50 Writers to Make You Look Clever on the Bus.
What qualities make a cult writer? Or, to put it another way, what makes a writer ‘cult’? In his new book author, editor and filmmaker Ian Haydn Smith gives us 50 bios of authors whom he considers to have achieved cult status.
If you were expecting the last sentence to continue with the phrase ‘…in order to…’, you’re not alone. But that is the chief hallmark of the book. The 50 potted bios are each perfectly adequate in describing the life and major works of the writers, but they do not discuss how and why the author may be considered a cult writer.
This issue is made particularly vexing due to the Introduction, in which Haydn Smith shows us that he clearly has a grasp of the issues and factors (and pitfalls) of labelling a writer ‘cult’. This Introduction is essentially an essay on the nature of ‘cult’ and it is reasonable to expect the issues and factors raised within to be referred to during the writers’ bios which make up the bulk of the text. However, this is not the case, with each writer receiving a perfectly adequate Wikipedia-style spiel with no additional commentary.
Haydn Smith raises many pertinent points in the Introduction about the nature of cult writing, including non-conformity, romantic hope, disillusion and melancholy, the role of the audience in response to themes, and genre. Had these been brought into play in the bios the journey of the book could then have been Haydn Smith’s attempt to build a case for cult by example – showing us what each author has in common and linking what might otherwise have been considered separate factors into a completely new worldview. In the absence of any meaningful narrative in addition to the review of each writer, the book simply becomes a list of authors: some famous, some not famous, and some infamous.
This is not altogether a bad thing. Haydn Smith should be congratulated for championing and publicising the works of lesser-known (to English-speaking audiences at least) authors such as Pauline Reage, Marise Conde, Zora Neale Hurston, Michel Houellebecq, Janet Frame and Ralph Ellison. But this was not the stated aim of the book. At least it ties into the book’s subtitle: 50 Nonconformist Novelists You Need to Know. At the end of the day however, some explanation of why we need to know them would have been appreciated.
Credit must also be given to Kristelle Rodeia for her witty and engaging illustrations of each author, particularly when some of them (Thomas Pynchon, Elena Ferrante) have never been seen. This did not hold her back and her illustrations add a splash of verve to what may otherwise have been a dry read.
Reviewed by DC White
Distributed by: Murdoch Books
Released: August 2020
RRP: $24.99
More News
