Tonight I went to see Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley read from her new book 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel. She read at the Center for Southern Literature, which is (not so) secretly the annex building at The Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta. It was a nice evening and something I ought to do more often. Hopefully next time around I can drum up some of the other local B-G-B personnel to join me. There was a bar, as well as complimentary chicken-on-a-stick and veggie sushi. Hit that “more” link for the low down.

The book is a 600-page hunk of non-fiction about fiction. Ms. Smiley reportedly found herself unable to write after September 11th, and she immersed herself in reading instead. Wanting to get as far away as she could from current times she began with a 1000 year old Japanese book, The Tale of Genji. She began with this book because it is widely held to be the world’s first novel. Her initial intent was to follow the history of the novel as an art form. Her focus changed over time, ultimately resulting in a relatively random assortment of 100 books, kind of like how we (or at least I) move semi-randomly from book to book. Some of the books on her list of 100 she loved, some not so much. The book talks about the process of reading the books, things learned along the way, and ultimately the importance of fiction as freedom. The Christian Science Monitor calls it a “love letter to the novel“. It apparently even has two chapters of advice on writing that novel inside of you.

Ms. Smiley began by reading Chapter 5 of the book, which had to do with the psychology of reading, and then she took questions. Among other things, she talked about ditching novels that don’t hold her interest - something I have rarely been able to do. She feels rather strongly that it is the novelist’s responsibility to earn our attention, not the readers responsibility to provide it. That sounds pretty obvious, but I am one of those readers that has to “get it” - perhaps wrongly assuming that slogging through an annoying book is character building or something. She had lots of witty and interesting things to say about books, writing, and reading. She definitely left the crowd wanting more.

You can check out the schedule for upcoming events at the CSL at their web site.