This bibliography resource guide will help you find more information at UBC Library and the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre on the history of classical and ancient Greece that would complement your reading of Annabel Lyon’s Sweet Girl. The guide draws mainly on the collection in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division at Koerner Library, as well as the Rare Books and Special Collections at the Learning Centre, but also includes other materials found in the other Divisions of the UBC Library.
Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
The year is 1975 and Reno—so-called because of the place of her birth—has come to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity in the art world—artists have colonized a deserted and industrial SoHo, are staging actions in the East Village, and are blurring the line between life and art. Reno meets a group of dreamers and raconteurs who submit her to a sentimental education of sorts. Ardent, vulnerable, and bold, she begins an affair with an artist named Sandro Valera, the semi-estranged scion of an Italian tire and motorcycle empire. When they visit Sandro’s family home in Italy, Reno falls in with members of the radical movement that overtook Italy in the seventies. Betrayal sends her reeling into a clandestine undertow.
The Flamethrowers is an intensely engaging exploration of the mystique of the feminine, the fake, the terrorist. At its center is Kushner’s brilliantly realized protagonist, a young woman on the verge. Thrilling and fearless, this is a major American novel from a writer of spectacular talent and imagination.
Meet and Greet:
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
7:00 – 8:00 pm
Book Discussion:
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Location:
Cecil Green Park House – Map
University of British Columbia
6251 Cecil Green Park Road
Vancouver, B.C.
Registration:
For more information about registration, please find here.
Facilitator Bio:
Jeffrey Severs earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University and has since 2009 been assistant professor of English at UBC, where he teaches courses in 20th and 21st-century American literature, including experimental fiction and the African-American novel. He co-edited (with Christopher Leise) and contributed an essay to Pynchon’s Against the Day: A Corrupted Pilgrim’s Guide (Delaware, 2011). He has published articles on the writing of Philip Roth and Barack Obama, and he is currently working on a book about the career of David Foster Wallace.
Search Strategies
With a rich and vast collection, UBC Library encompasses a number of books, videos, and other relevant resources on classical and ancient Greece. The easiest way to find this material is to use the UBC Library Catalogue (www.library.ubc.ca). One recommended search strategy is to use Subject search option. From the catalogue option, select Subject from the drop-down menu, and enter any of the following headings:
Brigate rosse–Fiction.
Women artists–Fiction.
Motorcycles–Fiction.
Futurism (Literary movement)–Fiction.
New York (N.Y.)–Fiction.
Italy–Fiction.
Books by Author at UBC Library
Telex from Cuba. (2008). Toronto: Scribner [Available at Koerner Library – PS3611.U7386 T45 2008]
Flamethrowers. (2012). Toronto: Scribner. [Available at Koerner Library – PS3611.U7386 F57 2013]
Scholarly Resources at UBC Library
David Robinson. (1990). SoHo walls : beyond graffiti. London: Thames and Hudson. [Available at Irving K. Barber Learning Centre – ND2638.N4 R62 1990]
Stanley Aronowitz. (1996). The death and rebirth of American radicalism. New York: Routledge. [Available at Koerner Library – HN90.R3 A679 1996]
Research Guides