Living in Words: Interviews from the Bloomsbury Review, 1981-1988

Founded in 1981, the Bloomsbury Review has become a forum for well-known and up-and-coming writers to voice their strong opinions. Here is a collection of 14 interviews with authors of poetry and prose and one book illustrator who runs his own publishing operation (Barry Moser). Kay Boyle reveals why she ``dropped'' Doubleday, and condemns Joan Didion's work as ``cheap, trashy, egocentric.'' Margaret Drabble, who says acting was her first career choice, is an anxious writer: ``In the middle of the book, I wonder whether to plough on or to scrap it.'' John Nichols ``considers my writing active, political work,'' and Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris also believe that ``if people read what we have written and identify with the characters . . . that's political.'' Bernard Mac Laverty, William S. Burroughs, Wendell Berry, Farley Mowat, Joseph Campbell, Alastair Reid, Douglas Adams and Robert Creeley all contribute their special insights and concerns. Each interviewee shares his or her professional elan, but none says it more enthusiastically than the late Raymond Carver, ``I can't wait until I can get back to my desk . . . I have a lot of stories I want to write.'' McNamee is a contributing editor of TBR. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)