{"id":1178,"date":"2014-04-05T11:26:03","date_gmt":"2014-04-05T11:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameslawless.net\/?p=1178"},"modified":"2014-04-05T11:34:01","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T11:34:01","slug":"a-q-and-a-on-mel-ulms-the-reading-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/?p=1178","title":{"rendered":"A q and a on Mel Ulm’s The Reading Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
I first became acquainted with the work of James Lawless when I read and greatly admired his novel,\u00a0Knowing Women.<\/i><\/div>\n
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Here are some of my thoughts on his work:<\/div>\n
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Knowing Women\u00a0<\/i>by James Lawless made me think of one very good book I read a year ago, and two poems, one I have read several times in the last few months, and one I have not read in decades. \u00a0That\u00a0Knowing Women\u00a0<\/i>brought these three powerful works to my mind is a very high tribute to its artistic depth and high intelligence.<\/div>\n
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The central character in\u00a0Knowing Women\u00a0<\/i>is Laurence Benbo, thirty seven, a bachelor getting over a so so relationship, living in Dublin. \u00a0He is bashful and has had difficulty finding women in the past. \u00a0He likes to go for walks around Dublin, when he is not at his job as a graphic artist. \u00a0He notices an attractive woman sitting outside reading\u00a0Anna Karenina. \u00a0<\/i>He is intrigued by her and begins to follow her on his daily walks. \u00a0Not wanting to give away to much plot, he follows her, she is from Eastern Europe to the club where she does lap dances. \u00a0He gets to know her, she is not really a prostitute but she does begun to take gifts from Laurence and they do start a romance of sorts. \u00a0Laurence wins a big lottery prize. \u00a0Now a subplot begins involving his brother and his family. \u00a0The brother has always up until now considered the better adjusted and more successful of the two. \u00a0Something nasty happens to Laurence, caused by his brother and sister-in-law, who I did come to emphasize with. \u00a0I will leave the rest of the plot unspoiled. \u00a0There is sex, fascinating plot twists, and it does feel like Dublin is being well depicted.<\/div>\n
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The first book\u00a0Knowing Women<\/i>\u00a0reminded me of was\u00a0Occasions of Sin: \u00a0Sex and Society in Modern Ireland\u00a0<\/i>by Diarmaid Feriter. \u00a0Feriter depicts a culture of sexual repression, of joyless sex, late marriages and old virgins with the church and the state in everyone’s bedroom. \u00a0 I see Laurence Benbo as clearly emerging from \u00a0this. \u00a0\u00a0<\/i>His girlfriend might as well be a prostitute. \u00a0Recently I read for the first of now numerous times Patrick Kavanagh’s majestic poem, “The Great Hunger”. \u00a0Benbo made me think of the men in this poem who never really mature sexually or discover their sexual nature. \u00a0Men with a hunger they don’t understand. \u00a0Lastly, and this reaction is probably quite off the wall, I was at once brought to mind by the hesitant character of Benbo, “The Love Song of Alfred J. Profrock” by T. S. Eliot.<\/div>\n
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Knowing Women\u00a0<\/i>is observationally and psychologically acute. \u00a0It is also a lot of fun. \u00a0You knew this middle aged graphics artist with an Eastern European bisexual lap dancer girl friend was headed for trouble and I enjoyed observing his tribulations.<\/div>\n
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I recommend this book very much and hope to read more of the work of Lawless in 2014.<\/div>\n
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1. Declan Kiberd in his book, Inventing Ireland: \u00a0The Literature of the Modern Nation, said the\u00a0dominant theme of Modern Irish is that of the weak or missing father. \u00a0Do you think Kiberd is right? How does this impact your work,\u00a0if it does.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>Yes,\u00a0it has been a dominant theme. We saw it with Joyce and Beckett and others who had fraught family relationships. My first novel\u00a0Peeling Oranges\u00a0is about a paternal quest, a son seeking a biological father, when he discovers his putative father was impotent. The modern father and indeed males in general are going through difficult times in trying to definetheir\u00a0role in society. I find the caricaturing of males in many media ads unhelpful. A worrying aspect perhaps not unconnected to this is the rise in male suicides,\u00a0particularly in young men.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>2. \u00a0How and when did you begin to write?<\/p>\n

When my father bought me my first diary at the age of twelve. I had been weaned\u00a0prior to\u00a0that by\u00a0my mother reading to me.<\/b><\/p>\n

3. \u00a0 Who are some of your\u00a0favorite\u00a0contemporary short story writers. \u00a0What classic writers do you find\u00a0your self\u00a0drawn to reread. \u00a0If a neophyte short story writer were to ask you who to read, what might you suggest?<\/p>\n

I\u00a0like\u00a0<\/b>the stories of,\u00a0Junot\u00a0D\u00edaz,\u00a0Edna O’Brien,\u00a0Louise,Erdrich,\u00a0Desmond\u00a0Hogan, Helen\u00a0Simpson,\u00a0William Trevorand the\u00a0undervalued Gillman Noonan.\u00a0Classically,\u00a0I likeP\u00e1draig\u00a0\u00d3\u00a0Conaire,\u00a0James Joyce,\u00a0John\u00a0McGahern,\u00a0Richard Yates,\u00a0Katherine Mansfield,\u00a0Borges,\u00a0Cervantes,\u00a0Chekhov andde Maupassant.<\/b><\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Frank \u00a0O’Connor in The Lonely Voice: \u00a0A Study of the Short Story said short stories seem to be about marginalized people, the lonely, those with\u00a0with\u00a0little voice in society. \u00a0 Do you think he is on to something illuminating about the format? \u00a0Why is there so much loneliness in the Irish short story?<\/p>\n

It’s often in\u00a0the\u00a0form of a voice crying out more like a poem than a story encapsulating an emotion on the hoof as it were, affording us an epiphany into our hidden selves.<\/b><\/p>\n

5. \u00a0I sometimes wonder why such a disproportionate amount of the regarded as great literature of the world is written in the colder temperate zones rather than in the tropics. \u00a0 How big a factor do you think the Irish Weather is in shaping the literary output of its writers.? \u00a0 I cannot imagine The Brothers Karamazov being written on tropical island, for example.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Ireland we live indoors most of the time staring out at rain, so something like writing prevents us from going mad.Having\u00a0said that, I still enjoy editing a manuscript on a Mediterranean beach,\u00a0feeling the heat and listening to the waves lapping.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>6. \u00a0 (This may seem like a silly question but I pose it anyway-do you believe in Fairies?-this quote from\u00a0Declain\u00a0Kiberd sort of explains why I am asking this:” One 1916 veteran recalled, in old age, his youthful conviction that the rebellion would \u201cput an end to the rule of the fairies in Ireland\u201d. In this it was notably unsuccessful: during the 1920s, a young student named Samuel Beckett reported seeing a fairy-man in the New Square of Trinity College Dublin; and two decades later a Galway woman, when asked by an American anthropologistwhether she really believed in the \u201clittle people\u201d, replied with terse sophistication: \u201cI do not, sir \u2013 but they\u2019re there.” \u00a0 In general how do you feel Ireland’s extensive mythology impacts the literature?<\/p>\n

In my new novel just completed\u00a0American Doll,\u00a0Con the firefighter dreams of the\u00a0bean s\u00ed\u00a0on the Cliffs of Moher warning of the 9\/11 disaster. So I think the other world is always near our consciousness, maybe not as evident now with all the technologies bombarding us.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>7. \u00a0Do you think the very large amount of remains fromneolithic\u00a0periods (the highest in the world) in Ireland has shaped in the literature and psyche of \u00a0the country?<\/p>\n

Pass<\/b><\/p>\n

8. \u00a0When you write, do you picture and audience or do you just write?<\/p>\n

Initially I tend to just write. The audience comes into focus in the\u00a0edits.<\/b><\/p>\n

9. \u00a0Assuming this applies to you, how do you get past creative “dry spells”, periods when you have a hard time coming up with ideas or when things seem futile?<\/p>\n

Read and research;\u00a0if you do enough of that the writing will seep through.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>10. \u00a0how deeply is the Irish short story impacted by the Famine years? \u00a0The\u00a0diaspora\u00a0?<\/p>\n

The famine\u00a0in its displacement of people\u00a0impacted\u00a0perhaps,but as regards the\u00a0diaspora,\u00a0it is\u00a0too soon to say, except maybethat\u00a0there is more of an international flavour\u00a0now\u00a0to some of the stories.<\/b><\/p>\n

11. \u00a0What are the last three novels you read? \u00a0Last three movies? \u00a0do you have any\u00a0favorite\u00a0TV shows?<\/p>\n

I\u00a0write book reviews for the\u00a0<\/b>Sunday Independent,\u00a0BooksIreland\u00a0and the Croatian\u00a0Istros Books,\u00a0so recent books I have read tend to be those I reviewed:\u00a0A Handful of Dust\u00a0by Marinko Koscec,\u00a0The Eloquence of the Dead\u00a0by Conor Brady and\u00a0A Possible Life\u00a0by Sebastian Faulks.\u00a0In my recent personal reading, I\u00a0have\u00a0enjoyed\u00a0The Dead Eight\u00a0by\u00a0Carlo G\u00e9bler,\u00a0Anil’s Ghost\u00a0by\u00a0Michael Ondaatje and\u00a0Shadowstoryby\u00a0Jennifer Johnston.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>Films: Doubt,\u00a0Winter’s Bone\u00a0(I love Woodrell’s writing), The Wolf of Wall Street.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>I find a lot of TV insipid except for the odd drama, quiz<\/b>\u00a0or nature programmes. I’m inclined to watch it when my brain has gone dead from books<\/b>.<\/p>\n

12. William Butler Yeats said in “The Literary Movement”– “\u201cThe popular poetry of England celebrates her victories, but the popular poetry of Ireland remembers only defeats and defeated persons.\u201d I see a similarity of this to the heroes of the Philippines. \u00a0American heroes were all victors, they won wars and achieved independence. The national heroes of the Philippines were almost all ultimately failures, most executed by Spanish or American Rulers.. \u00a0How has the fact Yeats is alluding too, assuming you agree, \u00a0shaped Irish literature?\u00a0In America it seems somehow the best short stories writers like Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, and Carson McCullers, all writers admired by Irish authors, \u00a0had their\u00a0sensibilites\u00a0shaped by the defeat of the south in the American Civil \u00a0War.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0think a lot of that stuff applied to past generations of write<\/b>r<\/b>s and maybe even warped them a bit, but I’m not so sure it applies to writers of today. I agree with Martin Amis when he said something like the contemporary writer should write for the near<\/b>\u00a0future.<\/p>\n

13. \u00a0If you could live\u00a0any where\u00a0in the past for six months, or forever, and be rich and safe, where would you pick and why?<\/p>\n

I\u00a0write some of<\/b>\u00a0the time in the\u00a0mountains of West Cork without Internet\u00a0access. But the pull of the city is always there. \u00a0I’m\u00a0an urban man with a rural soul\u00a0as reflected in the title\u00a0of my poetry collection\u00a0Rus in Urbe. I also wouldn’t object to a quiet villa overlooking the Mediterranean.<\/b><\/p>\n

14. \u00a0when out of Ireland, besides family and friends, what do you miss most? \u00a0What are you glad to be away from for a while?<\/p>\n

I\u00a0miss\u00a0<\/b>the stability of home, but I’m also glad when I’m away from noise and too much proximity, characteristic of suburbanliving.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>15. \u00a0Why do you think the short story is so popular in Ireland?<\/p>\n

I\u00a0think\u00a0<\/b>myths\u00a0are generated about the Irish short story as indeed they are created\u00a0about\u00a0the Irish\u00a0character.\u00a0Sometimes we get carried away with ourselves. The cuento or short story is popular in many countries. Cervantes wrote the first shortstories\u00a0in his\u00a0Novelas Ejemplares.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

16. \u00a0A while ago\u00a0i\u00a0read and posted on a long biography of Hart Crane, author of the Bridge-few read it but many known of his life style as one of the first Gay poets living out a life of rough trade and wealthy older benefactors-he lived a very chaotic life and died young from suicide by jumping off a cruise ship. His father invented Life Saver Candy and wanted Hart to go in the Candy business with him-so if \u00a0Hart had done this and died at 75 rich living in\u00a0ohio\u00a0fat bald and married would he still be even much thought about let alone read? \u00a0One of the most referenced poets \u00a0by Irish writers last year was Arthur Rimbaud who likewise had a short and chaotic life. \u00a0 Does a poet \u00a0need or naturally tend to a chaotic life? \u00a0why so much seeming admiration for writers like Jack Kerouac and others who died way to young from alcohol abuse. \u00a0If Ezra Pound had not gone mad, would he still be a role model for the contemporary poet? \u00a0(I know this is long, please just respond to it as you will.). Some of this may just be a story about a poet with a stable marriage, a job and no substance issues may seem dull compared to wilder lives.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>I think\u00a0in the past writers like\u00a0Brendan\u00a0Behan were chaotic and often inebriated,\u00a0but some of the\u00a0writers of today are cuter and pragmatic\u00a0and not necessarily more endearing. I tend to go with Flaubert’s idea of the writer as merely bourgeois in his outward daily life while his mind\u00a0is contending with unfettered imaginings.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>17. \u00a0Please explain to total outsiders like me how important government grants to writers are to Irish literature? who decided who gets a grant?<\/p>\n

It’s an area that perhaps could do with more transparency. I got a small bursary for\u00a0a\u00a0study\u00a0of modern poetry\u00a0Clearing the Tangled Wood: Poetry as a Way of Seeing the World, but bigger bursaries are rather elusive. When sometimes the same people repeatedly wind up getting awards\u00a0(sometimes by the same grant givers\u00a0every year), one again wonders if you have to be in the know.\u00a0As it is a very subjective procedure, in the interest of fairness, I think the people who award the bursaries should be changed\u00a0regularly.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>18. \u00a0Have you attended creative writing workshops and if you have share your experiences a bit please.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0r<\/b>emember attending\u00a0one\u00a0creative\u00a0writing class\u00a0some years ago\u00a0which nearly destroyed\u00a0me. It was conducted by\u00a0amilitant feminist\u00a0and misandrist who\u00a0never lost an\u00a0opportunityto ridicule me for daring to be male. In hindsight I should have complained\u00a0about\u00a0her,\u00a0but I let it go.\u00a0Recently\u00a0I have conducted\u00a0some workshops myself. They can be good for the writer in that they\u00a0force\u00a0engagement with others and\u00a0helpclarify what one thinks on the process of\u00a0writing.\u00a0Whether they\u00a0achieve\u00a0any good for\u00a0neophytes\u00a0is not for me to judge, although I did get heartening feedback on workshop efforts that had done well in competitions.<\/b><\/p>\n

19. \u00a0Make up a question and answer it please.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>As a student in college I asked is there such a thing as a universally accepted work of art.<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b>The professor winked<\/b>.<\/p>\n

20. \u00a0Not long ago I was sent several very hostile messages from Irish writers demanding to know why I had posted on the works of other writers and not them. \u00a0Some suggested I had been influenced \u00a0by some sort of shadowy group to ignore their work. I was informed there is a small elite group who decides who gets reviewed, published or receives grants and it was also \u00a0suggested they had sent me negative feedback on writers I should ignore. \u00a0What in the Irish literary scene is behind this? \u00a0Is there anything like an “Irish Literary Mafia”?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>There could be some truth in that. Maybe we could do with a literary ombudsman and\u00a0a\u00a0few literary whistleblowers to clear the air, like they have in the garda\u00ed. There is cronyism;\u00a0itseems to apply\u00a0to all walks of Irish life\u00a0\u2014a case of who you know rather that\u00a0what\u00a0you know.\u00a0It could\u00a0have\u00a0something\u00a0to do\u00a0with\u00a0our\u00a0tribal\u00a0past;\u00a0there is a\u00a0tendency to group together,be part of the\u00a0winning\u00a0team,\u00a0and if you’re not in\u2014\u00a0tough. In my view such\u00a0behaviour is the opposite to that\u00a0of an\u00a0artist who must\u00a0cultivate\u00a0solitude\u00a0to be true to his craft.\u00a0That of course makes one vulnerable, but I see vulnerability as the hallmark of a true artist.\u00a0The sad thing about the club mentality is that some talented writers who may not be cute or as adept as others in handling or being sycophantic to the media, do not receive the recognition they deserve.\u00a0Some\u00a0of the holders of\u00a0literary power remind me of priests of yore who kept\u00a0harping on about\u00a0your\u00a0original sin and how you wouldnever be\u00a0worthy no matter how hard you tried. As a race we don’t\u00a0always\u00a0speak well of one\u00a0another and often\u00a0onlygrudgingly\u00a0acknowledge\u00a0talent\u00a0after\u00a0it is recognised outside the country. There\u00a0are some\u00a0self-appointed\u00a0celebrity’authorities’ on literature who command the media and\u00a0who have\u00a0never\u00a0written any creative work\u00a0themselves.\u00a0There is a perception that if you get in front of a camera or microphone it somehow confers status on you,\u00a0and it is worrying to think that some people go along with this idea.\u00a0It’s\u00a0like if you shout loud enough\u00a0or are seen often enough in media circles you become a guru.\u00a0I\u00a0read an interesting comment from\u00a0Jeanette Winterson\u00a0recently\u00a0advocating a\u00a0refusal\u00a0to take ‘advice’ on how to write from anyone who has not written and published a significant piece of work.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>21. \u00a0Do you think poets and short story writers have a social role to play in contemporary Ireland or are they pure artists writing for themselves and a few peers? \u00a0 One of the characters in Savage Detectives by Roberto\u00a0Bolano, set in Mexico city and\u00a0centering\u00a0on poets, says that the main reason poets, nearly all male in\u00a0Bolano’s\u00a0book, \u00a0read at work shops is to meet the way disproportional number of women who come to them in search of a tortured soul to nourish. \u00a0is this just stupid?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>The act of\u00a0writing\u00a0is social in\u00a0itself.\u00a0You make your statementthrough your\u00a0characters\u00a0and your art. Leave the politics to the politicians. Otherwise you are diminishing your writing with agitprop.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>22. \u00a0 Tell us a bit about your non-academic non literary work experience please<\/p>\n

Tell us something about your educational background, please. ,<\/p>\n

Worked as a pools collector,\u00a0a screen printer,\u00a0an encyclopaedia salesman, a TEFL teacher, a library assistant before becoming a secondary teacher and lecturer. Worked voluntarily with the Simon Community for a number of years. Did an arts degree in Irish and Spanish and later a Masters in Communications.<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

23. Why have the Irish produced such a disproportional to their population number of great writers? Or is this a myth?<\/p>\n

See q. 15.<\/b><\/p>\n

24. Quick Pick Questions<\/p>\n

A. \u00a0tablets or laptops?<\/p>\n

laptops<\/b><\/p>\n

B. \u00a0E readers or traditional books?<\/p>\n

Both have their uses,\u00a0but\u00a0I like the feel and indeed the smell of a\u00a0physical book.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>C. \u00a0Synge or Beckett?<\/p>\n

Pass<\/b>.<\/p>\n

D. \u00a0Cats or dogs?<\/p>\n

Dogs<\/b>.<\/p>\n

E. \u00a0best city to inspire a writer- Paris, London, Dublin, or?<\/p>\n

Seville among others.<\/b><\/p>\n

F. \u00a0Walt Whitman or\u00a0Willam\u00a0Butler Yeats?<\/p>\n

Both have their moments.<\/b><\/p>\n

G. \u00a0RTE or BBC?<\/p>\n

Pass.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I. \u00a0Would you rather witness opening night for Waiting forGodot, King Lear, Playboy of the Western World or\u00a0Ubo\u00a0Roi?<\/p>\n

I\u00a0like the idea of attending a drama where nothing happens twice.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>25. \u00a0 Do you think Irish Travellers should be granted the status of a distinct ethnic group and be given special rights to make up for past mistreatment? Are the Travellers to the Irish what the Irish were once to the English? I became interested in this question partially through reading the short stories of Desmond Hogan.<\/p>\n

With Simon I sometimes visited their camps. I was disturbed by their early\u00a0mortality rate and seeing children from a very young age being conditioned to beg. Most of the beggars and homeless on the streets now seem to be multiethnic. If you are nomadic it is hard to live in a settled community, so I wouldn’t try to force a change of culture on them, rather I would try to provide more facilities and places for them to live in their own way.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>26. \u00a0 Death, natural and otherwise is a central factor in the Irish short story and it seems to me to play a bigger factor in the Irish short story than other cultures-can you talk about this a bit, please .<\/p>\n

See q.15.\u00a0For me life is an enquiry. It is not what you make it\u2014which is escapist, but what you make of it.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>27. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0How important is social media in the development of the career of writers? \u00a0Do you have your own web page and if so why? \u00a0Do you think it is good business savvy to post free samples of your work online?<\/p>\n

I\u00a0am learning to do this. I feel anything that helps to get your work read is worth trying.<\/b>\u00a0Ireland is a small island with limited opportunities and the Internet opens up exciting possibilities globally. My work is being translated at the moment into Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French.\u00a0Emails are so quick and a website gives a nucleus for one’s work which can be easily accessed internationally. I have a website: www.jameslawless.net<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>28. \u00a0 I recently read Strumpet City by James Plunkett (the 2013 Dublin One City One Book Selection). \u00a0It presents a culture whose very life blood seems to be whiskey. \u00a0 Drinking seems much more a factor in Irish literature than Indian, Japanese or even American. \u00a0 \u00a0What do you think are some of the causes of this or is it just a myth?.<\/p>\n

See q.16 \u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

29. \u00a0related to question above, recently\u00a0Guiness\u00a0sponsored a creative writing program and set up a grant system for writers and artist. \u00a0A number of my Irish Facebook friends said they would repudiate a grant from\u00a0Guiness\u00a0and art festivals and programs should refuse their sponsorship. \u00a0This was in part because of the perceived terrible social cost of alcoholism on Irish families. \u00a0It was also stated that\u00a0Guiness\u00a0was trying to get people to see drinking as associated with creativity. \u00a0 Would you refuse a grant from\u00a0Guiness? \u00a0Are \u00a0their sponsorship efforts insidious? When I facetiously suggested I would take on the burden of these malicious grants, I was taken to task as an outsider who needs to mind his own business.<\/p>\n

Many of the people of the Liberties\u00a0in Dublin\u00a0where I was born\u00a0were grateful to Guinness for setting up the Iveagh Trust flats which took a lot of them out of slum dwellings.Guinness’s\u00a0made money but they were philanthropic. I don’t see too much philanthropy from the present day new rich.<\/b><\/p>\n

31. \u00a0 In his book The Commitments,\u00a0Roddy\u00a0Doyle has a main character say, as if it were something commonly seen as true, \u201cThe Irish are the niggers of Europe and Dubliners are the niggers of Ireland\u201d. \u00a0There is a lot of self loathing expressed in Irish literary works from Joyce on down to Doyle. \u00a0Is this just a family fight where one might say something terrible about a father, mother or brother or wife and then attack \u00a0an outsider who says the same thing or is it really how people feel? \u00a0I do not see this level of self hate in other literatures. \u00a0 There is nothing like it, for example, in the literature of the Philippines. \u00a0Talk a bit about how you feel or think about this.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0think it is a silly slogan.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>end.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>I thanks James for taking the time to provide us with these very interesting responses.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>James Lawless has very kindly sent me a short story in observation of ISSM4 so look for that soon.<\/p>\n

I hope to read all of his books.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first became acquainted with the work of James Lawless when I read and greatly admired his novel,\u00a0Knowing Women. Here are some of my thoughts on his work: Knowing Women\u00a0by James Lawless made me think of one very good book…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1181,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions\/1181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}