Name Dennis McFarland | Role Novelist | |
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Education Stanford University, Brooklyn College, Goddard College Books The Music Room, Nostalgia: A Novel, A Face at the Window, Letter from Point Clear, Singing Boy: A Novel | ||
Dennis McFarland is an American novelist who is known for his blend of literary elements. McFarland has authored several novels including The Music Room and School for the Blind.
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Life
McFarland attended Brooklyn College where he earned his B.A. in 1975. He also attended Goddard College and Stanford University. McFarland taught at both these institutions later in his life. At Stanford, McFarland was a teacher of creative writing from 1981 to 1986. He married Michelle Simons and fathered two children. He resides in Watertown, Maine and San Francisco, California.
Career
McFarland's first novel, The Music Room, was published in 1990. The New York Times said the novel was genuine and emotional. It became a New York Times bestseller. McFarland told the Washington Post that his success was due to "a lot of good luck".
McFarland's second novel, School for the Blind chronicles several elderly characters as they look into their troubled pasts. Sven Birkerts, a literary critic for the New York Times, said that School for the Blind was "...in tone and intensity and final effect, as unlike its predecessor as it is possible to be."
McFarland's third and fourth novels, A Face at the Window and Singing Boy dealt with the themes of alcoholism and death.