We interrupt your book reading to bring you an important bulletin…
Even we bookworms have to stop reading long enough to clean the house, so I thought I’d let you know about the giveaway on my other blog, dkMommy Spot. I’ll be giving away a Living Home Starter Kit from Seventh Generation, a value of $44.99. So swing by and enter to win before midnight, May 5, 2008.
Okay, you can get back to that book now.
Narrated by an unnamed man, The Unforeseen gives us a good look at a most uncommon human. The man, who suffers from a perpetual cold, finds himself alone in a strange city. At the mercy of strangers from beginning to end, he starts going by the name “Serge”. Although he often blurts out an embarrassing detail or two about his current situation, he never really tells anyone about himself, despite the fact he’s been given every opportunity.
You see, this newfound “Serge” has no social skills. Zip. Zero. Zilch. And since every situation he finds himself in is a very social atmosphere, the reader is left dangling between sympathy and outright laughter. Our stiff and obsessive narrator never seems to see himself as lacking social skills – in fact, he appears to think he’s the sort that goes the extra mile in politeness and decorum. But social graces he has none. The reader can only guess at what are the true reactions of those he meets along his journey, as “Serge” seems a little confused as to what people are actually thinking.
The Unforeseen was originally written by Christian Oster in French, published first in 2006 as L’imprevu. Oster has published 12 novels in all, including My Big Apartment, winning him the Prix Médicis in 1999. He currently resides in Paris.
The novel was translated by Adriana Hunter who managed to keep the prose fluid, and the style is consistent throughout. The subtleties of the narrator’s ability to make others slightly uncomfortable were no doubt tricky to translate, yet they remain humorously intact.
If you would like to win a copy of The Unforeseen and perhaps brush up on how to embarrass yourself in public, I have a copy to give one winner. Enter before midnight, April 29, 2008.
3 Ways to Enter:
1.) Leave a comment telling me what interests you about the book. (Something more than “sounds good” is kindly suggested.) If you’d like, you can instead tell me something you did that embarrassed you in public, but this is just to make things more interesting, and besides I’m nosy.
2.) Subscribers are automatically entered into this and all future giveaways. Just enter your email address in the little white box on the upper part of the right hand column. (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you don’t receive it, check your junk mail.)
3.) Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back.
Do all three, and you’ve got three entries to win!
Yesterday I posted my review of the book Voices of the Lost and Found by Dorene O’Brien. (If you haven’t entered to win the book yet, make sure you do!) Today I have the interview with Dorene, as promised. If you’re a writer, reading these interviews with the authors can really give you a good inside look on what writing takes.
(e): Dorene, your character voices are very realistic and different from one another. It’s as if you “borrowed” a real person and recorded all their speech nuances. How do you go about developing them?
DO: When a character begins to take shape in my head I allow him or her to take up residence there for a while, and before long that character will speak to me. What is said is not as important as how it’s said–the sound of the voice, the dialect, the inflection. Once I can hear the voice in my mind’s ear everything else is easy; then I can have “conversations” with the character. I have a standing joke that on the first day of creative writing workshops I ask students if they hear voices in their heads. Half the class eagerly nods and the other half drops. But I stand by that: Hearing voices is a good thing.
(e): I sure heard voices in my head while I was reading your book! Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
DO: I’m curious about everything–graffiti art, string theory, weathervanes–and my research usually turns up some fascinating information that I can use as “background” material. My favorite stories are those that both entertain and educate, so I try to “quietly” do that in mine. “Way Past Taggin’” is a story about a young urban graffiti artist who is being harassed to join a gang–that’s the story’s central conflict. But while wondering what he will do and worrying about his sick grandmother, readers are being shown how piecing and tagging work and learning about pecking order on the street. Reading also inspires me to write.
(e): “Way Past Taggin’” was actually one of my favorites, and that one had a very unexpected ending. I’m always curious as to whether or not an author knows, when heading into a story, how it will turn out. Are you a writer who plans ahead, or do you like to let the protagonist show you the way?
DO: Once in a while I know how a story will end even before I start, but typically I allow the characters and the plot to evolve as I write. If I experience no moments of surprise in the writing I don’t know that my readers can experience them in the reading. At any rate, those unexpected events are always the most perfect–I’ve never excised one. In fact, I’ve rewritten stories just to accommodate them. I have several unpublished stories, and I think they remain unpublished because they’re too “controlled.” I think I’ve plotted the spontaneity right out of them
(e): Any plans for a full novel? Another short story collection?
DO: I’m currently writing a novel about fossil hunters in Ethiopia which asks and explores some pretty big questions about evolution, religion, hubris in scientific professions and gender bias. The protagonist, a female paleoanthropologist on extended excavations in Africa, becomes estranged from her husband and her runaway son, so she seeks not only the oldest human fossil but her son as well as some sort of redemption. Are all-encompassing careers worth the sacrifice they impose? How do scientists who have not fallen prey to the type of evidence-twisting that garners large grants compete in a field rife with graft, collusion and dishonesty? Can a fossil hunter reconcile the creationist view of her mother and the evolutionist view of her father to explore human origins through an original perspective? Will her family ultimately reunite or become torn apart by her discovery? My inspiration for the book was my curiosity about our origins. This is a fundamental question about which people–or at least people who are not religious zealots–seem largely unconcerned. My challenge has been to simplify and translate the utterly fascinating scientific and philosophical perspectives into an accessible and compelling story.
(e): Thanks so much for the interview, Dorene. Please let us know when your novel is out, and all the best to you!
Voices of the Lost and Found gives the reader a well-written collection of short stories, each crafted in a distinctively different voice than the one before. How author Dorene O’Brien manages to carry all these personalities around in her head, I can’t even begin to imagine. But this, together with edgy story lines and delicious irony, is what makes Voices of the Lost and Found an impressive work.
Eleven stories in all, the characters are truly the heart of the book. From the gripping story of a graffiti artist (Way Past Taggin’) to the humorous tale of a fishery worker whose boss was murdered with only his left hand remaining (No Need to Ask), the narration is so realistic you’ll swear you’re hearing voices. I don’t know if it’s this way for everyone, but when I read, it’s usually my own voice slightly altered to fit the character. Men are a little lower register, sometimes with an accent, but it’s still me in there. With O’Brien’s work, I heard actual voices. Please don’t turn me in. I just tell it like it is.
I had the honor of interviewing Dorene O’Brien about her experiences writing this book. I’ll be posting that tomorrow, so make sure and stop by.
If you want to hear voices in your head too, you’re in luck. I have one extra copy of Voices of the Lost and Found to give away. There are three ways to win: All subscribers are already entered into this and all future giveaways, so if you aren’t subscribed, you can do so in the right hand column of this page. Or you can leave a comment telling me what interests you about this book. (Something more than “sounds good” is kindly requested.) You can also link back to this post in your blog for an entry. Do all three, and you have three entries! I’ll draw a winner on at midnight EST on April 27th, 2008.
Special thanks go out to Bloggy Giveaways, who does a fantastic job of promoting. They’re hosting a giveaway carnival right now, so if you like winning things, this is your spot.
Yesterday I reviewed the book Sandrine’s Letter for Tomorrow. Today I have a special interview with the author, Dedra Johnson. I love to find out how an author goes about constructing a story, especially when it’s a book I enjoyed as much as this one.
Now let’s see what Dedra had to say:
(e): Sandrine was such a well-planned and endearing character, one you no doubt grew attached to yourself. How do you as a writer handle placing your characters in harm’s way over and over? Does it affect you when you’re away from your writing as well?
DJ: Without dangers, obstacles and threats, characters never reveal themselves or grow. I don’t think about it one way or another–for example, I don’t fret about a character getting into more trouble than I’d like her to–and simply do it. With a child narrator, it’s a little easier–because Sandrine is a child, there are a lot of factors in her world that are in the control of adults who have their own motives and needs that usually conflict with Sandrine’s.
There’s a danger in being too attached to a character. In the earliest draft, Sandrine was too good, too much a victim, and lacked agency. I had to find or create “bad” things about her to round her out and keep me as the writer from being over-attached and unable to craft the story and characters as they needed to be.
In the heat of drafting, yes, the character’s ups and downs affect me temporarily, a heaviness to the day or a sense of relief that a particular scene is over or that a mystery is now clear. But after the drafting and revising, I feel “done” with the character, her obstacles, her needs, her pains and tend to look toward the next character, story, work, etc. One way to put it–Sandrine told me what of her story she wanted told and now has nothing more to say to me. As a writer, I did a good job–she lives on and on for readers but she and I have waved goodbye so I can move on.
And though Sandrine comes off as well-planned (thank you!), she wasn’t really. I was trying to write a totally different story, got stuck, started some description and scene sketches and gradually Sandrine evolved.
(e): Your characters are rich and full and the story line is so well developed. What did you grow first; the characters or the story line?
DJ: Character always comes first. I need to know who it is I’m writing and thinking about. In early drafting, before I really knew Sandrine and her wants and needs, I floundered and got nowhere. When her concerns and needs became clear to me–and not all in an intellectual way; some of this understanding has to be emotional and intuitive–I could then move her through her world.
I didn’t plot the novel, really. I knew there were points I wanted Sandrine to get to–her father’s house, back to New Orleans, through a year of school–and tried to stay open to possibilities, tangents and forks in the road, emerging characters, etc. As a matter of fact, until people started reading it and saying so, I didn’t think of it as having a developed plot at all. That comes, though, I think, from looking at it from the inside. I know what I didn’t plan. But the idea is to make it all look totally deliberate and planned. So I succeeded.
(e): I spent a lot of time carting this book around, not able to stop reading, even late into the night. What’s your secret to keeping the pages turning for your readers?
DJ: My secret? I wish I knew! Perhaps it’s because I like to read novels in which there is a lot of character development and things happening–conflicts, journeys of any type, changes, surprises. I firmly believe that it is the writer’s job to make the reader turn the pages and I’m just glad I succeeded.
(e): Are you working on something new? I’d love to hear about it.
DJ: I’m working on a couple of ideas now, both post-Katrina but only one set in New Orleans after the flooding. The one set in New Orleans is/was sparked by my shock over the most basic losses after Katrina–not lives or property but community and family ties. In New Orleans, it’s not uncommon to live within blocks of your mother, sister, cousins or grandmother’s high school sweetheart, and people, women especially, relied heavily on those ties. The poorer the person or the more demanding the job, the more those social and familial networks are relied upon–meals, child care, lodging, employment, entertainment, psychological support, transportation, guidance, tradition, all of it. In New Orleans, you always know that if something goes wrong, divorce, job loss, illness, you can move back in with your mama. And when people were shipped off and scattered across the country, the networks people relied on were gone. Many of the public institutions we relied on, like child care centers and schools, were closed or in flux. You can’t work if there’s no one to watch your kids and few jobs let you leave every day at 3 PM to go get your kids. So I’m trying to look at what happens when those support networks and systems are gone, especially for women with children. I can’t write about it as an intellectual exercise, though, and the challenge has been to develop the necessary characters and get to know who will be my narrator. It’ll fall into place. Just when it looks like I’ll have to toss an idea out, usually some breakthrough in understanding occurs. I may have had one already, can’t tell yet, too early in the game.
The other project is more about family and family conflict, who’s valued or devalued, who’s used and why, who knows what and who will never be told or who can’t even begin to tell the truth. Not as high-falutin’ sounding but a story I’ve wanted to get to for some time. I tend to hold my barely-formed ideas close to the chest. And who knows–my next novel may be neither of these ideas.
(e): Thanks, Dedra! I appreciate you taking the time to talk. Please let us know when your next work is out. Both projects you mention have my attention already, so I look forward to reading whatever you send our way.
Ever read a book that haunted you? One that would not, no matter how you tried, allow you to put it down until the last page was read? If it’s been awhile since you’ve had that type of a reading experience, then it’s time to read Sandrine’s Letter to Tomorrow by Dedra Johnson.
Sandrine, a girl of nine living in New Orleans in the mid-1970′s, has had to grow up much faster than any little girl should have to do. Her mother makes it painfully clear she was never wanted and has interfered in her mother’s life in every way possible. Her father loves her, but only from a distance. She seems to be tossed aside carelessly by everyone who is supposed to love and care for her; no one protects her.
Written in first person, Sandrine is a very real character from page one. Despite the fact that it is told through the eyes of a child, the voice is intelligent and mature for her years. But Sandrine is still only a child. The reader will understand much more of what is happening in Sandrine’s life than she does. Sandrine is taken through difficulties no child should experience, including racism (even among her own family due to her light skin) sexual assault, and child abuse.
Dedra Johnson has a unique voice, and with her skills at writing page-turning narrative, I’m certain it’s only a matter of time before we hear more from her. Her work has an appeal that can easily hook you; with the right promotion, hers will become more than just another book on the shelf. I’m not the only one who feels this way – she’s been compared to Toni Morrison, and I have to agree it has that beautiful yet heartbreaking quality Morrison is known for.
Dedra Johnson is a New Orleans native. Dedra was a finalist for the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award for College Writers and Sandrine’s Letter to Tomorrow was a finalist for the 2006 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Award. Check back tomorrow to read my interview with Dedra where she’ll give us some insight on her book.
I have a copy of Sandrine’s Letter to Tomorrow to give away to one reader. As always, subscribers are automatically entered in this and all future book giveaways. (If you’re not subscribed, please type your email address in the box in the right-hand column. Make sure you add Feedburner to your address book so you can verify your subscription.) You can also enter by leaving a comment telling me what interests you about the book, or link to this giveaway from your own blog. Do all three, and you have three entries. I’ll draw a winner on April 24, 2008, 12 midnight. (***Note: Contest is now extended to April 25, 2008 midnight. This drawing is now listed on Bloggy Giveaways, which is having a huge giveaway carnival. If you like giveaways, this is the place to be this week!)
I have been a fan of McSweeney’s Quarterly for a very long time. I have also been a regular lurker on their website. It’s quirky. I like quirky.
The founder of McSweeney’s is Dave Eggers, who I’d love to sing about right now, but it would eat up this entire post, make your ears bleed, and leave no room for the upcoming book review (and there is one) so I shall instead suggest this Wikipedia link where he’s been wiki’d.
You Shall Know Our Velocity was written by Eggers and is published in hardcover by McSweeney’s. The book tells the story of Will who has acquired a large amount of cash from posing for light bulb packaging. Due to his inner turmoil caused by the death of a best friend, he decides to travel the world to give away his light bulb earnings – in only 7 day’s time. His surviving best friend comes along to help him, but it seems that nothing goes according to plan. They find themselves changing their plans on the fly, landing them in unpredictable situations. Giving away money is a tricky business that seems to involve things like perfect timing, staying up all night, packing tape, and finding the perfect donkey.
From Senegal to Latvia, (forget Greenland – they have wind issues) Will and his friend Hand spend time searching for the best ways to unload the cash, all the while working through the death of their friend. No postcard destinations for this book. Instead it takes readers to back streets, seedy bars, narrow alleys, and mountains in total darkness of night. I swear I was getting jet lag. My backpack was calling me, hoping to get its own dose of international hullabaloo. The book itself was printed in Iceland which makes me ponder if McSweeney’s intention was to add another uncommon destination to the list.
You Shall Know Our Velocity also contained just the type of humor I was hoping to get from Dave Eggers. He throws in lots of bumps in the ride and unexpected visuals, not to mention starting the book’s contents smack on the front cover. If you’re looking for an out-of-the-ordinary literary spin around the globe, then grab your backpack and a spare t-shirt. The donkeys are waiting.
I’ve just finished reading 100 books. Well, sort of. Giorgio Manganelli’s Centuria contains 100 short-short stories, each taking up only about 1 1/2 pages. What I thought would be 100 short scenes making for somewhat light reading turned out to me much more substantial and intense. Manganelli (1922 – 1990) had a mastery of language that allowed him to condense his intentions into compact storytelling, somewhat like a poet who can take a few well-chosen words to create a complete scene. The Centuria experiment proves it page after page.
Each of the 100 stories, originally published in Italian, shows the trials a character’s life is under, his interactions with others, his moral struggles or his deep dark sin, all within this micro-tale. Because each one is so full of detail, it’s not a book one would want to sit down and slam through in the course of an evening, but rather digest over time. I’d recommend reading one when you have a few moments’ spare “brain absorption” time, to turn them over in your mind. Rushing through them would be a disservice.
Giorgio Manganelli was born and died in Italy and was considered a leader of the Italian Avant-garde movement during the 1960′s. Centuria was first published in 1979 and was winner of the Viareggio Prize in Literature that same year.
If you are a writer, whether aspiring or established, reading Centuria might be just the boost you need to get out a notebook and start your own short-short story collection. Or a collection of 1 1/2 page dialogues or character sketches. It would make a fantastic writer’s exercise – just don’t measure your progress to that of Manganelli. You’ll find his fine Italian shoes hard to fill.
How often have you been in a public place and found yourself eavesdropping on the table next to yours? Heaven help the unsuspecting couple that dines next to me. I don’t mean to, I really don’t, But if someone nearby speaks loudly, I’m suddenly engrossed in their conversation, nodding my head or frowning as a good listener should. I think we’re probably all that way to some extent, and that’s what makes this comic strip collection of All Over Coffee such a huge success.
Unbelievably detailed pen and ink sketches of San Francisco skylines, architectural details, occasional interior scenes with no people, and a few lines of text make up these uncommon comic strips. Posted in the San Francisco Chronicle and on SFGate.com since 2004, All Over Coffee has gotten a mixed response ranging in “I love it” to “What the heck?!” Initially I was in the “What the heck?!” camp trying to make heads or tales of the comic. But as the book progressed, I enjoyed it more and more, feeling like I was gazing down over the city where all these conversing people live, eat, and work. It’s an amazing effect and completely original, something you’ll want to go back to and look over again and again. I definitely will.
So are Madonna’s comic strips taken from real life or does he make all that stuff up? Well, you’ll have to read it to find out. He explains everything at the end of the book.
If you really want to see this for yourself, or if you’re already a fan, I’ve got a special treat. Not only do I have one beautiful hardcover copy of All Over Coffee to give away, it’s autographed by Paul Madonna. As always, all you subscribers are already entered into this and every future giveaway. You can also leave a comment here telling me what grabs you about this book (something more than “sounds good” is kindly requested), or leave a link to this contest on your blog. Do all three and you’ve got three entries. A winner will be chosen on April 17th, 2008, at 12 midnight EST.
To see more of his artwork, check out Paul Madonna’s website.
Another installment of the Japanese Literature Series by Dalkey Archive Press, these two Tsutomu Mizukami Novellas allow an English-speaking readership its first look at The Temple of the Wild Geese and The Bamboo Dolls of Echizen.
The Temple of the Wild Geese tells the story of a temple at the base of Mt. Kinugasa. The mistress of a famous artist is coerced into moving in with the infatuated priest after her lover dies. Life is relatively comfortable and simple. Satoko falls into a monotonous daily routine; but she’s constantly finding herself unnerved by the eerie apprentice of the priest. An unusually small and haunted boy of 13, he was once abandoned by his mother and taken in by the temple to aid the priest. Jinen is a dutiful and hard worker – but Satoko senses something about him. He’s too quiet, too composed. This first story is every bit a mystery, and as the mystery lover that I am, I enjoyed attempting to unravel this Japanese tale.
The second story, The Bamboo Dolls of Echizen, becomes a mystery only from the angle of deciphering if and how it ties in with the first story. Both stories are set in 1930′s Japan, and both contain a similar main character who is shunned by society. But the premises of these two stories are very different – at first glance. Echizen is a small village known for its bamboo artisans. A small and lonely man lives there, his bamboo skills beyond anyone else. What follows evolves into a strange, sad love story. Or is it? He is unwanted by anyone until one woman comes into his life as a most unexpected partner.
I wanted to go into more detail about the second story, but something began to happen as I wrote – I knew the two stories contained many parallels, but I began finding so many that I’m certain sharing the connections would give the fun away of reading the book. The biggest mystery of these stories, it appears, is how they’re intertwined. Are they truly connected? If so, how? Readers will enjoy some wonderful aspects of these novellas – the settings, the unusual characters, the mysterious aura.
Mizukami (1919 – 2004) was a wonderful storyteller with a gift of adding an element of the unexpected. He has received many awards for his writing, including the Naoki Prize for The Temple of the Wild Geese, one of his most popular stories. It is said these two stories in particular are semi-autobiographical. Given the nature of the characters and the plots, it makes one want to find out more about this popular and beloved Japanese writer.
For more on Japanese literature, check out The Japanese Literature Home Page.
