American women's distinctive struggles with ambition, competition, and love in the opening years of the Second World War.

#Books #Fiction #DawnPowell #USLiterature #20thCenturyLiterature #LiteratureInEnglish #Novel

https://marissavivian.substack.com/p/hidden-voices-004-dawn-powell

What a delight it was to read Dawn Powell's 1936 "Turn, Magic Wheel", in which urbane literary satire intertwines with an acute account of the deceptions and self-deceptions of love and marriage!

I found Powell's wit and style especially refreshing after having recently waded through the self important verbosity of Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel".

#Books #DawnPowell #TurnMagicWheel #AmericanLiterature #USLiterature #Novel #Satire #NewYorkLiterature ##20thCenturyLiterature #Thirties #1930s