Elena
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
A brother recalls the magnificent life of his sister, the greatest writer of her age
A launch party is underway for a hotly anticipated biography, the life story of Elena Franklin. As a young woman, Elena was one of the most promising literary talents of the 1920s, and over the years her legend grew. Her biographer, Martha Farrell, has combed through all the evidence of Elena's genius and passion, from her early years in New York to her expatriate life in Paris. The result is a monumental work – but among the party's crowd is the man who knows the book is an empty shell.
Only William, Elena's brother, knew the truth about the famed author. Martha's flawed biography spurs his memory, and he recalls how the temperamental baby grew into a legend. He knew Elena's hidden pain, shared their family secrets, and draws his own portrait of the troubled soul that lay behind her artistic gifts.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Elena Franklin is an acclaimed novelist and critic whose career mirrors much of the history of American letters over the past 50 years. She is also the medium for Cook's reflections on "the fruits of a considered life,'' which, as envisioned here, seem to flourish in an exclusively literary grove. Elena's brother, William, who tells her story, writes on English poetry; one of her lovers produces books of social relevance, another, volumes of Southern history. When not engaged in researching a book, the characters are off writing one, or talking about their work in a polemic manner. The points thus raised will ring true for those familiar with the exigent nature of the artistic process. Unfortunately, the very qualities which support creative endeavorsdispassion, a need for solitude and a tendency to internalize emotiontend to make such writers poor subjects for fiction. Or, as one character remarks, ``There are great works of literature, but no great ones about it.'' Cook wrote Blood Innocents and The Orchids. January
