Rachel Cohen is the author of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists, which won the PEN/Jerard Fund Award and was a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award, and Bernard Berenson: A Life in the Picture Trade, which was long-listed for the JQ Wingate Literary Prize. Her essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, the London Review of Books, The Believer, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Chicago.
"A thoroughly authentic, smart and consoling account of one
writer's commitment to another . . . Austen Years is full of neat
observations and provocative comparisons, folded into the story
with a subtlety that keeps Cohen's sense from getting sententious."
--Sophie Gee, The New York Times Book Review (editors' choice)
"Among the myriad passionate readers of Austen, who seem to produce
dozens of new books about her every year, Cohen occupies a special
place . . . Cohen writes with emotion and insight about her father
and his death." --Marion Winik, The Washington Post "In this
memoir-essay hybrid, Cohen reads and rereads Jane Austen's work and
tells us not just what it all means but also what it does for us --
how the author's pin-sharp assessments and characters instruct us
about the world. There isn't an ounce of kitsch or flowery
claptrap. Instead, Cohen overlays a personal account of grieving
her father with the help of Austen's fiction, emerging with one of
the most emotionally astute understandings of the novelist's work,
period." --Hillary Kelly, Los Angeles Times "Cohen has taken her
fascination with - and personal dependence on - one great author
and transmutes it into something any reader in the world will find
downright marvelous . . . The book is at once an impressive
analysis of Austen's fiction and a first-rate biography of the
author herself. At its heart, however, this story is as much about
the joy of reading as it is about anything else . . . a shining
account of how indispensable books can be." --Steve Donoghue, The
Christian Science Monitor "[A] tender, rigorous criticism/memoir
hybrid . . . [Austen Years] intimately matches Jane's literary
interrogations -- especially those about how women process the
infinite varieties of grief -- with tender personal sketches. The
premise could turn hokey, but Cohen's readings are invigorating."
--Vulture (29 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Summer) "A carefully
considered and lyrical memoir . . . Cohen nimbly combines
biography, literary criticism and personal reflection. Like
Austen's novels, which were reworked over lengthy periods during
which the author's thoughts and circumstances shifted, Cohen's
memoir - flecked with light and dark, hope and sorrow - has
accumulated layers." --Chloë Ashby, TLS "A complicated hybrid of a
book that mixes Cohen's singular insight into Austen as a writer
with Cohen's personal life . . . a moving and intelligent guide to
reading Austen in our days of death . . . In the dark spring of
2020, Cohen turned me back toward Austen. I'm glad she did." --Ann
Fabian, The National Book Review "This haunting and haunted
narrative pulls off the impossible task of allowing us to read over
a thoughtful writer's shoulder, allowing us to discover these
known-to-death novels by watching her observe, think, and, yes,
feel through their pages." --Leah Price, Public Books "A wondrous
mix of memoir and biography . . . [Austen Years] is a book not to
be hurried through but consumed in small portions and pondered over
as it sparks introspection. [Cohen's] deep knowledge of and respect
for Austen's novels will equally impress Austenites and readers
less versed in her works." --Booklist (starred review) "[Cohen]
asserts that through Austen's novels we can feel more ourselves and
see the world clearer . . . A successful reminder of how
time-honored literature evokes insight into our present reality and
why the classics should be read more and often." --Denise J.
Stankovics, Library Journal "A thoughtful meditation on the
interweaving of literature and life . . . [Cohen] analyzes
[Austen's novels] with astute sensitivity . . . A nuanced portrait
of a writer and reader." --Kirkus "Cohen's incisive new book
explores her immersion into Austen's work during a fraught period
in her personal life. Ultimately a narrative about grief, loss and
resurfacing, it also provides a deep dive into some of Austen's
most penetrating writing . . . Close reading and rereading grant
[Cohen] new insights into her own life, drawn from the awakenings
of Austen's resilient heroines . . . an absorbing pleasure that
will stimulate and augment the reading of Austen for fans old and
new." --Robert Weibezahl, BookPage
"[An] erudite . . . exploration of connection and loss . . .
Cohen's writing at its best is lush and lyrical." --Publishers
Weekly "Rachel Cohen's Austen Years is a work of compassionate and
meditative alchemy. It explores the patterns that hold together
life, art, love and loss; the spaces between memory and
memorialisation, between literary creation and lived experience,
between inspiration and revelation, reading and re-reading. Like
the implacable action of tidal waters upon the shore, it returns
to, shapes, and quietly unearths hidden treasures from what we
thought was familiar ground. It's an absolutely fascinating book: I
will never read Austen the same way again." --Helen Macdonald,
author of H is for Hawk "I'm excited to read anything Rachel Cohen
writes, inspired by the delicate precision of her thought and the
grace of her expression. In Austen Years, the marriage of Rachel's
rare attentiveness with Jane Austen's beloved novels makes for an
exhilarating and beautiful book." --Claire Messud, author of The
Burning Girl "In the achingly precise Austen Years, the refusal to
be finished reading the texts that mean most to us converges with
the desire to bring a halt to time's passage in the mourning of the
loss of a parent, or the daily transformations of being one. The
delicacy and patience of Rachel Cohen's approach match that of her
subject." -Jonathan Lethem, author of The Feral Detective "I read
Austen Years with real pleasure and fascination over several
evenings -- it's a truly exceptional piece of work, a tender and
moving meditation on fiction and family memory, on Austen and on
Cohen's beloved father, all so surprisingly combined and acutely
observed. It's completely captivating."--Richard Holmes, author of
This Long Pursuit: Reflections of a Romantic Biographer "In her
biographies, Rachel Cohen displays one of the most widely ranging
minds I've ever encountered in a book. Stunningly, in Austen Years,
she reveals that during a lengthy period of personal transitions,
she turned exclusively to a single author, Jane Austen, immersing
herself intensely. Her memoir is an astonishingly fresh reading of
Austen's novels, a deeply felt reexamination of their great themes
(love, inheritance, how to be with others in the world), and a
lyrical ode to the pleasures and rewards of paying close attention.
It will sit next to Pride and Prejudice on my shelf." --Ruth
Franklin, author of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life
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