John Reed (novelist)

Infobox Writer
name = John Reed

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imagesize = 200px
caption = Reed in 2007.
pseudonym =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1969|2|7|mf=y
birthplace = New York City, New York, U.S.
occupation = Novelist, essayist, playwright.
nationality = American
period = 2000-present
genre =
subject = Shakespeare, the human condition
movement =

John Reed (born 1969) is an American novelist. A graduate of Columbia University's Masters of Fine Art in Creative Writing program, his most work is "All the World's a Grave: A New Play Play William Shakespeare" (Penguin books, 2008). He is currently at work on his fifth book, presently titled "Tales of Woe" (MTV Books, 2009), chronically true stories of abject misery. His novel "Snowball's Chance", a critique of George Orwell's "Animal Farm", received international press attention. Reed was born and currently lives in New York City.

Biography

Reed received his MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in the mid-1990s, with authors Amanda Filipacchi, Jonathan Ames, Matthew Sharpe, Dave Johnson, Claudia Rankine, Monica de la Torre and writer/director James Gunn. Reed was an early contributor to, and subsequently an editor with, "Open City", a New York literary journal published by Robert Bingham, who later founded the book series.

Works

He is affiliated with the "New York Press" and "The Brooklyn Rail". "Americans are extremely sophisticated in terms of narrative forms," said Reed in an interview. "We see it in commercials, we see it on TV, we see it in movies. But the narrative forms we're talking about are three acts, five acts, depending on how you want to look at it. They're all based on a Christian model of sin, suffering, redemption; which is not a large model." [ [http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/John_Reed_on_Orwell%2C_God%2C_self-destruction_and_the_future_of_writing#On_Christopher_Hitchens.2C_Orwell_and_9.2F11_as_inspiration Interview with John Reed] , David Shankbone, "Wikinews", October 18, 2007.]

A Still Small Voice

"A Still Small Voice" (Delacorte 2000, Delta 2001), Reed’s first novel, is a historical novel based on the life of a girl growing up in Kentucky from 1850-1870.

Snowball's Chance

"Snowball's Chance" (Roof Books 2002/2003), Reed’s second novel was a controversial send-up of George Orwell’s "Animal Farm." The SPD/CLMP bestseller [ [http://www.abebooks.com/docs/Community/Featured/spd.shtml] , AbeBooks] was widely reviewed, receiving coverage in "The New York Times", "Reason", "Fortune", "The San Diego Union Tribune", "The New York Sun", "The Portland Tribune", "The Scotsman", "The Hindustan Times", "Publishers Weekly", "The Brooklyn Rail", "The Associated Press" and other print and online venues. The novel, which ended in a cataclysmic attack on the “Twin Mills” (reminiscent of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center) was derided by the political right. "The Boston Globe" editorialized that Reed was “blaming the victim of terrorism,” while Christopher Hitchens called Reed a “Bin Ladenist” on BBC radio. John Strausbaugh reported in "The New York Press":

"Snowball's Chance" is a pretty vicious parody of "Animal Farm". 'My intention is to blast Orwell,' Reed says. 'I’m really doing my best to annihilate him.' He not only shanghais Orwell’s story, but amps up and mocks the writer’s famously flat, didactic style–that fairytailish simplicity that has ensured Animal Farm a place in high school English classes for the last 50 years."

"The Daily Telegraph" (London) editorialized that a fortnight's work would not undo Orwell's legacy. The Orwell estate objected to Reed’s use of "Animal Farm". The estate had recently weathered the release and publication of a handwritten list of "crypto-communists" that George Orwell gave to the British Secret Service at the onset of the "Cold War," a phrasing first employed by Orwell. The list of authors, artists and various politically active personages consisted of over one hundred names (the number is often mistakenly put at thirty-seven, which was the number of names previously released by the British Secret Service). Though the list does sport some unpleasant language and descriptions, the overall consequences of the list are debatable. Reed's work was interpreted as anti-Orwell. Throughout 2002/03, "The Wind Done Gone" (a parody of "Gone with the Wind") was engaged in ongoing litigation with the estate of Margaret Mitchell; detractors of "Snowball's Chance" raised the question of copyright infringement, as was reported in "The Age (an Australian newspaper)":

" [William] Hamilton [the Orwell estate's legal representative] , of London, said: 'If it were a straight parody, I would say 'Good on you.' But this book seems to take rather than give.’ Reed said: 'I think that Orwell, were he still alive, would far rather be with me in my hovel than sitting in some corporate office preparing lawsuits.'"

"Animal Farm" has raised issues of borrowing on its own; Orwell's parable is notably similar to a short story written in 1879-80 by Russian Historian, Nikolay Kostomarov. The work, titled, "The Animal Riot," was first published in 1917.

The Whole, or, Duh Whole

"The Whole", Reed’s third novel, parodied MTV and was released in 2005 by MTV Books (Simon & Schuster). The novel described a gigantic hole that appears in the middle of the country, which engulfs four states.

All the World's a Grave

Reed, in a new work, returns to the overhaul of canonical English writers in "All the World's a Grave", fall 2008, Penguin Books. The work, subtitled "A New Play by William Shakespeare", is a tragedy in five acts, a "mash-up" constructed of lines drawn from five Shakespeare tragedies and one Shakespeare history; Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo & Juliet and Henry V. The work has received early praise from Actor Sir Ian McKellen and Playwright Richard Foreman. In the "literary trick" (as described by Page Six of The New York Post) Shakespeare's lines are rearranged into a wholly new story, in which Prince Hamlet of Denmark goes to war to claim his bride and the daughter of King Lear, Juliet. Upon a triumphant return home, Hamlet discovers that his mother has murdered his father, and married Macbeth. Visited by his father's ghost, and goaded by the opportunistic Lieutenant Iago, Hamlet is driven mad by the erroneous belief that Juliet is having an affair with General Romeo. [ [http://www.nypost.com/seven/07082008/gossip/pagesix/from_bard_to_verse_118962.htm] , "The New York Post", July 8, 2008.]

External links

* [http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/blogs/guest-author/all-worlds-grave-john-reed/ Penguin Books Blog]
* [http://www.nypost.com/seven/07082008/gossip/pagesix/from_bard_to_verse_118962.htm/ Page Six article]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/11/27/dl2703.xml London Telegraph editorial]
* [http://nypress.com/15/40/news&columns/publishing.cfm New York Press]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/11/27/wfarm27.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/11/27/ixworld.html London Telegraph]
* [http://www.reason.com/news/show/31995.html Reason/Boston Globe]
* [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40711FB3A5D0C768EDDA80994DA404482 New York Times]
* [http://www.orwelltoday.com/snowball'srevenge.shtml Orwell Today]
* [http://www.mobylives.com/Orwell_Reed.html Moby Lives]
* [http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/fiction/jan05/thewhole.html Excerpt in the Brooklyn Rail]
* [http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385334068 Random House]
* [http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=1931824053 SPD Books]
* [http://www.simonsays.com/content/destination.cfm?tab=23&pid=361544 Simon & Schuster]
* [http://www.johnreed.tv/ Author's website]
* [http://www.penguin.com Publisher's website]
* [http://www.alltheworldsagrave.com/ Official Book website]

References