Synopses & Reviews
For over two decades, Andrew O'Hagan has been publishing critical essays in celebrated periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic--among them
The London Review of Books,
The New York Review of Books,
The Guardian and other publications.
The Atlantic Ocean highlights the best of his clear-eyed, brilliant work, beginning with an essay tracing the "special relationship" between Britain and America since the days of Margaret Thatcher and ending with an extraordinary piece about the lives, and deaths, of Guardsman Anthony Wakefield and US Marine Corporal Lieutenant Colonel John C. Spahr, who both died in Iraq on May 2, 2005. O'Hagan's subjects range from the rise of the tabloids to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to the trajectory of the Beatles and the impossibility of not fancying Marilyn Monroe.
The Atlantic Ocean is a fascinating, important, and timely collection.
Review
PRAISE FOR BE NEAR ME "[A] beautiful, astute novel.
Review
"OHagans
seductively witty novel, written from the down-low but philosophically lofty vantage point of Mafia Honey, the fluffy white Maltese that was Frank Sinatras gift to his gentle, needy friend Marilyn. Maf, a British import, is fiercely political (a Trotskyite), erudite and snootily stylish (caring about home décor, he tells us, is "part of my pedigree"). He skewers the Hollywood elite while coming to adore his "fated companion" whose tenuous dreams he can read distinctly even as theyre turning to dust."
-More Magazine "Andrew OHagans book—inspired by Marilyn Monroes real-life Maltese—is stellar. Whether Maf is buoying his owners spirits or coolly assessing Susan Sontag, he has a nose for silliness and deep sadness. Of course, it helps that, as he notes, dogs ‘can hear what people are saying to themselves, and we can sniff illusion. This December surprise is a very real contender for the wittiest, wisest, most winning book of the year."
-Parade "Mafs insights into the vulnerable stars psyche will make your heart stop—as will OHagans writing, which is as clear and lovely as the Blonde Bombshells seductive laugh."
- Marie Claire
"Maf, equal parts erudite (a sworn Trotskyite, well-versed in philosophy and psychology), and canine (he chases rats), tells Monroes story from the ground up."
-Interview "With a nod to Virginia Woolfs biography of Flush, cheeky Andrew OHagan channels The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe."
-Vanity Fair "Andrew O'Hagan's novel perfectly captures the legendary actress. There are numerous scenes between famous people, some of whom I have known, and OHagan makes the dialogue sound absolutely authentic... There is a small but impressive tradition of canine narrators, but I cant imagine there was ever a dog as erudite and well spoken as dear old Mafia Honey. Enthralling."
-Peter Bogdanovich, Daily Telegraph "Andrew O'Hagan's new novel The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog is a miracle and will become a classic. I loved, loved it. If only Marilyn Monroe were alive to read it."
- Edna O'Brien "It's brilliant, the novel, a joy to read. Moving, and very funny - and sad. Maf is wonderful. And so is Marilyn. That 'scene' with her analyst is extraordinary; I was chewing my foot reading it….The whole novel is great and I'm proud to know the man who wrote it."
- Roddy Doyle "This is one of those rare books, written with such sureness of pace and lightness of touch that you find you have read a hundred pages without looking up. It is filled with sly jokes, funny wisdom, and deep feeling for character and scene. But more than anything, it is a book utterly alert to the reader's pleasure; and that pleasure, so sheer and total, is what makes this book so special."
- Colm Tóibín ‘A virtuoso act of ventriloquism ... [Monroe's] pet offers a startling insight into Hollywood, psychotherapy, politics and literary in-fighting, as well as a private portrait of one of the world's most famous and troubled women ... The terrible pathos of the human and canine condition is never far from the glittering surface of this marvellously imaginative, clever, entertaining and profoundly melancholy novel.
- Sunday Telegraph (UK) ‘Refreshingly, O'Hagan doesn't present Marilyn as a cautionary tale of an object of pity. He understands that she spent her life trying to earn respect, and clearly intends this book as a tribute.
- The Guardian | Observer Magazine (UK) "Many an esteemed novelist has tried and failed to capture the charisma of Marilyn Monroe. Drawing on actual events, OHagan avoids the pitfalls of his predecessors by treating the actress like a human being. ...a star-studded biography of humanity and dogs, their many beautiful bonds, and the tragic distance that remains between them.... OHagans incredible gift for dialog will give you giggles and goose bumps. Forever and always recommended. "
- Library Journal, starred review A "witty novel... This familiar slice of Americana gets a much-needed shaking up from an erudite pooch."
- Publishers Weekly, pick of the week "OHagan gives us a sharp picture of American cultural life in the early 1960s... An unusual, quirky and fun read."
- Kirkus, starred review "OHagan ornaments his wry humor with sparkling gems of prose...an enjoyable, thoughtful diversion..."
-Booklist ‘O'Hagan might, on the strength of this [novel], be the person to break the Booker's fear of funny.
- Scotland on Sunday (UK) ‘[One of} the best novels I have read this year ... [a] crowded and deleriously wonderful comedy of ideas ... O'Hagan has stupendous fluency and sanity, together with a slightly surreal reliance on autobiography.
- New Statesman (UK) ‘Maf becomes a wry observer, and the novel a fascinating and frequently funny commentary on politics, celebrity (the descriptions of Sinatra are show-stealing) and racism ... The writing is undeniably clever and the research immaculate.
- Metro
Review
"A
brilliant essayist,
[O'Hagan] constructs
sentences that pierce like pinpricks."--Publishers Weekly (starred)
"Stupendously unflinching, bursting with possibility"---Booklist (starred)
Review
PRAISE FOR BE NEAR ME"What a powerful writer Andrew OHagan has become . . . Be Near Me is an elegy, a love story, a document of an era, beautifully imagined and composed."JOYCE CAROL OATES"As if it is not enough that Andrew OHagan can write like an angel, one has to add that he does it in the rare style of an intelligent angel. What a fine novel is Be Near Me."NORMAN MAILER
Review
"In gorgeous, melancholy prose, O'Hagan portrays a man who misapprehends both the community and himself, leading us on a thoughtful exploration of faith and of religion's role in an increasingly un-Catholic world--and, eventually, of the simple need to love and be loved....A rich and fascinating novel that promises rewards with rereading."
Review
"Beautifully written...[O'Hagan has] an ear for dialogue, and nuance in single sentences lit by unexpected insights."
Review
"[A] beautiful, astute novel. A-"
Review
"An impeccably crafted, philosophically framed account of the decline and disgrace of an impressionable Catholic priest. UK author O'Hagan turns to questions of insight in a beautiful but ruined 21st-century landscape." (starred)
Review
"O'Hagan keeps both accused and accusers human and even noble. The most minor characters are drawn with truth and complexity, and O'Hagan's prose is stylistically dazzling, as crafted and lovely as the best poetry."
Review
"O'Hagan may have snatched the subject from today's headlines, but with remarkable skill he turns potential tabloid fare on its head...There is a graceful quality to [this novel's] circuitousness, which, despite the gravity of the subject, shows off O'Hagan's dark wit and deftness in characterization."
Review
"For all the death and, mostly repressed, sex that loom over this novel, Be Near Me is generously strewn with gentle ironies and not without moments of outright comedy...O'Hagan is mostly concerned with human frailty, a problem at once moral, aesthetic, and metaphysical."
Review
"This burnished gem of a novel has drama, emotional resonance and intellectual power enough to recall one's favorite 19th century writers...[A] heartrending tour de force." (Starred)
Review
"One of the remarkable things about Be Near Me...is the texture and even beauty is lends to Anderton's downfall. At a glance, the priest might seem repellent, but O'Hagan infuses him with so much complexity that his undoing...becomes undeniably tragic."
Review
"Be Near Me is about a man distanced from everyone, most especially himself...Andrew O'Hagan asks us implicitly to look at our own lives, ask ourselves how clueless we may be, as we try, with courage or cowardice or both, to get from this particular day on to the next."
Review
"Tragic, powerful, and moving, with insight into the world of English-Scottish politics, this is a book that is somewhat challenging to absorb because of its intensity, but that very factor makes it worthwhile."
Review
PRAISE FOR
OUR FATHERS"A remarkable first novel . . . richly written and highly evocative."--Newsday
"O'Hagan seems capable of accomplishing just about anything he puts his mind to."--San Francisco Chronicle
"Lyrical, poetic, and as intense as a reverie."--The Boston Globe
Review
"O'Hagan is a writer of almost shocking tenderness."
Review
"... elegaic, sepia-toned, in Scottish cadence, adorned with memories of Italian tenors and eras gone by."
Review
"[O'Hagan's] books, the products of a patient intelligence, reveal a preoccupation with the enigma that underlies media frenzy: why do some things seem to last forever while others fade away?
Review
"Personality lays bare the darker side of fame with astonishing empathy...Bottom Line: Shining look at stardom."
Review
"The book is so bustling and rich...that the darkness seems lit from end to end."
Synopsis
"A brilliant essayist, O'Hagan] constructs sentences that pierce like pinpricks." --
Publishers Weekly, starred review
For more than two decades, Andrew O'Hagan has been publishing celebrated essays on both sides of the Atlantic. The Atlantic Ocean highlights the best of his clear-eyed, brilliant work, including his first published essay, a reminiscence of his working-class Scottish upbringing; an extraordinary piece about the lives of two soldiers, one English, one American, both of whom died in Iraq on May 2, 2005; and a piercing examination of the life of William Styron. O'Hagan's subjects range from the rise of the tabloids to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, from the trajectory of the Beatles to the impossibility of not fancying Marilyn Monroe.
The Atlantic Ocean -- an engrossing and important collection.
Synopsis
A stunning collection of reportage about the complicated relationship between Britain and America from the acclaimed journalist and novelist, and the "best essayist of his generation" (New York Times).
Synopsis
"Always trust a stranger," said Davids mother when he returned from Rome. "Its the people you know who let you down."Half a life later, David is Father Anderton, a Catholic priest with a small parish in Scotland. He befriends Mark and Lisa, rebellious local teenagers who live in a world he barely understands. Their company stirs memories of earlier happinesshis days at a Catholic school in Yorkshire, the student revolt in 1960s Oxford, and a choice he once made in the orange groves of Rome. But their friendship also ignites the suspicions and smoldering hatred of a town that resents strangers, and brings Father David to a reckoning with the gathered tensions of past and present.In this masterfully written novel, Andrew OHagan explores the emotional and moral contradictions of religious life in a faithless age.
Synopsis
"Maf"-- Marilyn Monroe's dog, a gift from Frank Sinatra-- tells his life-story
Synopsis
Meet Maf: The hilariously opinionated, well-read, politically scrappy, and complex canine companion to Marilyn Monroe.
In November 1960, Frank Sinatra gave Marilyn Monroe a dog. His name was Mafia Honey, or Maf for short. Born in the household of Vanessa Bell, brought to the United States by Natalie Woods mother, and given as a Christmas present to Marilyn the winter after she separated from Arthur Miller, Maf was with Marilyn for the last two years of her life, first in New York and then in Los Angeles, and he had as much instinct for celebrity and psychoanalysis as he did for Liver Treat with a side order of National Biscuits. Marylin took him to meet President Kennedy and to Hollywood restaurants, to department stores, to interviews, and to Mexico for her divorce. Through Maf's eyes, we see an altogether original and wonderfully clever portrait of the woman behind the icon—and the dog behind the woman.
Synopsis
"A brilliant essayist, [O'Hagan] constructs sentences that pierce like pinpricks.” —
Publishers Weekly, starred review
For more than two decades, Andrew O’Hagan has been publishing celebrated essays on both sides of the Atlantic. The Atlantic Ocean highlights the best of his clear-eyed, brilliant work, including his first published essay, a reminiscence of his working-class Scottish upbringing; an extraordinary piece about the lives of two soldiers, one English, one American, both of whom died in Iraq on May 2, 2005; and a piercing examination of the life of William Styron. O’Hagan’s subjects range from the rise of the tabloids to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, from the trajectory of the Beatles to the impossibility of not fancying Marilyn Monroe.
The Atlantic Ocean — an engrossing and important collection.
Synopsis
"Maf," Marilyn Monroe's dog and a gift from Frank Sinatra, tells his life story.
Synopsis
In November 1960, Frank Sinatra gave Marilyn Monroe a dog. His name was Mafia Honey, or Maf for short. He had an instinct for celebrity. For politics. For psychoanalysis. For literature. For interior decoration. For Liver Treat with a side order of National Biscuits.
Maf was with Marilyn for the last two years of her life, first in New York, where she mixed with everyone who was anyone—the art dealer Leo Castelli, Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio crowd, Upper West Side émigrés—then back to Los Angeles. She took him to meet President Kennedy and to Hollywood restaurants, department stores, and interviews. To Mexico, for her divorce.
With style, brilliance, and panache, Andrew OHagan has drawn a one-of-a-kind portrait of the woman behind the icon, and the dog behind the woman.
Synopsis
Growing up on the Scottish island of Bute, Maria Tambini is a young girl with dreams of escape from her Italian immigrant family. When her amazing voice wins her a talent show at the tender age of thirteen, she is whisked off to London and instant stardom in the entertainment industry.
But even as Maria is celebrating her greatest success, she is waging a hidden battle against her own body, and becoming in the process a living exhibit in the modern drama of celebrity. Can she be saved by love? Or will she be consumed by an obsessive celebrity culture, family lies, and by her number-one fan?
Based closely on the life story of a famous singer, this stunning novel is at once a rich portrait of an immigrant community and a tragic tale of the hidden costs of celebrity.
About the Author
ANDREW O'HAGAN was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His previous novels have been awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the E. M. Forster Award.
Table of Contents
contents
prologue January 1976 1
one Sundial 4
two The Mouth of the River 26
three Mr Perhaps 53
four Ailsa Craig 78
five Schoolboy on an Elephant 102six The Nights 122
seven The Economy of Grace 146
eight Balliol 175
nine The People 212
ten The Echo of Something Real 235
eleven Kilmarnock 258
twelve The Single Life 285