Sara Flannery Murphy grew up in Arkansas, where she divided her time between Little Rock and Eureka Springs, a small artists’ community in the Ozark Mountains. She received her MFA in creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis and studied library science in British Columbia. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and son.Murphy's newly released first novel is The Possessions.
One of the author's top ten stories of obsession, as shared at the Guardian:
Moby–Dick by Herman Melville (1851)Read about another entry on the list.
Captain Ahab embodies obsession as completely as any character ever will. As he stalks the whale that took his leg, his burning need for vengeance pushes aside all other considerations. My husband, an English professor, loves the novel forwhat he’s dubbed the “Starbuck moment”, when the first mate pleads with Ahab to give up his quest before the whole crew suffers. It’s a moment when the captain has a final chance to pull back from the brink. When he pushes ahead with his doomed quest anyway, everything that follows is all the more shocking.
Moby-Dick appears among Harold Bloom's six favorite books that helped shape "the American Sublime," Charlotte Seager's five well-known literary monomaniacs who take things too far, Ann Leary's top ten books set in New England, Martin Seay's ten best long books, Ian McGuire's ten best adventure novels, Jeff Somers's five top books that will expand your vocabulary and entertain, Four books that changed Mary Norris, Tim Dee's ten best nature books, the Telegraph's fifteen best North American novels of all time, Nicole Hill's top ten best names in literature to give your dog, Horatio Clare's five favorite maritime novels, the Telegraph's ten great meals in literature, Brenda Wineapple's six favorite books, Scott Greenstone's top seven allegorical novels, Paul Wilson's top ten books about disability, Lynn Shepherd's ten top fictional drownings, Peter Murphy's top ten literary preachers, Penn Jillette's six favorite books, Peter F. Stevens's top ten nautical books, Katharine Quarmby's top ten disability stories, Jonathan Evison's six favorite books, Bella Bathurst's top 10 books on the sea, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best nightmares in literature and ten of the best tattoos in literature, Susan Cheever's five best books about obsession, Christopher Buckley's best books, Jane Yolen's five most important books, Chris Dodd's best books, Augusten Burroughs' five most important books, Norman Mailer's top ten works of literature, David Wroblewski's five most important books, Russell Banks' five most important books, and Philip Hoare's top ten books about whales.
My Book, The Movie: The Possessions.
The Page 69 Test: The Possessions.
--Marshal Zeringue
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