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James Thackara (born 7 December 1944, in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
) is an American writer who has lived in the United Kingdom since 1971 and became a British citizen in 2007. He has published three novels – ''America's Children'' (1984), ''Ahab's Daughter'' (1989), and ''The Book of Kings'' (1999).


Early life

Thackara was born in Los Angeles, California to Argentinean-born James Justin Thackara and Ellen Louise Schmid from
Greenville, Texas Greenville ( ) is the county seat of and the most populous city in Hunt County, Texas, United States, located in Northeast Texas approximately northeast of Dallas, Texas, Dallas and northwest of Canton, Texas, Canton. As of the 2020 United Stat ...
. His parents' marriage broke down before Thackara's birth and thereafter, his mother travelled with her young son through Europe and the Americas. At the age of eleven, he was sent to the first of several boarding schools. While studying at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, Thackara was mentored by
Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politic ...
, resulting in a close personal friendship that lasted till the end of Taylor's life.


Writing

Thackara explored the making of the first atomic bomb in his first published novel, ''America's Children''. A lightly fictionalised biography of
Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer ; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often ...
, it was purchased in 1984 by
Chatto and Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...
. The commercial success of ''The Book of Kings'' caused ''America's Children'' to be republished in Britain after 19 years, and for it to be published in the US for the first time in 2002. In one of the book's first reviews, ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'' praised the "trenchant novel"...for "depicting the drama of Oppenheimer torn between lust for scientific achievement and horror of prospective success." ''Ahab's Daughter'' was published by
Abacus An abacus ( abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, until the adoption of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. A ...
in 1989. ''The Book of Kings'', published by
Overlook Press The Overlook Press is an American publishing house based in New York, New York which considers itself "a home for distinguished books that had been 'overlooked' by larger houses". History and operations The Overlook Press was formed in 1971 by ...
in 1999, had taken Thackara more than 20 years to complete. A chronicle of World War II evoking the 19th-century style of the "great novel", it attracted praise for its moral vision, scale, – and writing in such "elaborately and burnished scenes...as a schooner setting sail, the discovery of a wrecked plane and frequently commended military action scenes. It also received criticism for its writing style, in particular, the dialogue, with characters "speaking in the tones of an oracle", its length and the use of multiple foreign languages. The ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' called the book "an audacious undertaking in the ...breadth of its unfolding... ewrites in the mode of the sublime romanticist..." The ''
San Diego Union Tribune ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...
'' said "the writer... sweeps us up into it with the passion of a great storyteller whose subject is not merely a particular cast of characters but a world in agonizing transition" ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' viewed the novel as "melodrama", "with swaths of very good writing and quite a bit that is dreadful". ''
Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...
'' described the book as marked by both an "undeniable if fitful power" and "infuriating awkwardness." A strong tribute was delivered by Malcolm Bradbury in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' when he said of the book "it revives the form's classic power to chronicle history and society, manners, morals, politics, family dynasties and human anxieties, to move from individual to general, from the intense emotions of daily living to the sweeping forces of the world" ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'' issued a famously scathing review (later reprinted in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'') by
Philip Hensher Philip Michael Hensher FRSL (born 20 February 1965) is an English novelist, critic and journalist. Biography Son of Raymond J. and Miriam Hensher, his father a bank manager and composer and his mother a university librarian, Hensher was born in ...
, calling it "so awful, it's not even funny. There is not one decent sentence in the book, nothing but falsity and a useless sincerity. It may be the very worst novel I have read", and ending with the comment that Thackara "could not write 'Bum' on a wall." ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'' on the other hand praised the writing, stating that Thackara had
Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...
's "talent for painting the grand with small brush strokes", and the ''
Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...
'' too drew parallels with ''
War and Peace ''War and Peace'' (; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the work comprises both a fictional narrative and chapters in which Tolstoy discusses history and philosophy. An ...
'', calling ''The Book of Kings'' a "book nobody should miss reading ..Thackara's acknowledged success is the consummate ability to gracefully mesh the personal with the political, the sense of the individual with the historical."


References


External links


Personal Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thackara, James 1944 births Living people Writers from Los Angeles Harvard University alumni American emigrants to England 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuse American people of Argentine descent British people of Argentine descent Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British novelists British male novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers