August Thompson was born and raised in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire, before he attended middle school in West LA. After surviving California optimism, he moved to NYC for his bachelor’s, studied in Berlin, and taught English in Spain for two years. He recently received his MFA at New York University’s creative writing program as a Goldwater Fellow.
Thompson's new book is Anyone’s Ghost.
At the Guardian the author tagged "five novels that capture that lightning-struck feeling" that "is one of the great rites of passage of youth – wanting someone, wanting to be them, wanting to be wanted." One title on the list:
A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth TaylorRead about the other entries on the list.
Taylor’s masterful look at bad timing and indecision is at once devastating and cosy, as it underlines the subtle intimacy of understated affection. Set in England in the interwar years and post-1945 peacetime, the novel traces the love and lives of Harriet and Vesey. Harriet considers herself unexceptional and wants a conventional life. Vesey has the arrogance and ambition needed to try to become an actor. The two meet as teenagers and find an overwhelming and uneasy love. Over the ensuing 20 years, Taylor interweaves their narratives as each makes potent choices about the need for comfort versus freedom while looking back at a romance that could have been.
--Marshal Zeringue
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