Hotly in pursuit of the real : notes toward a memoir / Ron Hansen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hansen, Ron, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Novelists, American.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (147 pages)

Place of Publication:

2020.

Seattle, WA : Slant Books, [2020]

Summary:

In Hotly in Pursuit of the Real, the beloved bestselling novelist Ron Hansen opens the doors of his writing studio to share with us his passions for history, scandal, theology, Jesuits, the American West, and golf (which he plays even in bad weather). If Hansen's novels explore people very different from himself--from a stigmatic nun to a Victorian poet to Billy the Kid, and even Hitler's niece--the meditations in this book do the opposite, allowing us to glimpse the wellsprings of his imagination, the places and traditions and books that drive him to create made-up worlds. In that sense, the reflections in these pages truly serve as "notes toward a memoir."As each section unfolds, we gain a clearer sense of Hansen's aesthetic, the parallels he sees between writing and the sacraments, between literature's capacity to make history present to us and the Church's rich array of traditions, including the Jesuit charism that has inspired great writers, such as Gerard Manley Hopkins (and himself). Equally adept at telling a hilarious anecdote and guiding us through a complex, ambiguous episode in history, Hansen's language remains fresh and invigorating. Hotly in Pursuit of the Real takes you inside one writer's imagination, only to send you back out into the wide world with new eyes.

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Preface

I

Hotly in Pursuit of the Real

Making Things Up

Seeing into the Middle of Things

On the Gospel according to Mark

Spiritual Exercises

A Journey in the Land Called Holy

A Friendship Based on Poetry

A Collision of Systems and Tendencies

II

The Novel as Biography

Fiction as Encounter

III

Separating Truth from Legend

Hopkins and "The Wreck of the Deutschland"

True Crime

The Making of an Outlaw

IV

Goodbye to All That

A Lost Priesthood

Cloistered

Shakespeare &amp

Me

Sunday Drives

V

Why the West?

The Land That Time Forgot

Halcyon Days

Bad Weather Golf

Why I Play Golf

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Hansen, Ron Hotly in Pursuit of the Real

ISBN:

9781639820290

OCLC:

1196039512