First edition.

xxi, 306 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

"A glimpse into a beloved novelist's inner world, shaped by family, art, and literature. In her fiction, Claire Messud "has specialized in creating unusual female characters with ferocious, imaginative inner lives" (Ruth Franklin, New York Times Magazine). Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write opens a window on Messud's own life: a peripatetic upbringing; a warm, complicated family; and, throughout it all, her devotion to art and literature. In twenty-nine intimate, brilliant, funny, and sharp essays, Messud reflects on a childhood move from her Connecticut home to Australia; the complex relationship between her modern Canadian mother and a fiercely single French Catholic aunt; and a trip to Beirut, where her pied-noir father had once lived, while he was dying. She meditates on Albert Camus, Teju Cole, and Valeria Luiselli, and tours her favorite paintings at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Crafting a vivid portrait of a life in celebration of the power of literature, Messud proves once again "an absolute master storyteller" (Rebecca Carroll, Los Angeles Times)"-- Provided by publisher.

Part one: Reflections. Then -- Nostalgia -- The road to Damascus -- Two women -- Mother's knee -- Kant's little Prussian head and other reasons why I write -- Our dogs -- How to be a better woman in the twenty-first century -- Teenage girls -- The time for art is now -- Part two: Criticism: Books. Three essays on Camus and his legacy -- Camus and Algeria: the moral question -- A new l’étranger -- The brother of the stranger: Kamel Daoud -- Kazuo Ishiguro -- Jane Bowles -- Italo Svevo -- Teju Cole -- Magda Szabó -- Rachel Cusk -- Saul Friedländer -- Yasmine El Rashidi -- Valeria Luiselli -- Part three: Criticism: Images. Alice Neel -- Marlene Dumas -- Sally Mann -- A home from home: Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

Messud, Claire, 1966-

Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Biography.

Novelists, American -- 21st century -- Biography.

Messud, Claire, 1966-

Novelists, American.

1900-2099

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Essays.

9781324006756 (hardcover)

1324006757 (hardcover)

9781324006763 (epub)