Kathryn Harrison
Kathryn Harrison
Kathryn Harrisonis an American author...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAutobiographer
Date of Birth20 March 1961
CountryUnited States of America
arc clearly exciting informing involved joan life reveals stories tells
One of the things I find exciting about Joan of Arc is how clearly the story of her life reveals the creation of myth, a process in which every one of us is involved - every one of us who tells stories and all those who listen, each informing the other.
determination exactly feels object power render smells sounds stems
The power of 'Madame Bovary' stems from Flaubert's determination to render each object of his scrutiny exactly as it looks, or sounds or smells or feels or tastes.
alchemy anguish art beauty bring chaos narrative order private promises seductive transform truth
We know the seductive alchemy of art. To transform private anguish into a narrative of truth, if not beauty; to make sense where there was none; to bring order out of chaos - these are the promises art makes.
feels people reveal whether
Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, I've never had the sense I was 'making up' a character. It feels more like watching people reveal themselves, ever more deeply, more intimately.
arc changed course history hundred joan likely war
The least likely of military leaders, Joan of Arc changed the course of the Hundred Years' War and of history.
bad drew eccentric family quite sort terms
I think in terms of the parents that I had, I sort of drew a bad hand, or bad karma; who knows? And I did have a family that was complicated, with some quite eccentric members. So there was a lot of grist there.
dwell few relationships writers
A lot of writers dwell on their relationships with their mothers, but only a few are worth reading.
life nonfiction offers
Because the kind of nonfiction I write has a plot, the events and transactions that make up a life, nonfiction offers me a break from plotting.
For years, the place I really lived - the world I watched, the one I thought and wrote about - was 15th-century France.
How much of a book review is about the reviewer? Sometimes it's mostly about the reviewer!
work
I can't work out much about myself or what I see in the world around me unless I do it through writing.
almost family love seem
I love any book that makes my family seem almost normal.
I reread 'Nicholas and Alexandra' in my early twenties, and I never forgot the story.
discovered enjoy nose true
I used to enjoy reading true crime, but I've discovered that I don't have the journalism nose for blood.