Updates
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
Ewan is very pleased to see that the 19050’s American classic Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates is currently experiencing a renaissance with the re-issue in paperback of all of Yates back catalog and of course the movie with Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet. Revolutionary Road was the inspiration and model for Swung. Rev. Road is about two proto-betanicks struggling with conformity in 1950’s America, and coming to the painful realisation that there is no escape and they are maybe just like their neighbours. Ewan wanted to do something similair with Swung and Gen-x. Swung started from the question: ‘would it be possible to re-set the conflict in rev.road in the present- given that we live in a time when there are no remaining jobs-for-life, when taboos around sex have all but vanished, abortion has become easy and acceptable and ‘rebellion’ has been reduced to consumer choices that signify rebliousness.
In the 90’s Ewan bought Rev. Road eight times as he was always loaning it out and then the borrowers would loan it on again. There was a kind of secret fraternity of fans. It’s a great book and ahead of it’s time.
Here’s the book link REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
and heres the movie link
and the trailer link
And here is the Richard Yates Archive link
RICHARD YATES ARCHIVE
ONLINE VIDEO INTERVIEW. ABC AUSTRALIA. 11 minute interview with Ewan on books, inspiration, love etc. Click here to stream it.
21st OCTOBER. Ewan appeared in the BBC ARTS PROGRAM “IMAGINE” presented by Alan Yentob. The 50 minute program is an exploration of ‘the love story’ and includes interviews with Sarah Waters and Adam Phillips and a section about the Le Prince Maurice Prize in Mauritius that Ewan was shortlisted for.
To view the programme on iplayer click here IMAGINE
ANOTHER MAGAZINE has just released MESSENGER a chain-written story BY Ewan Morrison, Will Ashon, Chris Manby, Stella Duffy, Alison Macleod and Matt Thorne.
go to http://www.anothermag.com/
go to literature, go to the far right and open NEW ANOTHER DOCUMENT and click on DOWNLOAD ANOTHER DOCUMENT. Another document is a damn fine literature magazine within a magazine. This edition contains photographs by Katy Grannan, Malerie Marder and Tanyth Berkeley and a story by AM HOMES and writing by ALAIN DE BOTTON
DISTANCE - Ewan’s second Novel - the story of a long distance relationship - was released on June 29th (Jonathan Cape)
The Times ****
“A writer of serious intent and prodigious talent…In lesser hands, the besotted dialogues and communications between Tom and Meg might begin to grate, but here the author makes them utterly compelling… On this form, Morrison is one of the finest novelists around”
The Sunday Telegraph ****
Top 50 Summer reads 2008.
The List. Camilla Pia ****
“Incredibly compelling reading…. an often overpowering, whirlwind romance peppered with hilarious, snappily rendered critiques… bittersweet anecdotes and, perhaps most interestingly, some searing attacks on and celebrations of modern Scotland. Morrison keeps the reader’s spirits up and gripped to every chapter with an abundance of witty lines, bittersweet anecdotes and an underlying sense of hope, which keeps Distance from becoming too sinister.”
Doug Johnstone, author, Tombstoning and The Ossians
“Distance is a remarkable, penetrating look at the nature of love, the psychology of sex and the role of delusion and fantasy in relationships.”
Arena
“The absorption of two lovers can make the reader feel like a gooseberry… Morrison leaves you aching for their reunion.”
The Daily Mirror
“A transatlantic romance is brilliantly stretched to breaking point… Secrets and lies mount on two continents, as a face-to-face confrontation inevitably looms.”
Independent: Jonathan Gibbs
“Morrison seems on the button with the mundane routines of long-distance love.”
Financial Times, Melissa McClements
“Morrison can be insightful…This, together with philosophical musings about the nature of affection, bring weight to bear”
Scotsman
“The much anticipated follow-up to Swung, takes off in a rush, a headlong dash, a slipstream of heat with the force of irresistible suction. Giddy, off-kilter and wholly absorbing, it features two lovers, besotted, reeking of lust and loss, in the wake of a week of powerful sexual-cum-psychological intrigues in New York City and beyond.”
TO READ EWAN’S GUARDIAN ESSAY ON STUTTERING got to:
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/family/story/0,,2286988,00.html
to read of EWAN’S WEEK AS A PRINCE MAURICE NOMINIEE go to:
ttp://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4120501.ece
Ewan is very pleased to have found this critical perspective of the first two books on the british council website. Scroll down and there’s a page long review.
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth5689e3e00cac21b16eykv4276073
RADIO INTERVIEW WITH IRVINE WELSH
Ewan and Irvine Welsh interviewed each other and chatted about their new novels on BBC RADIO CAFE on 21/07/008. To stream the interview go to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cm7v8
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY - SPECTRUM MAGAZINE. Cover Story 31st March. - Ewan went on a PICK UP ARTIST course in London (how to pick up women) - and this was the result…
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum/Pickup-schmuck.3926010.jp
Also check out ewan’s weekly column: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/comment/Ewan-Morrison-39Little-white-cowboygeared.3858848.jp
SHORTLIST- LE PRINCE MAURICE AWARD FOR THE MOST OUTSTANDING LITERARY LOVE STORY
SWUNG has been shortlisted for the annual literary prize known as Le Prince Maurice. The two other authors shortlisted are James Meek for ‘We Are Now Beginnning Our Descent’ and Salley Vickers for ‘The Other Side of You.’ The winner will be announced at a ceremony on the island of Mauritius in June.
Here are links to the two other authors.
http://www.canongate.net/JamesMeek
For more got to: http://www.princemaurice.com/press/pressrelease/CLPMPrize08Shortlist.pdf
ITALIAN IMPRINT OF SWUNG
On Feb 28th Swung appeared in Italy with the publishers Fazi Editore. The novel in Italian is called SCAMBISTI.
Keep an eye out for an essay by Ewan on Love in La Republica. and also a Q&A appearing in the forthcoming edition of Italian womens magazine ‘Anna.’
THE GERMAN IMPRINT OF SWUNG
was released on 24th March 08 under the title SWINGER. The publisher is C. Bertelsmann.
http://www.randomhouse.de/cbertelsmann/
A large interview is being published in ‘Brigitte’ Magazine, Germany.
REVIEWS SWUNG: The Novel
Ewan Morrison’s first novel SWUNG (Jonathan Cape)
was published on April 5th 2007.
PRAISE FOR SWUNG
“Sometimes - very rarely - a book is just so good that a string of gushing superlatives still seem to be damning it with faint praise. Swung is that kind of a novel, genuinely groundbreaking in its scope and insights, highlighting that its author is one of the most gifted and accomplished writers to have emerged in recent years” - Irvine Welsh
READ IRVINE WELSH’S ENTIRE GUARDIAN REVIEW HERE:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2061343,00.html#article_continue
‘A devastating book. As Real as it gets. Sexy, dark and unbearably moving.’ Alan Bissett.
‘Seedy and undeniably erotic, this is the best book on sex since John Updike’s ‘Couples’ - Arena Magazine
‘A surprisingly gripping and sensitive read…Swung is a smart peice of fiction, stunningly executed for a literary newcomer, with characters that are both real and sympathetic. Morrison adds very little padding to his sentences allowing his expertly fleshed out characters to the drive the book and the result is a moving, compassionate responce to modern neurosis.’
SUN HERALD (sydney, Australia)
“That rare thing - a serious book about sex. Ewan Morrison’s brave, dirty utterly honest account of the psychological side of swinging is a complete delight.” - Matt Thorne
‘Swung isn’t especially prurient, or even that erotic. It’s more concerned with grey matter than pink bits - a funny and disturbing phsychosexual dissection from a writer with considerable literary gifts.’ MELBOURNE AGE
‘Morrison, a sometime swinger, is a sufficiently solid writer to know that sex without emotion is narratively very dull indded. Though sex is it’s language, this is a novel about ageing and settling and messing things up again, with heart enough to make it hurt a little.’
THE OBSERVER
‘There is a direct line from Douglas Coupland’s generation-crunching debut novel and Swung… the move from Generation X to generation XXX is seemingly complete… In documenting an aparrently minor pursuit Morrison has served up a generation’s epitaph… Swung is a good read but not a happy read.’
Colin Waters. Scottish review of Books
‘As “Swung” begins, there is a worry that it will exhibit the kind of name-dropping, know-it-all post-modernist tendencies that are too irritating to endure. However, Morrison reveals a far subtler agenda. Beneath the boredom there remain yearnings and struggles, there might just still be spheres of genuine experience…What Morrison does is to re-establish an intimate bond between reader and character through a kind of sustained interior monologue, verging at times on free association.’
Henry Archer. TIME OUT 4 stars.
Read the full review here: http://www.timeout.com/london/books/review/book/376/ewan_morrison_swung.html
‘Swung is an amazing debut novel with a genuinely fresh take on the human condition and the mess we all make of our lives. It’s a literate, smart, compassionate and complex look at how people struggle to untangle the threads of sex love and longing which bind us. It is by turns hilarious, frightening and heartbreakingly moving, and it shows Morrison to be an extraordinarily gifted writer with an incredible future ahead of him.’ - Doug Johnston
‘What happens to Generation X when the time comes to settle down and grow up?….Morrison’s accomplished short-story collection, The Last Book You Read also told of jaded, solipsistic chatacters who turn to sex in the last hope of finding an authentic or meaningful connection. They invariably came away unsatisfied, but over the course of a novel you’ve got more chances to find what you’re looking for and Morrison just about keeps alive the possibility that David and Alice will come through their increasingly unconventional sexual experiences a closer and stronger couple.’ THE INDEPENDENT. Laurence Phelan May 8th
“Ewan Morrison has a rare, enviable talent, like Vonnegut, like many of the best, he writes like he hates the world he lives in but sympathises with the people in it - no matter how many mistakes they make, how many people they hurt, how many times they almost give up. Despite being on one level a book about sex, Swung seems to me be more about how people cope with growing older and realising they won’t achieve the perfect life they once hoped for. It is as much a soft lament as an ecstatic howl.” - Rodge Glass. Author: No Fireworks
“The Self confessed ‘erudite purveyor of filth’ certainly knows how to make a buzz. With this novel about Glasgow swingers that sound should turn into a veritable cacophony.” - THE LIST Magazine
“Morrison has translated his experience as a scriptwriter skilfully into a style that is by turns nervy and reflective. Unuttered thoughts and spoken responses intercut-rapidly, observing and observed, each clinging to the other in the bid to explain the truth of a scene. Morrison is very good at sex. He’s aware of what to take seriously and what to laugh at - (he) ensures that (the characters) approach the glimmers of hope which grace the books final pages with the honest, nervy indecision that they deserve. Swung is a book of real ambition, a wide ranging exploration of human needs that starts from the most unexpected of websites.”
THE HERALD
“A searching new novel about love and trust.”
THE SCOTSMAN WEEKEND
“Extraordinary. While the sex in the book is frankly depicted it doesn’t actually feel like a book about sex. It’s more about people burdened by the heavy weights of economics, history, and (sexual) politics.”
THE LIST
“(A) fantastic debut novel - Morrison knows what h’s writing about, he experimented with swinging for a year, and used his experiences to create a perceptive and touching fictionalisation of a topic which many folk see as simply perverted.”
THE BIG ISSUE
“It’s as dirty a debut novel as Adam Thirwell’s brilliant Politics a few years back and just as funny and thought provoking - Morrison has the authenticity of a man who has lived the life and Swung is a heavyweight read - but, luckily, you can hold it in one hand!”
DAILY SPORT. Book of the Week April 14.
“Morrison writes about endless sex without missing a beat, partly because his warm, witty, poignant novel is as much about 21st-century consumption as its is consummation.” Metro Newspaper
“A racy romp - not for the faint of heart, this psychologically involvimg story certainly makes for an eye-opening read.” Easy Living Magazine
