American writers

Near Gainesville, Georgia, USA 2004.

American writers

Steinbeck, London, Capote, Bukowski, Yates, Fante, Crumley, Harrison… I know where my preference for American literature comes from. Its authors possess that authenticity born of orphans who have built themselves up on their own. Not aristocrats, nor bourgeois, just heirs of uprooted settlers. Their style is pragmatic; their writing hasn’t got the heavy scent of libraries’ beeswax or of country mansions. It smells of wood cabins, train tracks, dust, alcohol, cars and sometimes gunpowder. It’s the writing of vagabonds, adventurers. Those authors who are close to men and nature, take risks and, hearts open but fists clenched, talk to you at shoulder height.