In the Spotlight: David Leavitt

[reviews_and_ramblings]

The Book: “Richly imagined [and] impressive” (New York Times Book Review), this critically acclaimed and emotionally charged novel about the strange and ultimately tragic relationship between an esteemed British mathematician and an unknown—and unschooled—mathematical genius is historical fiction at its best: ambitious, profound, and absorbing.

Based on the remarkable true story of G. H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan, and populated with such luminaries such as D. H. Lawrence, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Indian Clerk takes this extraordinary slice of history and transforms it into an emotional and spellbinding story about the fragility of human connection and our need to find order in the world. A literary masterpiece, it appeared on four bestseller lists, including the Los Angeles Times, and received dazzling reviews from every major publication in the country.

"Mathematics and its paradoxes provide a deep vein of metaphor that Leavitt uses to superb effect, demonstrating how the most meaningful relationships can defy both logic and imagination." -- The New Yorker

"Leavitt, a fine writer, has captured not just the complex nature of their partnership, but also a sense of the context: In his telling, England at the turn of the 20th century fits the phrase he uses to describe a particular boarding house, as "a room grown stale from its own protection." But beneath the surface of this story lurk issues that feel as fresh as today's news. Most importantly, the novel addresses the clash of cultures as Britain's empire-building came home to roost. "--Seattle Times

"Ambitious, meaty, extensively researched…[a] richly layered, rueful portrait...Leavitt has tapped into marvelous material...stimulating and refreshingly original." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"This novel is brilliant. It is a beautiful and creative work that manages to portray a melange of the literary, historical, romantic and academic, with breathtaking prose and deeply nuanced characters."--Pittsburg Post-Gazette

"Fascinating...Leavitt makes the math of prime numbers surprisingly palatable. But we learn more about the complexities of love and work, and their interaction. In Hardy, Leavitt has created a rich character for the reader to care about." -- Boston Globe

"[E]rudite and well researched, and Leavitt writes about pure mathematics in a way that won't utterly baffle those of us who didn't get beyond pre-calculus in high school ." --Christian Science Monitor

“In the most common type of historical novel, invented characters inhabit a real place at a particular point in time...The second type, rarer in so-called literary fiction, is a novel about people who really existed, recreated by an author who plays with the facts, and especially the intriguing lacunae, of their lives. “The Indian Clerk,” David Leavitt’s richly imagined seventh novel, is such a book, and for several reasons Leavitt is brave to attempt it...Leavitt's porttrait of Hardy is a remarkable achievement...Leavitt has been praised and condemned for the explicit sex in his fiction, but it is his candid exploration of class that sets him apart from most American writers...It's usually not possible to know real people as well as writers can know fictional characters, and it's to Leavitt's enormous credit that he makes these historical personages so vividly complex...Leavitt has a passion to inhabit the past, a particular novelistic impulse that goes beyond simple 'animation' of history. The research that went into 'The Indian Clerk' is impressive...reading it offers the pleasure of escape into another world, along with the nagging feeling of familiarity that characterizes the best historical fiction.” —New York Times Book Review

“[I]ntelligent, ambitious.” —Washington Post Book World

“This is a daring novel in a most unusual way. It is as if David Leavitt had challenged himself to novelize the subject most inimical to fiction, and when the eureka moment arrived, it was a vision of -- mathematics!” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Excellent…highly recommended.” —Library Journal, starred review

“A profoundly moving tale that illuminates the agony of repressed feelings and the thrill of intellectual discovery. Think Remains of the Day meets Good Will Hunting.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Leavitt’s copiously researched new novel focuses on a relatively narrow world that he nevertheless illuminates into its deepest recesses...Leavitt explores the legend that grew up around Ramanujan, finds what is real in the myth that shrouded his actual being, and in the process reaches impressive heights of understanding the psyche of the intellectual as well as those who seek company with the brilliant-minded.”—Booklist

“The certainty attributed to mathematics is richly contrasted to the uncertainty of human relationships in Leavitt’s unusual and absorbing eighth novel...impressively researched, insistently readable and keenly sensitive...easily Leavitt’s best—and a heartening indication that [Leavitt] has reached a new level of artistic maturity.”—Kirkus

“Ambitious, erudite and well-sourced.”—Publishers Weekly

“Thanks for sending the new David Leavitt. I think its the best book he’s written in years. I know almost nothing about mathematics and that doesn’t get in the way of the sheer reading pleasure the book has given me for the last week and a half. Merci.”—Steve Fischer, Executive Director, NEBA

"A loving exploration of one of the greatest collaborations of the past century, THE INDIAN CLERK is a novel that brilliantly orchestrates questions of colonialism, sexual identity and the nature of genius."--Manil Suri, author of The Death of Vishnu

Amazon: The Indian Clerk: A Novel

Other Books in the List:

Martin Bauman: or, A Sure Thing (2000)
Amazon: Martin Bauman: or, A Sure Thing

The Body of Jonah Boyd (2004)
Amazon: The Body of Jonah Boyd

The Marble Quilt (2001)
Amazon: The Marble Quilt

The Author: David Leavitt (born June 23, 1961) is an American novelist, author of several novels, including The Body of Jonah Boyd, While England Sleeps, and Equal Affections. A recipient of fellowships from both the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, he teaches at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Leavitt is a graduate of Yale University and recipient of fellowships from both the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He now teaches at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He has also taught at Princeton.

He is the author of Family Dancing, Equal Affections, The Page Turner, Martin Bauman, or A Sure Thing, The Lost Language of Cranes, While England Sleeps, The Body of Jonah Boyd, and numerous short stories. His most recent novel is The Indian Clerk. Leavitt, who is openly gay, has frequently explored gay issues in his work.

At the University of Florida he is a member of the Creative Writing faculty and is also the editor of Subtropics magazine, The University of Florida's literary review. He divides his time between Florida and Tuscany (Italy), where he had many of his books translated.

http://web.english.ufl.edu/faculty/dleavitt/

Top 100 Gay Novels List (*)

External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (simple - without photos)

External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (wanted - with photos)

*only one title per author, only print books released after January 1, 2000.

Other titles not in the top 100 list:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/top50MM