Sunday, April 18, 2010

What is Marshall Jon Fisher reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Marshall Jon Fisher, author of A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played.

His entry begins:
In preparation for a writing project that takes place just after World War One, I’ve been reading a lot of books either written then or which take place then. One of the best is the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker. I had already read volume one, Regeneration, a couple of years ago, so I just read The Eye in the Door and am now in the middle of The Ghost Road. All three novels feature William Rivers, a real-life psychiatrist who spent the war treating traumatized veterans back in London. His most famous patient-- a main character in the first volume and a secondary one in the others—was the poet...[read on]
Among the praise for A Terrible Splendor:
“Marshall Jon Fisher has gotten hold of some mighty themes: war and peace, love and death, sports and savagery. …As the match enters its final set, all the narrative pieces lock together, and A Terrible Splendor becomes as engrossing as the contest it portrays.”
--Washington Post

“Fisher…offers richly detailed portraits as the story moves from one nail-biting set to the next against a backdrop of improbably high personal and political stakes.”
--Boston Globe

“…rich and rewarding…. Mr. Fisher brings a sharp eye for detail. He vividly sketches the anything-goes atmosphere of Weimar Berlin….”
--Wall Street Journal
Marshall Jon Fisher’s work has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, and other magazines. His essay "Memoria ex Machina" was featured in Best American Essays 2003. He has written several books with his father, David E. Fisher, including Tube: The Invention of Television. A Terrible Splendor is now available in paperback.

Visit Marshall Jon Fisher's website.

Writers Read: Marshall Jon Fisher.

--Marshal Zeringue