Observer book of the weekAutobiography and memoirReviewControversy has surrounded the career of the South African athlete. But her timely, sometimes angry memoir inspires compassion
When the South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya won her first 800m gold medal at the Berlin world championships in August 2009, her achievement was marred by controversy. Rivals and commentators alike speculated openly on the “masculinity” of her build and the ease with which she dominated the race. Read More...
Top 10sBooksFrom Woody Allen reimagining Van Gogh as a dentist, to Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, the joint winners of the Republic of Consciousness prize select the best reimaginings
A biography is the story of a real life. A novel is an invention. The overlap is clear, because stories about real people, where individual consciousness meets the historical record, are inventively inflected, and in any case, as Proust said, “the facts of life do not penetrate to the sphere in which our beliefs are cherished. Read More...
Some music fans seem afflicted by a sense of entitlement, and to have forgotten inconvenience used to be part of the gig-going experience. Mind you, with today’s ticket prices, is it any wonder? Published: 19 Jan 2024 ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKiipLOquMRomKWdqJ7AsbHTq6CdoaM%3D