Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Ten great novels about newspapers

For the Telegraph (U.K.), Sameer Rahim and Felicity Capon came up with ten great novels about newspapers, including:
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford (1986)

Ford’s novel about a failed novelist turned sportswriter was one of Time magazine’s five best books of 1986. It is the first of a trilogy of novels featuring Frank Bascombe: Independence Day and The Lay of the Land followed soon after. Bascombe’s life seems idyllic, yet he is actually a man in crisis: his novelistic ambitions are unfulfilled, his wife has divorced him and his eldest son dies in a tragic accident.
Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Bob Greene's five best books about writing for the newspaper.

The Sportswriter appears on Aifric Campbell's top 10 list of portrayals of working life in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue