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March 28, 2007

Conversations with Larry Brown

by Scott

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The University Press of Mississippi's Literary Conversations series compiles interviews with influential authors such as Raymond Carver, Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison, and others. The most recent entry is Conversations with Larry Brown, edited by Jay Watson.

Seventeen interviews and articles are collected in this volume. The pieces span most of the late Larry Brown's career, ranging from 1988 to 2004. Some of the interviews were never published prior to this book. One of the most entertaining pieces is a transcription of a 1997 radio program that featured Barry Hannah, Brad Watson, and Brown discussing the writing life before a live audience. In one amusing exchange, the group of professional writers lament the lack of financial rewards that accompanies critical acclaim. Brown recalls that Easyriders paid $375 and The Mississippi Review paid $30.

Throughout all of the interviews, Brown returns to his literary apprentice concent. He never saw himself as an artist, instead likening his work to that of a carpenter or bricklayer. And to become skilled, Brown felt a writer had to go through an apprenticeship period of just churning out stories and novels. "Everybody's got an apprenticeship period, and nobody can tell you how long it's going to last. For me, it was seven years. For Harry Crews, it was ten years. For Faulkner, it was about five years. It's different lengths for different people, and if you quit, nobody's ever going to hear from you. So, you have to write all this stuff and throw it away and fail and fail and fail and keep going, until you finally suceed."

Brown's love of nature, of his local community, and his dedication to literature all come through in these interviews. Conversations with Larry Brown is a fine compilation of pieces about a writer who, in a great tragey, will give no more interviews.

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