MORE things that changed my life
The nice folks at Crimespree magazine asked for five cultural artifacts (books, movies, music, etc.) that “changed my life,” and the list I came up with will surprise no one who has known me for any length of time: Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Ira Levin, John Le Carré.
this book will make your head fall off, it’s so good.
The only thing is, I’m a little mortified, reviewing the piece, at its conspicuous maleness. For the record, I could and probably should have included Patricia Highsmith (“The Talented Mr. Ripley” and its sequels), Hilary Mantel (“Wolf Hall”, “Bring up the Bodies”), Lucinda Williams (“Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”), George Eliot (“Middlemarch,” “Silas Marner”) and yes, Jane Austen (uh, “Sense and Sensibility”)
The great Ms. Austen, sans sea monsters.
It’s a fun thing to think about, for sure, works of art that changed your life, or at least changed your perception of yourself or of the world.
Anyway—shit, I forgot P.D. James. I gotta go back and add P.D. James!
