French Connection in These titles mean nothing.

I’m reading a Saul Bellow novella called A Theft. It’s was copyrighted 1989, and my copy was a generously sized Book of the Month paperback. It’s about me, who I might have been with money, connections, a psychiatrist, four husbands, three daughters, a love of my life, and an emerald ring.
A bulb lit above my head.
The Austrian au pair is like, and not like, the American girl who goes to France to get a useful Parisian accent in Lily King’s The Pleasing Hour, published in 1999.

AND!!!

The last few nights I listened to James Baldwin’s novel Giovanni’s Room (1956) in which male love cannot make a commitment - and its similarity to Annie Proux’s short story “Brokeback Mountain*, (1997, later the big movie).

THUS!?!?!?

Was King influenced by Bellow?
Was Proux influenced by Baldwin?

BEATS ME ---- four profound and very artful stories.

Last updated December 10, 2023