John Simopoulos is back today with another in our series of Books That Matter to tell us about an author who John knew personally: Joyce Cary. “By the end of his life”, wrote Brad Leithauser in the New York Review of Books, “Cary’s confident and fluent books received a critical and popular success, yet the path to this success was wearisomely tortuous. Cary was approaching forty-five when his first novel, Aissa Saved, appeared in 1932. More than two decades of literary floundering, of false starts and punctured enthusiasms, were required before Cary saw one of his many attempted novels published—to poor reviews and poorer sales.” A tragic story in some ways, but one which John gives great human dimension.
“A gentleman rider through life”, says John.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Subscribe to our shows by Email
Easy way: just click the PLAY button under each show. 
Simply fill in the form under each show and bingo! You’re a critic!
Litopia receives no public funding. For the price of a latté a month, you can keep us going. 
Litopia is the winner
of the first Golden Twits Award for excellence in social media. 
