Donovan, Anne 1956(?)-

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DONOVAN, Anne 1956(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1956, in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland; married; children: Colum. Education: Attended Glasgow University.

ADDRESSES: Home—Glasgow, Scotland. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Carroll and Graf, 245 West 17th Street, Eleventh Floor, New York, NY 10011-5300.

CAREER: Writer. Creative writing teacher for Arvon Foundation; has also taught high school English.

AWARDS, HONORS: Scottish Arts Council bursary; winner of short story competition, Macallan/Scotland on Sunday, 1997, for "All That Glisters"; joint winner, Canongate Prize for new writing, 2000, for "Millennium Babe"; Shortlisted for Whitbread First Novel Award, and Orange Prize for Fiction, both 2003, both for Buddha Da.

WRITINGS:

Hieroglyphics and Other Stories, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2001.

Buddha Da (novel), Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2003, Carroll & Graf Publishers (New York, NY), 2004.

Hieroglyphics (play), produced in Glasgow, Scotland, 2004.

Contributor to The Flamingo Book of New Scottish Writing. Short stories have been published in various anthologies and broadcast on British Broadcasting Network (BBC) radio.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A screenplay of Buddha Da.

SIDELIGHTS: Anne Donovan is the author of two critically acclaimed works, Hieroglyphics and Other Stories and the novel Buddha Da. A resident of Glasgow, Scotland, Donovan is often praised for her use of the local Glaswegian dialect in her tales, as well as for her humorous and affectionate portrayal of characters who lead ordinary lives. "I admire the ability to seek out the extraordinary in the ordinary," Donovan told Scotland on Sunday interviewer Dani Garavelli.

The 2001 collection Hieroglyphics and Other Stories features primarily female protagonists; in the title story, a young girl struggles with undiagnosed dyslexia, and in another tale, an elderly woman joins an exercise class at her retirement home. In each story, "the author always knows exactly when to stop," stated Lisa Gee in the London Daily Telegraph. According to Guardian reviewer Alfred Hickling, Donovan uses "guttural and garrulous" language throughout the book "to lift the heart rather than turn the stomach." In the Birmingham Post, Charlie Hill also commented on Donovan's use of dialect, stating, "As these blasts of something rude are used sparingly, they provide ideal spaces for the reader to re-appraise the softly spoken echoes of that which has gone before."

Donovan's debut novel, Buddha Da, is "a tenderly funny and unpretentiously philosophical portrait of a Glasgow family in turmoil," stated a critic in Kirkus Reviews. Shortlisted for both the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, Buddha Da focuses on Jimmy McKenna, a happy-go-lucky housepainter whose newfound interest in Buddhism gradually evolves into an intense devotion to the religion that profoundly affects his relationship with his wife and daughter. "Donovan alternates chapters between three points of view," wrote Patrick Gale in the London Daily Telegraph, "building up sad ironies as she shows how Jimmy, Liz, the prickly wife, and Anne-Marie, the teenage daughter, misinterpret one another and fail to communicate." Jimmy's commitment to Buddhism is absolute: he spends each night at the local Buddhist center, meditates frequently, abstains from alcohol and meat, and announces his celibacy. The marital rift widens so greatly that he moves out of the house; a resentful Liz has an affair with a younger man. Guardian reviewer Carol Birch observed that "it's left to Anne-Marie to provide the balance. Fortunately she is a generous enough spirit to prove the harmonising influence that finally leads to a kind of resolution between the two sides."

Reviewing the book in the London Sunday Telegraph, David Robson stated that "what makes Buddha Da an exceptional novel is the sure-handed way the plot is developed. There are no villains, no fall-guys: just decent, ordinary people making clumsy efforts to find themselves." Robson concluded that "the feel-good ending is earned, not contrived." As Sue Wilson noted in Scotland on Sunday, "What gives Buddha Da so much heart, solidity and vigour, … is Donovan's resolute focus on the nitty-gritty human fabric of her tale, enabling its less material themes to emerge organically through the stuff of characterisation." According to a Publishers Weekly critic, the novel's "very engaging characters and the universal nature of its family drama should please anyone in search of an absorbing and touching read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Birmingham Post (Birmingham, England), June 23, 2001, Charlie Hill, "Quietly Impressive Debut by a Subtle Lover of Language," review of Hieroglyphics and Other Stories, p. 52.

Booklist, March 15, 2004, Margaret Flanagan, review of Buddha Da, p. 1263.

Daily Telegraph (London, England), July 21, 2001, Melissa Denes, "Women in a Ring of Confidence," review of Hieroglyphics and Other Stories; March 8, 2003, Patrick Gale, "A Pint of Heavy and a Glass of Moselle," review of Buddha Da; January 17, 2004, Lisa Gee, review of Hieroglyphics and Other Stories; June 19, 2004, Lorna Bradbury, review of Buddha Da.

Dharma Life, spring, 2004, Joyce Henderson, "Jimmy's New View" (interview).

Evening Times (Glasgow, Scotland), January 7, 2004, Sheila Hamilton, "Anne Taught Buddha to Speak with a Glasgow Accent," p. 17.

Guardian (Manchester, England), January 24, 2004, Alfred Hickling, "Masters of Malaise"; February 1, 2003, Carol Birch, "Meditate on That, Jimmy."

Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), January 4, 2003, Rosemary Goring, "She's Talking Our Language Now," p. 14.

Independent (London, England), April 25, 2003, Rolf Myller, "Scottish Author Joins Literary Elite on Shortlist for £30,000 Orange Prize," p. 5.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2004, review of Buddha Da, pp. 98.

New York Times, May 16, 2004, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, "Nutter in Glasgow," review of Buddha Da, p. 28.

Publishers Weekly, March 1, 2004, review of Buddha Da, p. 48.

Scotland on Sunday (Edinburgh, Scotland), January 5, 2003, Sue Wilson, "Living at Home with the Buddha of Maryhill," p. 6; November 16, 2003, Dani Garavelli, "Success Story of a Secret Scribbler," p. 3.

Scotsman, January 25, 2003, Tom Adair, "Putting the 'Da' in Buddha," p. 7.

Sunday Telegraph (London, England), January 26, 2003, David Robson, "Glaswegian Meditations."

Sunday Times (London, England), January 5, 2003, Gillian Bowditch, "In Defence of the Dialect," p. 5; February 23, 2003, Trevor Lewis, review of Buddha Da, p. 45.

Times (London, England), January 11, 2003, Chris Power, "Keeping the Faith," p. 14.