in college i took several writing classes under poet and novelist eileen myles. she always brought an anecdotal object into the class to center the day’s lesson, whether the object was figurative or literal depended on her mood.
the lesson that stuck with me the most was a story she told us about going to parties with one of her friends. toward the end of the night he would signal to her, and in the next sixty seconds his coat would be on and he would leave without saying goodbye to anyone in the room. finally she asked him what the deal was, and his response was something like, ‘you have to know when to exit a room and saying goodbye to everyone throws off the dynamic.’
she applied this to writing a story by saying that you need to know when to get the hell out of there. don’t over-explain. when things are good, put a period at the end of the sentence and exit. solid advice.
lit and great house are tough acts to follow, but in the words of jay-z, i’m on to the next one.
currently reading juliet, naked by nick hornby.
by the way i’ve been guarding my canvas bag for the last week, one would think that i was carting around a golden ticket. close enough, i have had an advance copy of great house by nicole krauss in my possession.
as a writer, it was humbling. as a reader, it was engrossing. much darker and intenser than her previous work, great house touches on several characters coming to terms with their mortality. krauss captures the contemplation of the mere mortal trying to make sense of the nothingness waiting for us on the other side with a forthrightness that made my skin crawl.
the characters lives span across generations and continents, the common element being a massive desk that has at some point lived under their roofs. the characters range from a chilean poet to an american writer to a furniture collector specializing in reclaiming goods seized by nazis during world war II.
i adored the history of love. i liked man walks into a room. for me, great house is her best work yet.
today after brunch i dropped by housing works and picked up five books for $27.43. why aren’t you shopping there yet?
where are your favorite coffee shops and cafes to read and write? i’m trying to put together a solid list of places where lingering isn’t frowned upon. where are your favorite places and what makes them great?
believe it or not, lit is mary karr’s THIRD memoir. i’m pretty sure my stable, paltry existence could barely fill 75 vaguely interesting pages but karr is on her third volume of recounting her nutty southern upbringing. lit painstakingly details karr’s battle with alcoholism, fractured marriage, and eventual spiritual discoveries while alluding to past events that deposited her in the depressive, dependent state.
tortured childhoods certainly make for good literature, and lit is richly so. definitely a book i’d recommend.
