The beloved and successful author Melissa Bank, 61, of the linked books The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot, has passed away.
How Did Melissa Bank Die?
The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing best-selling author Melissa Bank has passed away at age 61. She lost her battle with lung cancer on August 2, 2022, in East Hampton, New York, according to a statement from Viking Penguin.
In her Tribune profile, Bank stated, “I’m really happy that women read my writing. I don’t feel superior because of it. I feel like I’m dissing both myself and my readers if I say I’m not a part of it. Bank divided her time between East Hampton and New York. She shared a panel at the Southampton Writers Conference at Stony Brook University in 2022 with author Matthew Klam, who broke the news of Bank’s passing online first.
Author of The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Susan Salter Reynolds accurately observed that Bank “writes like Cheever, but funnier” in a Los Angeles Times review of The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, which chronicles the (mainly romantic) lives of Jane Rosenal, a young lady living in New York and navigating a career in publishing.
The book has maintained its devoted following in the years after its release. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing was “without a doubt the most impactful book of my third decade,” according to Bim Adewunmi, who published a tribute to it on BuzzFeed. “Every time I reread it—or chunks of it, at least—I am struck again by its neatness and completeness.”
The author of one of my favorite books has died. I loved her. #melissabank pic.twitter.com/BDiq9dx8nd
— Matthew Klam (@MatthewKlam) August 3, 2022
The book, which debuted at the top of the bestseller lists in the US, the UK, and France, struck a chord with readers, according to a profile of Bank in the New York Times: “At book signings, fans proffer their brand-new copies of the volume and ask Ms. Bank, a first-time author, to inscribe them with “To my best friend”.” Bank added that in these situations, she would write “‘I feel so close to you right now,'” using the comedy that readers will be accustomed to from her writing.
It is widely acknowledged that the book contains at least some autobiographical material. Jane and Banks [sic] share a neurologist father who passed away from leukaemia in his late 50s, a background in publishing, and an older lover with a history of intoxication and diabetes, according to Simon Hattenstone in a 1999 profile of Bank in the Guardian.
They were both born in Philadelphia and currently reside in New York. The book was frequently compared to Bridget Jones’s Diary at the time of its publication, however The New Yorker noted in its review that “Bank’s is a considerably more nuanced piece of writing, which achieves far more than it intends to.”
Also read: Anthony Doorhy: Man who died in Sligo waterfall
Melissa Bank career
In 1999, “The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing” made its debut on the USA TODAY Best Selling Books list, where it spent 40 weeks and rose as high as number 24.
Bank’s 2005 novel “The Wonder Spot,” which is about another young woman named Sophie Applebaum and her struggle to establish her own identity, was a smashing success after that.
Bank earned an MFA from Cornell University and was honoured with the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award for short fiction. She is identified as a faculty member at Southampton, New York’s Stony Brook Southampton.
“Melissa Bank, who wrote a number of notable books, including ‘The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing,’ has passed away. One of those seductive books that can become a lifelong companion if you read it at the appropriate time, “Author Gideon Yago tweeted.
Melissa Bank about her breast cancer
Bank wrote about her breast cancer diagnosis, subsequent treatment, and subsequent vehicle accident while bicycling in The Washington Post in 2005. Post-concussion syndrome and partial language loss were brought on by the accident. She said in the essay,
RIP to Melissa Bank, who wrote a smart and funny book lots of people loved (and tried to imitate for years), The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
— jami attenberg (@jamiattenberg) August 3, 2022
I was merely stating the plain and straightforward fact that I wasn’t a typical female travelling from party to party with a Halloween wig. Finding the appropriate words to express how I felt, however, and saying them out loud was thrilling. I was grinning for the first time in a few days.
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