Lucie Elven
@lucieelven.bsky.social
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Lucie Elven
@lucieelven.bsky.social
· May 6
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
Given the republication of The Edge of the Alphabet (@fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social), I wrote about the brilliant Janet Frame for @lrb.co.uk.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
'Schweblin uses successive crises as a means to break open her characters’ mechanical routines and force them to locate raw feelings.'
Lucie Elven: Finding the soul beneath the skin
Lucie Elven: Finding the soul beneath the skin
Crisis mode
www.the-tls.com
September 9, 2025 at 11:51 AM
'Schweblin uses successive crises as a means to break open her characters’ mechanical routines and force them to locate raw feelings.'
Lucie Elven: Finding the soul beneath the skin
Lucie Elven: Finding the soul beneath the skin
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘David Lynch had a peculiarly subtractive aesthetic. Just as the more you see, the less comprehensible it becomes, the less you can see (the lower the lighting, the poorer the quality) the more there is to look for.’
Ruby Hamilton on the filmmaker: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ruby Hamilton on the filmmaker: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ruby Hamilton · Things go kerflooey: David Lynch’s Gee-Wizardry
For years, his biography on press releases was just four words long: ‘Eagle scout, Missoula, Montana.’ David Lynch...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 5, 2025 at 11:43 AM
‘David Lynch had a peculiarly subtractive aesthetic. Just as the more you see, the less comprehensible it becomes, the less you can see (the lower the lighting, the poorer the quality) the more there is to look for.’
Ruby Hamilton on the filmmaker: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ruby Hamilton on the filmmaker: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Likely, he won’t come to her anymore, despite the fact that she has avoided any ethical question and thinks there is no need for them to be led into a discussion of the difference between, say, truthfulness and truth.’
Read a new story by Diane Williams: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Read a new story by Diane Williams: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Diane Williams · Story: ‘No Heartburn, Flatulence, Nausea or Muscular Cramps Either’
www.lrb.co.uk
August 9, 2025 at 7:33 PM
‘Likely, he won’t come to her anymore, despite the fact that she has avoided any ethical question and thinks there is no need for them to be led into a discussion of the difference between, say, truthfulness and truth.’
Read a new story by Diane Williams: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Read a new story by Diane Williams: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘As J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, she criss-crossed the Atlantic in pursuit of rare manuscripts to add to his collection, outbidding and outsmarting rivals wherever she went.’
Francesca Wade on Belle da Costa Greene:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Francesca Wade on Belle da Costa Greene:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Francesca Wade · Why waste time hot airing? The Best-Paid Woman in NYC
Belle da Costa Greene was a trainee librarian at Princeton University when J.P. Morgan hired her to dust and pack his...
www.lrb.co.uk
June 21, 2025 at 10:15 AM
‘As J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, she criss-crossed the Atlantic in pursuit of rare manuscripts to add to his collection, outbidding and outsmarting rivals wherever she went.’
Francesca Wade on Belle da Costa Greene:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Francesca Wade on Belle da Costa Greene:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
Books have arrived @prototypepubs.bsky.social HQ, out 29 May prototypepublishing.co.uk
May 15, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Books have arrived @prototypepubs.bsky.social HQ, out 29 May prototypepublishing.co.uk
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Frame hated noise. She claimed that her street became too loud when, after Macmillan came to power, the residents had the money to buy TVs and record players, though she herself blasted out Schubert to disguise her illicit typing when her landlord was sleeping.’
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 4, 2025 at 5:44 PM
‘Frame hated noise. She claimed that her street became too loud when, after Macmillan came to power, the residents had the money to buy TVs and record players, though she herself blasted out Schubert to disguise her illicit typing when her landlord was sleeping.’
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 14, 2025 at 11:20 AM
‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 14, 2025 at 11:08 AM
‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
Nathan Dragon's collection The Champ is Here sounds really interesting - in a peak NOON way I'd say :) - if you're not convinced by Lucie Elven's lovely review, there's some samples available at nathandragon.com
I loved making a guest appearance on Rachel’s substack to write about (and recommend) Nathan Dragon’s beautiful short story collection, The Champ Is Here.
open.substack.com/pub/rachelco...
open.substack.com/pub/rachelco...
A seafood freak
A guest post by beloved friend of the substack Lucie Elven
open.substack.com
May 13, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Nathan Dragon's collection The Champ is Here sounds really interesting - in a peak NOON way I'd say :) - if you're not convinced by Lucie Elven's lovely review, there's some samples available at nathandragon.com
I loved making a guest appearance on Rachel’s substack to write about (and recommend) Nathan Dragon’s beautiful short story collection, The Champ Is Here.
open.substack.com/pub/rachelco...
open.substack.com/pub/rachelco...
A seafood freak
A guest post by beloved friend of the substack Lucie Elven
open.substack.com
May 13, 2025 at 11:33 AM
I loved making a guest appearance on Rachel’s substack to write about (and recommend) Nathan Dragon’s beautiful short story collection, The Champ Is Here.
open.substack.com/pub/rachelco...
open.substack.com/pub/rachelco...
I’m talking to Vijay Khurana about his extremely tense and impressive novel THE PASSENGER SEAT (Peninsula) on Thursday 22 May at @burleyfisher.bsky.social. It’s the London launch. Free tickets!
burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...
burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...
LAUNCH: The Passenger Seat By Vijay Khurana
Thursday 22nd May 6.30 to 9pm Join us to celebrate the launch of The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana, published by Peninsula Press. Vijay will be discussing his new novel with Lucie Elven; author of...
burleyfisherbooks.com
May 13, 2025 at 8:06 AM
I’m talking to Vijay Khurana about his extremely tense and impressive novel THE PASSENGER SEAT (Peninsula) on Thursday 22 May at @burleyfisher.bsky.social. It’s the London launch. Free tickets!
burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...
burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Janet Frame’s writing is often compared to Faulkner’s, and her family history reads like a Southern Gothic novel. Yet Frame can be an extraordinarily cheerful, funny writer. Language was a source of continual revelation.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 12, 2025 at 7:19 PM
‘Janet Frame’s writing is often compared to Faulkner’s, and her family history reads like a Southern Gothic novel. Yet Frame can be an extraordinarily cheerful, funny writer. Language was a source of continual revelation.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 12, 2025 at 9:24 AM
‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
As a gift, she bought him silkworms, which they kept in a shoebox. Frame picked mulberry leaves for the worms to eat and ‘in the silence of the night as I lay in bed I heard a sound like the turning of tiny pages in a tiny library ... the sound of steady chewing and chomping.’
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 12, 2025 at 4:13 AM
As a gift, she bought him silkworms, which they kept in a shoebox. Frame picked mulberry leaves for the worms to eat and ‘in the silence of the night as I lay in bed I heard a sound like the turning of tiny pages in a tiny library ... the sound of steady chewing and chomping.’
Reposted by Lucie Elven
I love this essay from Rachel Connolly about her friendship with the painter Felix Higham
Felix's Studio
Some paintings I love
open.substack.com
April 1, 2025 at 5:48 PM
I love this essay from Rachel Connolly about her friendship with the painter Felix Higham
Reposted by Lucie Elven
Wouldn’t you like to be normal? www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 10, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Wouldn’t you like to be normal? www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
#booksky for #womenwriters 📚💙
A beautiful, wondrous & deeply thoughtful essay about Janet Frame, her key works and life; she was one of the most remarkable, accomplished memoirists (Angel at My Table), novelists, & story writers of the 20th century. By Lucie Elven, novelist.
archive.is/W65Zp
A beautiful, wondrous & deeply thoughtful essay about Janet Frame, her key works and life; she was one of the most remarkable, accomplished memoirists (Angel at My Table), novelists, & story writers of the 20th century. By Lucie Elven, novelist.
archive.is/W65Zp
May 10, 2025 at 7:38 PM
#booksky for #womenwriters 📚💙
A beautiful, wondrous & deeply thoughtful essay about Janet Frame, her key works and life; she was one of the most remarkable, accomplished memoirists (Angel at My Table), novelists, & story writers of the 20th century. By Lucie Elven, novelist.
archive.is/W65Zp
A beautiful, wondrous & deeply thoughtful essay about Janet Frame, her key works and life; she was one of the most remarkable, accomplished memoirists (Angel at My Table), novelists, & story writers of the 20th century. By Lucie Elven, novelist.
archive.is/W65Zp
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Janet Frame’s writing is often compared to Faulkner’s, and her family history reads like a Southern Gothic novel. Yet Frame can be an extraordinarily cheerful, funny writer. Language was a source of continual revelation.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 10, 2025 at 5:45 PM
‘Janet Frame’s writing is often compared to Faulkner’s, and her family history reads like a Southern Gothic novel. Yet Frame can be an extraordinarily cheerful, funny writer. Language was a source of continual revelation.’
@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Before the second volume of her autobiography was even published, Janet Frame was being called a neglected genius, recommended for the Nobel Prize, awarded a CBE (she would have preferred to be styled Dame Frame, but “that’s my wack”).’
Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 2, 2025 at 7:40 PM
‘Before the second volume of her autobiography was even published, Janet Frame was being called a neglected genius, recommended for the Nobel Prize, awarded a CBE (she would have preferred to be styled Dame Frame, but “that’s my wack”).’
Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Frame’s letters were opened by the doctors, who deemed them “foolish”. A line about gorse smelling of peanut butter was singled out as a sign of her disordered mind and reason enough to prevent contact with the outside world for a time.‘
Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 9, 2025 at 9:15 AM
‘Frame’s letters were opened by the doctors, who deemed them “foolish”. A line about gorse smelling of peanut butter was singled out as a sign of her disordered mind and reason enough to prevent contact with the outside world for a time.‘
Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lucie Elven
Great review this
‘Janet Frame hated noise. She claimed that her street became too loud when the residents had the money to buy TVs and record players, though she herself blasted out Schubert to disguise her illicit typing when her landlord was sleeping.’
Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 1, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Great review this
Reposted by Lucie Elven
Janet Frame was just days away from a scheduled lobotomy when her first story collection won a New Zealand national literary award, convincing her doctors to cancel the procedure.
‘Before the second volume of her autobiography was even published, Janet Frame was being called a neglected genius, recommended for the Nobel Prize, awarded a CBE (she would have preferred to be styled Dame Frame, but “that’s my wack”).’
Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 2, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Janet Frame was just days away from a scheduled lobotomy when her first story collection won a New Zealand national literary award, convincing her doctors to cancel the procedure.
Reposted by Lucie Elven
‘Frame’s letters were opened by the doctors, who deemed them “foolish”. A line about gorse smelling of peanut butter was singled out as a sign of her disordered mind and reason enough to prevent contact with the outside world for a time.‘
Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s Place
There were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 3, 2025 at 4:10 PM
‘Frame’s letters were opened by the doctors, who deemed them “foolish”. A line about gorse smelling of peanut butter was singled out as a sign of her disordered mind and reason enough to prevent contact with the outside world for a time.‘
Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
