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Child of Light

A Biography of Robert Stone

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Child of Light

Written by: Madison Smartt Bell
Narrated by: Mark Deakins
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About this listen

The first and definitive biography of one of the great American novelists of the postwar era, the author of Dog Soldiers and A Flag for Sunrise, and a penetrating critic of American power, innocence, and corruption

Robert Stone (1937-2015), probably the only postwar American writer to draw favorable comparisons to Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, and Joseph Conrad, lived a life rich in adventure, achievement, and inner turmoil. He grew up rough on the streets of New York, the son of a mentally troubled single mother. After his Navy service in the '50s, which brought him to such locales as pre-Castro Havana, the Suez Crisis, and Antarctica, he studied writing at Stanford, where he met Ken Kesey and became a core member of the gang of Merry Pranksters. The publication of his superb New Orleans novel, Hall of Mirrors (1967), initiated a succession of dark-humored novels that investigated the American experience in Vietnam (Dog Soldiers, 1974, which won the National Book Award), Central America (A Flag for Sunrise, 1981), and Jerusalem on the eve of the millennium (Damascus Gate, 1998).

An acclaimed novelist himself, Madison Smartt Bell was a close friend and longtime admirer of Robert Stone. His authorized and deeply researched biography is both intimate and objective, a rich and unsparing portrait of a complicated, charismatic, and haunted man and a sympathetic reading of his work that will help to secure Stone's place in the pantheon of major American writers.

©2020 Madison Smartt Bell (P)2020 Random House Audio
Art & Literature Historical United States Dogs New York Solider New Orleans
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What the critics say

"The late Robert Stone always signed his missives, ‘A blessing,’ and that is what this book by the great Madison Smartt Bell is - a much-needed and lovingly assembled account of the life of Robert Stone, who remains a gifted visionary and a hero to so many, myself included." (Rachel Kushner, author of The Mars Room)

"This searching, intimate, deeply fascinating biography of Robert Stone is a boon for Stone fans that will surely lure new readers to his work. Madison Smartt Bell brings his tremendous storytelling gifts to Stone’s wild, colorful life and work, and the result is irresistible." (Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan Beach)

"Bell meticulously recounts the life of Robert Stone.... A solid biography of an important American novelist." (Publishers Weekly)

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