The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker cover image

Jonathan Lethem Reads “Narrowing Valley”

The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker

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Carre's Portrait of a Native Person

Carre had spoken of the difficulty of depicting characters from the legendary past. He said that he'd taken his guidance from early Renaissance paintings in which the multitude of faces in religious scenes are obviously painted from life. The story's writer has seized on this advice in an attempt to rescue his enterprise. If he wishes to avoid caricature or sentimentality, he must make that character a portrait of a specific human.

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