As you’ve probably noticed, I’ll use any excuse (plausible or implausible) to throw props to Andrew Sean Greer’s The Confessions of Max Tivoli, one of my all-time favorite books. So you can imagine my disappointment when I saw a trailer for the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, starring Brad Pitt as a man born in the body of an old man who ages backwards. My first thought when I saw that trailer was “So much for Max Tivoli getting a movie treatment — these guys totally ripped it off”. Then, when I learned that the Benjamin Button movie was based on a story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1922, you can imagine my shock, dismay, and utter panic when I thought that Andrew Sean Greer had bamboozled me and had ripped off Fitzgerald; I had put my credibility on the line for a book that now looked like an imposter — a derivative treatment that I had dared anyone to contest the greatness of. I felt like one of the voters who awarded the Best New Artist Grammy to Milli Vanilli.
Fortunately I didn’t completely jump to any conclusions and actually read Benjamin Button. And I am relieved to tell you that, while Benjamin Button very well may have “inspired” Greer to write Max Tivoli (and let the author who wasn’t inspired by Fitzgerald’s work cast the first stone), the similarities are very topline and extremely limited. The idea of a person born with the body of an old man who ages backwards is such a unique idea that one cannot help but lump any stories with that basic premise into the same bucket. But the similarities between these two truly stop there. In fact, probably the most important element of Max Tivoli’s story isn’t present for Benjamin Button — namely, Max Tivoli is born with the mind of an infant, and his story revolves almost entirely around the disparity between his outward appearance and his emotional, psychological, and intellectual growth; Benjamin Button, on the other hand, is born as a crotchety old man, with a crotchety old man’s mind, and his backwards growth applies not only to his body looking younger, but also to his mind devolving into the mind of a child.
Benjamin Button is a short story, and so it certainly doesn’t take a lot of time to read. But it’s also not a particularly compelling story, in the sense that none of the characters are particularly endearing. Part of that may very well be because it’s a short story and so the characters don’t have as much time to develop. I know that I probably sound defensive, but if you don’t feel like investing any time in multiple stories of guys who age backwards, your investment in Max Tivoli has a much greater payoff.
I’d like to welcome author Lee Doyle, who was gracious enough to file a guest post, to BGB. Ms. Doyle has just published her first novel, The Love We All Wait For. The book is described as ” a poignant debut novel that captures the transition we all must make, from the romantic ideas and hopes of youth to the wonderment of discovering who we will become.” Thanks for visiting, Lee!
Back when I was a PR flack in the high-tech industry I attended (and dreaded) tradeshows where software and hardware vendors hocked their wares. COMDEX in Las Vegas was the biggest of all shows, followed by PC Expo in New York. As the PR manager for PC World Magazine I wandered the tradeshow floor, chatting it up with advertisers (if I was representing the sales team) or vendors (if the vendor knew me via the editorial staff), and pitching our editors as expert sources for other journalists covering the myriad product announcements at the show.
Fast forward to Fall 2008 and my new life as a debut author. (I left the steady PR gig to freelance and write my first novel, The Love We All Wait For, out this month from KOMENAR Publishing.)
The publishing industry, like most industries, has tradeshows. In the past three weeks I’ve signed books and met hundreds of booksellers at two of these shows: Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) in Portland, and Northern California Independent Booksellers (NCIBA) Association in Oakland, CA.
The exhibitors at PNBA and NCIBA are publishers—from the big-name New York houses to indie publishers. Attendees are booksellers, the vast majority independents. Like high-tech tradeshows, bookseller shows are a simple affair of commerce–a place where buyers and sellers gather. In my case, I’m there with my publisher to sign books and chat it up with booksellers. Schmoozing, yeah, but schmoozing with my tribe, book lovers like me.
I’m blown away by the sheer volume of books available to booksellers, and ultimately readers. I’ve heard the staggering figures—X million books published annually in the U.S. Every visit to your local bookstore confirms the publishing industry is cranking. (Who’s making money is another topic.)
But at PNBA and NCIA I’m doubly struck by the amount of books being published. Even more striking is the enormous volume of ideas laid out on display tables. That indie publishers and booksellers are struggling is not news. And yet both are critical to democracy, where ideas flow unfettered from writer to reader. Find the right publisher—often a small press–and that idea becomes a book someone (hopefully many someone’s) will read.
There are books about Polynesian tribal tattoos, Gay and Lesbian Erotica (Cleis Press), The New Weird (Tachyon Publications), a genre loosely described as urban science fiction meets horror, Christian romance fiction, fiction by first-time authors (KOMENAR Publishing), children’s fiction like Steinbeck’s Ghost by Lewis Buzbee (Feiwel and Friends), travel books, books about North Korea, political satire like A Patriot’s Guide to Right-Wing Thinking by Tex Shelters. It’s all there between two covers.
What inspires writers to put their ideas into book form? A desire to share our ideas, to connect with strangers? To be immortal? And what keeps readers hungry for more? A desire to know the world and ourselves from the shifting point of view of new ideas? The need to escape or be entertained?
Possibly all of the above. I’m just grateful the ideas keep flowing.
– Lee Doyle
I kicked off this past weekend by attending one of the many cool events hosted by New Yorker magazine as part of their weekend festival. Friday night was Fiction night with an unbelievable line-up of authors. The session I attended was “Where I Come From” – a discussion with Junot Diaz, Shalom Auslander and Sherman Alexie. A Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Foreskin’s Lament and The Absolute Diary of a Part-Time Indian were all amongst my favorite books of the past year so I was pretty psyched.
I had not given much thought to the commonality of these authors since they all come from such different backgrounds – Dominican kid growing up in Jersey, ultra-orthodox kid from a Hasidic community and an Indian kid from the rez. But what made the discussion so interesting was how similar their backgrounds all were. To put it in context – all 3 of these authors are approx our age (this is a generality about the readers of this site but let’s just say that the 80′s were our formative adolescent years) and they were all outsiders growing up. When I say “outsiders” – I can’t stress enough how these 3 guys were completely miserable in high school. Diaz talked about being a Dominican nerd in a black/Puerto Rican school who just wanted to read all the time, whilst Alexie was the token brown kid in all-white right wing school. And even though Auslander was part of the “in” crowd because he wore his “kippah” in the cool way – his inner struggle with God tormented him through his adolescence.
Even more fascinating was that Diaz and Alexie both had the same response to why they wrote the books that they did – “To fill a nothingness and/or silence.” Both of them talked about how there were not any books from their culture about nerds and dorks. Most Latin American and Native American fiction particularly by young male authors were all very macho, aggressive and tough and that books about being a nerd just didn’t exist. They wanted to write a book that appealed to who they were not who they wanted to be. They both seemed surprised at how many people their books touched and spoke to (not to mention the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award that they respectively won).
These authors were as inspiring as readers than as writers. They all spoke extensively about their love of books of all genres. Diaz said that he refers to himself as more of a reader than a writer because he loves to read so much more than write. They were all irreverent, brilliant and open about themselves. I would have loved to just hang out with them at a bar and swap nerdy high-school stories. A classic insight into Alexie was that he described himself in high-school as “all the Breakfast Club characters rolled up into one.”
Shalom Auslander was exactly how I pictured him after reading Foreskin’s Lament. Throughout the book – he describes his torment in growing up in a Hasidic community in which you were controlled fear. He discussed the emphasis placed on the forbiddeness of any type of sexuality particularly masturbation. One of the rabbi’s threats were that if you masturbated you would end up in a giant, boiling pot of sperm for all eternity when you died. Can you imagine???? I digress but I can’t get that story out of my head. This book really haunted me because I couldn’t get over how tormented and angry Auslander was, not to mention that the Judaism he describes is so vastly different from my own. And what struck me after hearing him speak last night is that he is even MORE angry than I thought. This is one angry and bitter dude. Sad.
All in all – a great literary event. And to continue the cultural festivities, Mr. Nitro is attending “Worst Nightmares: Horror Movies with Wes Craven and Hideo Nakata”. If I thought it was a quirky crowd at the author’s discussion, I can’t even imagine the crowd at that event.
I’m conflicted: JR Moerhringer, author of The Tender Bar – which I loved, writes lovingly about the Mets – my arch-enemies. (My review of The Tender Bar – may be the longest review I’ve written here)
The Guardian’s Digested Read podcast tackles Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. They also have hilarious digested versions of banned books in celebration of banned book weeks. Read them if you dare!
The New Yorker features new fiction by Daniel Alarcon. The story is called The Idiot President, and it’s not about anyone that you know. (My review of Alarcon’s Lost City Radio)
The British defend us against that mean old Swedish guy who says that American literature is for chumps:
What would it look like to be not-parochial in a literature? What, we should ask ourselves, would a corpus of writing need to do? It would need to look outwards towards the world. It would need to engage with modernity – not just the political conditions of our age but its technological and linguistic texture; its science and its religion; its mass-media and its consumer culture. And American writers have a natural advantage in this – one they exploit – because the lion’s share of all these things is American.
Don’t forget: Umberto Eco is coming to Emory University for a series of three lectures/readings beginning Sunday.
Don’t forget 2: We’re trying to raise money to help areas students buy some books for a book club. It’s for a good cause. Cough it up.
Our efforts at philanthropy are off to a slow start. We still have $242 remaining to be raised to help disadvantaged kids get books for their book club. We have a month to do this, but it’s going to be like listening to NPR during their pledge drive until we make our goal. Just letting you know now.
Did you see that we got a shout out in the LA Times’ Jacket Copy Blog? You can feel the magic of helping others by giving now.
Clearly literacy is something that we here at BGB hold in very high regard. If you’re visiting this site, I’m going to guess that reading is important to you, too. Imagine how your life would be different if your school and family’s resources were stretched so thin that books were a luxury item rarely found in your home. Exactly!
When we were asked to join the award-winning charity DonorsChoose.Org’s Blogger Challenge, we knew just the kind of project we wanted to partipate in. We’ve chosen to help an Atlanta teacher, Ms. R, help kids “cultivate a love of reading for pleasure.” Here’s Ms. R’s story:
I teach fifth grade in an inner city school school. My school is a Title 1 school and the majority of the students live in poverty…
In addition to regular instruction, I want to start Book Clubs for my students. The 4 person collaborative clubs will choose their own assignments, discuss their reading (using their class-learned strategies!) and hone teamwork skills. They will practice their reading, get some much needed social time, and cultivate a love of reading for pleasure- so that they can continue to be successful beyond fifth grade.
My students won’t get the opportunity for fun and productive reading without your help. Many students don’t have books or reading available at home. Give them a book that will spark a love for reading!
These “inner city” kids and I share the same zip code, which breaks my heart and makes me determined to help them out. Visit our challenge web page to give, track the donations, and learn more about this worthy project. Every donor is thanked, and all donations are tax deductible. Any amount is welcome.
Books, Fiction, Review | Shaft | 
October 8, 2008 12:23 pm | 
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