Famous Questions

by Fanny Howe

Genres: Fiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Fanny Quincy Howe was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. She was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Howe wrote more than 20 books of poetry and prose. Her major works include poetry such as One Crossed Out, Gone, and Second Childhood; the novels Nod, The Deep North, and Indivisible; and collected essays such as The Wedding Dress: Meditations on Word and Life and The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation.
Howe received praise and official recognition: she was awarded the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize by the Poetry Foundation. She also received the Gold Medal for Poetry from the Commonwealth Club of California. In addition, her Selected Poems received the 2001 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets for the most outstanding book of poetry published in 2000. She was a finalist for the 2015 International Booker Prize. She also received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Poetry Foundation, the California Arts Council, and the Village Voice. She was professor of writing and literature at the University of California, San Diego and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn’t expecting this writing to be so good. I mostly read non-fiction because a lot of popular fiction lacks discursive character development. This one was densely brilliant. There’s only a few characters, and you get to know them. It could have been written twice as long windedly and lost nothing. I’ll definitely read more of her work.

Famous Questions wasn’t traditionally romantic or philosophical. But perhaps it was more realistic in its complicated existential juxtapositions. Howe’s style and content is similar to Diane di Prima’s but less abstract and easier to follow. It magnifies complex abuse struggles. Modern toxic environments that people usually can’t face up to, due to power differentials, misogyny, and the cults of ideology mistaken for love that must follow along side.

It’s not surprising that this wasn’t popular at the time it came out. But nowadays I think this kind of writing can be rediscovered with more hope and appreciation.

[Sara Elbanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

always reach for fanny howe when im looking for more beauty in my life

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, but not as economical or crystalline as In the Middle of Nowhere and The Deep North.

Once I knew the shape, it was the law and I could live inside it. Before I was looking always for a hole, a view of sky. I knew that this exit was unavoidable anyway, seeing that the air was the biggest, and I fell on my face in the dark, returning to the shadows for help. If the world maker wanted shadows, it then made substance; if it wanted those shadows to move all the time, it made the substance seem to move in relation to its own static darkness.

[Nathanial]

Unbelievably magnificent, or, magnificently unbelievable--not sure which. On the one hand, as Hubcap pointed out, Howe mixes fleeting emotions with sweeping historical scope; on the other hand, she takes free reign with plot, time, and dialogue, so that I'm not sure whether it's a lack of imagination on my part which leads me to fail to imagine how her characters could do or say what they do or say. Highlight: one paragraph in a middle chapter on which the plot pivots, which also includes a summary sentence of national scandals.

[Amanda Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

fanny howe is my all time favorite author. do you suffer, ever? then read this book. there's politics and g-d in here, also the strangeness of having a child, betrayal, and filmmaking.