The Russki Files: Remembering Gogol, Nose and All

Sometimes, I like to imagine that the world of Russian literature is a 21st century high school with all the classic stereotypes. Mikhail Bulgakov, playwright and author of The Master and Margarita, would be the drama geek who comes to life onstage with lofty dreams and operatic crescendos pounding in his heart. Fyodor Dostoevsky would be the quiet, poetic boy with a saintly face that can, without warning, alight with a devilish grin. Aleksandr Pushkin, essentially the founder of Russian literature as we know it, would be the captain of the football team, the rock star, the most popular senior whom everyone wants to become or date. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, author of Dead Souls, The Inspector General, and many short stories, would be the nerd whose underwear is run up a flagpole every day during gym class.

This is not to say that Gogol was untalented. He had one of the most distinctive voices of the nineteenth century, and his works are still regarded as some of the most influential in world literature. But even with all this acclaim, he still comes across as a little pathetic.

His classmates, for self-explanatory reasons, nicknamed him “the mysterious dwarf.” He was a short, sallow, somewhat doughy man with round eyes and a long, pointed nose. It is clear from his writings that his nose was a serious source of misery for him. In Dead Souls’ “The Nose,” a low-ranking public official wakes up one morning without a nose, then spots it parading around the city in a uniform, putting on airs and out-ranking him. In “The Overcoat,” a policeman in the process of arresting a ghost takes snuff to revive his frostbitten nose, but the ghost is allergic and sneezes all over the policeman. Gogol also makes several disparaging nose references about his other characters, so clearly there was something of a fixation here.

Throughout his life, Gogol’s literary career appeared less than illustrious. He had recurrent trouble with the censors (not that this was unique to Gogol’s struggle—in fact, it was pretty much a guarantee for any Russian writer up until quite recently). In 1837, when the revered Pushkin was shot in a duel and died, a mourning Gogol returned from abroad, hoping to be hailed as the nation’s new greatest writer. Still, no one took him seriously.

The publication of Dead Souls in 1842 did bring him considerable merit, but over the next 10 years, his health and sanity considerably declined. With fasting and self-flagellation, he adopted a harshly ascetic lifestyle and sank into a creative depression. The last ten days of his life were spent burning manuscripts, claiming that the Devil had tricked him into burning said manuscripts, refusing all food, and dying in agony.

And yet Gogol’s strangeness, his nose fixation, and his pathetic end cannot negate his greatness as a writer. The details of his style were almost anachronistically playful, such as his description of a village in “How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich:” “. . . Looking at it from a distance, only roofs are visible, rising one above another, and greatly [resemble] a plate full of pancakes.” In bizarre stories like “The Nose,” he wrote semi-absurdist stories before absurdism was even a real movement. In “The Diary of a Madman,” he wrote of one man’s decline into madness with an uncanny (and again, anachronistic) understanding of a lunatic’s logic—stemming, no doubt, from the author’s own struggles with insanity. And more than anything, in a time when wealth and bureaucracy ruled Russia, Gogol was an advocate of the lowest of the low, the downtrodden, the unfathomably awkward.

It is hard to reconcile such an outstanding legacy with such a miserable life. I can only hope that, wherever he is, Gogol has found peace and realized his own worth—and most of all, I hope he understands now that noses are beautiful in every size and shape.

--Emmaline Silverman

Image by Bublik

Voices: Investigating 'In Cold Blood'

When the Clutter family was murdered in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959 with no trace of a suspect, chief investigator Alvin Dewey declared that in order to crack the case, his team had to “know the Clutters better than they ever knew themselves.”

Truman Capote adopted this goal for himself when he began to write his revolutionary non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood. The detail, the sensitivity to character and depth of setting, prove that he knew not only the Clutters, but their killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith and the entire town of Holcomb better than they knew themselves. The detail of the portrait, the smoothness of all its edges, is really remarkable: the name of the movie Bobby Rupp and Nancy Clutter were planning to see on Sunday night, the direction the wind was blowing the night of the murder, Perry Smith’s dreams and Dick’s attitude toward Perry’s blood-shedding abilities. The book is so profoundly well-researched that it seems all to have sprung from the author’s mind.

It is both exhausting and mystifying to imagine the research that went into the book: how many hours of interviews, how many shoeboxes of cassette tapes, how many pages of letters, diaries, and newspaper clippings. And on top of the research time, there was also time spent getting to know Holcomb and gaining its trust. A down-to-earth, agricultural small town like Holcomb surely narrowed its eyes when Capote, a flamingly homosexual New York intellectual, waltzed in with hopes of writing about the recent tragedy that struck the community like lightning.

Yet it is clear that Capote did gain Holcomb’s trust, as well as the murderers’ trust, for without it, he would not have been able to develop such nuanced, fully breathing characters. The character development is impeccable, and humanizes the characters—particularly Perry and Dick—as only a master could. The first time we meet Perry (on page 14 in the Vintage International edition), he seems like an eccentric (he obsesses over maps and has a habit of staring trance-like into mirrors, to name a few quirks) but probably unthreatening fellow. We know he is waiting for Dick, but we do not know how they know each other or what their ultimate goals are. It is not until page 22 that we learn that they had celled together at Kansas State Penitentiary. At this point, Capote begins inserting hints as to the plan, such as Dick saying “I didn’t want him to see me taking the gun out of the house” or reminding Perry that “anyone they encountered would not live to bear witness.” Thus, the development of the murder plot is slow, and by the time the reader really understands what is happening, these other details of these two characters’ lives and personalities (Perry’s love of interesting words, Dick’s two marriages, Perry’s recurring dream of a giant parrot grasping him with his talons and flying away) have been filled in enough that they come off as humans, not just as murderers.

The one discrepancy in the book, the one irreconcilable break from reality, is the absence of Capote himself from the narrative. He makes one or two veiled references to a writer from New York, but otherwise, he is invisible, whereas we know from the depth of research that he must have been, in fact, a weighty presence in the town. But of course, changing the non-fiction novel to a first person narrative would have irrevocably altered the texture. As it is, In Cold Blood is a chillingly omniscient and perceptive examination of small-town America, the legal system, the criminally insane, and human characters who committed a gruesome murder.

--Emmaline Silverman

Lit Talk: Anita Diamant

Many readers remember Anita Diamant for her unforgettable bestseller, The Red Tent, the story of Jacob’s daughter Dinah over whom the Book of Genesis glosses over. She writes with poetry and an innate understanding of women. Her latest novel, Day After Night, carries these same strengths and focuses on a group of young women who escaped from Nazi Europe to Israel during World War II. In this 2003 interview with William Novak, Ms. Diamant discusses her Jewish identity and a new mikveh (ritual bath) she has helped to start.

***

What are you thinking about these days?

Mostly Mayyim Hayyim, the new Boston-area mikveh, which should be up and running by the time this is published.[As indeed it is: www.mayyimhayyim.org] I'm spending way too much time on it instead of writing, but it's my choice so I’m not really complaining. I've never done a non-writing project before, or a community project. I've never been much of an activist, or an organization person. I've even written an essay on how much I dislike going to meetings, but now I'm going to them all the time. It’s a complicated process building a mikveh; there’s nothing about them when you look them up in the zoning ordinances.

How did this new mikveh get started?

Anita: For me, it began in the mid-1990s when I was writing Choosing a Jewish Life, a guidebook about conversion. I went to the mikveh a number of times with various rabbis as they took converts. I was also chairing the outreach committee at Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, because I thought it was important for the community to have a representative at conversions, so I would try to show up at conversions of our members with flowers and gifts. Only one mikveh in the area--in Brighton, near Brookline--has been open to the liberal community for conversions, and that's only two hours a week, which makes it tough to schedule. There are other mikva'ot which aren’t open for conversion, including a new, Chabad-sponsored mikveh in the western suburbs.

You mean not open to the non-Orthodox world?

Anita: Yes, although I don't care for that phrase, because it seems to imply that Orthodoxy is normative Judaism in the way it refers to the rest of us are “non.” But the problem of most mikva'ot goes beyond that. There's nowhere to stand, to sit, to celebrate, or even to wait. I've been to many conversions, and each time I am moved to tears by the power of the moment, but I've never seen a mikveh with an appropriate space in which to mark the hour after the immersion--or before, for that matter.

I was at the Boston mikveh one spring afternoon when candidates for conversion in the liberal Jewish community were lined up outside, waiting for their turn, and while it was inspiring to see a dozen or so men, women and children waiting to become Jews, having people lined up outside is not a very graceful or welcoming entry into Judaism. Most mikva'ot are set up only for women to come individually and privately, at the end of their periods. Traditionally the mikveh is used at night for modesty's sake, and also because of how Jews count days.

You use the noun “convert,” although many people go out of their way to avoid it, speaking instead of Jews by choice.

Anita: I think "convert" is an honorific, a title of honor, and I see nothing wrong with it. Being a convert, or a Jew by choice, if you prefer, should be a term of the highest praise. For someone to choose this identity and to embrace it--it's a gift to the rest of us. Neither term is great: "convert" makes me think of currency, and "Jew-by-choice" is a little awkward. In the Torah and in classical Jewish writings, the word is ger, which can also mean stranger or sojourner. "Proselyte" comes from the Greek translation of ger, but it's far too archaic.

Where do you think our discomfort about converts comes from?

Anita: According to Jewish law, we are not supposed to make any distinction between someone who is Jewish by choice and someone who was born Jewish. Evidently, Jews have behaved badly toward converts for a long time: there is mention in the Talmud about Jews making fun of them and talking in demeaning ways about their "pig-eating ancestors." And yet the great majority of comments about converts in the Talmud and the Midrash are favorable, such as, "The convert is dearer to God than Israel." When a convert wrote to Maimonides, asking whether he could recite prayers that included the phrase, Elohei Avoteinu, God of our ancestors, Maimonides answered with a resounding yes, saying, "There is no difference whatever between you and us."

***

The rest of the fascinating interview is available here. Ms. Diamant will be touring the east coast in the upcoming weeks:

Thursday, September 10 at 7:00 p.m.
Newtonville Books
296 Walnut St.
Newtonville, Mass. 02460
617.244.6619

Monday, September 14 at 7:00 p.m.
McNally Jackson Books
52 Prince St.
New York, N.Y. 10012
212.274.1160

Tuesday, September 15 at 7:00 p.m.
Book Revue
313 New York Avenue
Huntington, N.Y. 11743
631.271.1442

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo by Mark Ostow

Bookmarks 8.25.09

Miniature Book Society Grand Conclave in Princeton, N.J. (August 27-31) – A miniature book is defined as a book that is no more than three inches in any dimension, and the vast majority of them are mind-bogglingly cute. At the Wyndham Conference Center this month, the gurus of the art and those with any interest in it will powwow over conferences, exhibits, and social mixers.

Once Upon a Crime’s Anthology Launch Party in Minneapolis, Minn. (August 27, 8:00 p.m.) – The bookstore Once Upon a Crime will have a launch party for its latest anthology of mystery stories this week. There will be no authors reading, but there will likely be detective aficionados sleuthing around with magnifying glasses and trenchcoats. And there will definitely be refreshments.

Publishing Workshop in Reno, Nev. (August 27, 6:00 p.m.) – This workshop, held at the office of LRP/LeRue Press, is ideal for aspiring writers who have high hopes but aren’t quite sure how to get a foot in the door. Gotta start somewhere, right?


2009 Hawaii Writers’ Retreat in Honolulu, Hawaii (August 28-September 3) – Can you even imagine a more idyllic location for a writers’ retreat than at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach in Honolulu? And not only will this retreat be surrounded by palm trees and macadamia nuts, but there will be a highly acclaimed staff of seminar leaders specializing in many genres.

Festa del Libro: A Children’s Italian Book Fair in Corte Madera, Calif. (August 29-30, 9:30 a.m.) – This book fair, held at Book Passage, is a treat for children, Italian students and native speakers, and anyone who enjoys a beautifully illustrated children’s book. Italy’s foremost booksellers will send their finest specimens over, and local bakeries will provide biscotti.


--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Corbis

The Russki Files: Awesome Women

Russian literature is not exactly known for its heroines. The vast majority of its protagonists are men—brooding, unstable, superfluous men who are too intelligent (or think they are) for the vapid society into which they were born. Behind the heroes, however, there are often women slinking about, pulling strings and being generally awesome. (Spoiler warning below.)

Tatyana Larina (Eugene Onegin, by Aleksandr Pushkin) – Some readers will surely identify with Tanya, a shy and bookish girl who rejects the superficiality of society. When the charming dandy Eugene Onegin comes to dine at her family’s manor, however, she falls head-over-heels in love with him and writes him a letter expressing her adoration. He coolly rejects her. But years later, when she is a mature, married Moscow woman, he realizes his mistake and tries to win her over. Remembering her past and how she has been hurt, she rebuffs his advances. Essentially, Tatyana Larina embodies my long-standing fantasy of being able to tell my high school crushes who paid no attention to me, “Sorry, I’m not interested.”

Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova (Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky) – Sonya’s life is miserable—an alcoholic father who forced her into prostitution, few friends, no respect—but through her quiet, somewhat fanatical spirituality, she finds strength. This strength converts into a magnificent command over others, and without the influence of her gentle, serene, righteous force, Raskolnikov would never have found the power to confess to his eponymous crime.

Natalya Ilyinichna Rostova (War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy) – Natasha Rostova is, in the context of War and Peace, the ideal Russian woman—and she is not a submissive, reticent, wifely type either. She is impulsive, spontaneous, full of life and light, always game to sing and laugh and make friends. As a young woman she is very beautiful, but once she becomes a mother, she cheerfully lets herself go and becomes dowdy and plump. This does not stop her husband Pierre from being madly in love with her. In fact, it is nigh impossible for anyone to read War and Peace without falling a little bit in love with Natasha.

Agrafena Aleksandrovna Svetlova (The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky) – Agrafena is more commonly known as “Grushenka,” which translates to “little pear.” The nickname is appropriate, for Grushenka is a pear-shaped Russian beauty who holds an astounding power over the men in the community, even sparking a paramount rivalry between Dmitri Karamazov and his father Fyodor. She has amassed a small fortune through lending money and charging exorbitant rates of interest, and has pared down to an art form the manipulation of men using her feminine wiles. Though by today’s standards this may not be considered an admirable thing, during Dostoevsky’s life, feminine wiles were really all women had going for them. I say, more power to her.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova in the 1956 film adaptation of War and Peace.

Lit Talk: Author Jonathan Tropper

The dysfunctional family saga is one that has been touched upon many times, but every once in a while a novel comes along that revolutionizes the subgenre. Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You has been hailed as one of these novels, at once side-splitting and heart-rending and cockle-warming. In the interview below, Jonathan talks about his routine and being successful.

***

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
It's hard to pinpoint. I was always an avid reader. I remember, when I was in high school, reading The Stand, by Stephen King and thinking, at some point, that it must be fantastic to be able to be able to make a living just telling stories. But I think it was years before I actually really considered giving it a try. And then there were all those years of denial, when I wouldn't admit to myself that I wanted to try, because failure was such a large possibility. So I probably lost a few years there, and then, at some point, it just became imperative to give it a real shot. I think it helped not being particularly interested in anything else.

How did you get published?
I wrote a book that I thought was pretty good. I submitted to about fifty agencies and a handful of publishers and got rejected across the board. So I gave it up for a while, but never stopped reading. A few years later I felt the urge to write again. This time there was more urgency to it. I felt I actually had something to say. So I wrote what would become Plan B, my first novel, sent out query letters, got interest from a handful of agents, signed with one of them, and few months later we had a deal at St. Martin's Press.

Your books tend to be about people dealing with very serious, sometimes tragic life-issues, and yet they're all very funny. Why do you think you tell your stories in such a funny way?
Because that's how life really is. No matter what you're going through, there's comedy to be found. And if you ignore the comedy, than life is just one long funeral. I'm the guy who laughs at a funeral and cries at American Express commercials. You have to be open to the full spectrum of emotional responses. So I try to write books that convey that range. I want you to be moved, maybe to tears, but also to laugh your ass off.

Three of your novels are in development as motion pictures. What do you think it is about your novels that has captured Hollywood's interest?
I couldn't say for sure, but I write very character driven novels. I work very hard to create three dimensional, flawed, interesting, and occasionally over-the-top characters. And I think interesting characters are in demand in Hollywood. Interesting characters attract top shelf actors, who in turn, attract the rest of the talent, and then the financing, which is what ultimately gets a movie made. It all starts from the characters, so I think, when producers are moved b characters, they see a project that has the potential to attract talent.

Are you a disciplined writer? Do you write every day? Do you follow an outline?
I'm a terribly undisciplined writer. I do try to write every day, try to treat it like a job; show up by nine, put in a full day, etc. But it's hard when it's such a solitary process. There are good days and there are bad days. I never start with an outline, I start with a character, and after I've written about that character for a while, I start outlining the novel, but I never seem to follow my outlines anyway. So it just becomes a mess of chapters until finally, hopefully, the book presents itself. I tend to write a lot more than actually makes it into the book.
***

The full interview is available at Jonathan’s website, and you can catch him at these East Coast locations in the upcoming weeks:

Tuesday, August 25 at 7:15 p.m.
215 Sycamore St.
Decatur, Ga. 30030
404.370.8450

Thursday, August 27 at 7:00 p.m.
Inkwood Books
216 South Armenia Avenue
Tampa, Fla. 33609
813.253.2638

Tuesday, September 1 at 7:00 p.m.
The Odyssey Bookshop
9 College St. #4
South Hadley, Mass. 01075
413.547.7307

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Jonathantropper.com

Bookmarks 8.18.09

Nuclear Poetry: ACCELERATION in New York, N.Y. (August 18, 8:30 p.m.) - Join the hippest writers on New York’s experimental literary scene for a night of drinks, reading, music, and inspiration. The basement of Elmo’s Restaurant will be transformed into a “literary bomb shelter” as the Nuclear Poetry movement gears up for its first anniversary show on September 15.

A Night of Literary Laughs in Minneapolis, Minn. (August 19, 7:30 p.m.) – Celebrate the light-hearted side of being a book nerd with a lecture on literary hoaxes, five-minute book reports, slide shows, and various activities of bookish fun. The event, which will take place at The Soap Factory, will mark the release of an issue of Granta Magazine.


Julia Child’s Birthday Celebration in Menlo Park, Calif. (August 20, 6:00 p.m.) – Kepler’s Books will ride Julia Child’s wave of popularity with this tasty open house, which will provide champagne, cake, and a chance to peruse the cookbook selection and share notes with other foodies.
URL: http://www.keplers.com/

Translate in the Catskills in Hunter, N.Y. (August 21-23) – This weekend retreat, held at the scenic Catskill Mountain Foundation, will feature seminars and workshops on the art of translation, for skilled translators and those just breaking into the career. There will also be a star-gazing session for people who are sick of city light pollution and want to stare up into a clear mountain night.

31st Annual YMCA Book Fair in St. Louis, Mo. (August 21-26) – At the Kennedy Recreation Center, the YMCA will sell books in over 60 categories at pocket-change prices. In 1978, this book fair was an understated one-day affair, and it has since exploded into an enormous six-day extravaganza, perfect for bargain-loving readers.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo by reconstructionist/Flickr

Voices: 'Potato Peel Pie Society' Enchants With Sweet Letters

I picked up Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on a recommendation from my grandmother, a witty and well-read lady herself. “It’s an epistolary novel, so it’s written entirely in letter form,” she explained. “And it really is the loveliest novel I’ve read in a while. The thing is, it’s all about books—reading books, writing books, loving books.”

Naturally, I couldn’t resist this endorsement. The book truly is a tale of reading, friendship, and romance. It is set in a broken England, post-World War II, suffered more than the Channel Islands, including the Isle of Guernsey, the inhabitants of which were starved and occupied by German soldiers for years. When one of writer Juliet Ashton’s used books, Selected Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb, falls into the hands of a founding member of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, letters begin flying over the English Channel and life-altering friendships are written with the ink. These friendships initially are based on a love of books—Charles Lamb, Seneca, Jane Austen, and the sisters Brontë are among the Society’s most beloved authors—but go on to face even more powerful issues: loss, heartache, the horrors of wartime. It is touching to watch Juliet find such kindred spirits in Guernsey’s Society through a series of letters, and downright uplifting to learn how the Society found solace in each other and in literature during the hell that was the Occupation.

Juliet Ashton is a heroine of the best kind, a protagonist to fall in love with. She is brilliant, feisty, funny, loyal, and a truly kind friend. She is also prone to flashes of rage, such as throwing a teapot at a reporter who made uncouth insinuations about her dead fiancé. By no means is she perfect, but she’s the sort of woman I’d love to take out for coffee—or cocktails.

(Actually, as a side note, I believe that my fondness for Juliet is partly due to the resemblance she bears to a heroine I adored in my formative years, one Miss Betsy Ray of Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy books. Both are smart, fun-loving writers who thrive on friendship, write diligently to pen-pals, and have questionable culinary abilities.)

The epistolary quality of the novel both charmed and impressed me. Charmed, because I am an inveterate letter writer myself, and if I could, I would pen all my correspondences by hand on violet-scented stationery. And impressed, because I know it is not easy to write an epistolary novel well. So much of story-telling involves showing as opposed to telling (the mantra of creative writing teachers everywhere), and people tend to tell rather than show when they write letters. But somehow, Shaffer and Barrows’ novel is both vivid and genuine, with highly distinctive voices, seamless pacing, and masterful building of suspense. Not once did I feel as though I was reading an epistolary novel written by two women in 2008. The whole way through, I felt as though I was really reading a long series of correspondences, as though I was privileged enough to be let into the secrets of these people’s lives.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a light, fast-paced, but still very fulfilling read. There are plenty of laughs and, for people like me who have an uncontrollable weeping reflex, maybe a tear or two as well. And be warned: Go buy some stationery before you read the book. If nothing else, it will make you hungry to write a lengthy and loving epistle to a dear old—or brand new—friend.

--Emmaline Silverman

Lit Talk: Author Carleen Brice

Kind-eyed, loced Carleen Brice, the author of the highly-acclaimed novel Orange Mint and Honey, published her second novel, Children of the Waters, in June 2009. Children of the Waters tells the story of two sisters’ parallel struggles through prejudice, disease, and family through subtle but finely tuned writing. In the interview below with "One World Books" (from the Reader’s Guide to Children of the Waters), Carleen shares the surreal joy of her success and her thoughts on book clubs.

***

One World Books: Carleen, it’s a pleasure getting the chance to sit with you and talk all things books, now that you’re a seasoned and award-winning novelist! Perhaps the best place to start would be to ask how you feel about the success of your first novel. Orange Mint and Honey earned the First Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, debut novel honors from the African American Literary Book Club, was an Essence book club pick, there’s been interest from Hollywood—and of course, admiration from readers everywhere. Did you have any idea that this would happen?

Carleen Brice: I hoped, of course, for good things to come, but it’s pretty surreal when it happens. When they called my name at the awards for the African American Literary Book Club, and people at my table—who I had just met that night—screamed for me, it was amazing. The whole process has been incredible. I’m overjoyed and honored that my work has received so much attention. But the best thing has been reader response—I’m so grateful to the people who’ve taken the time to email me or write reviews online.

One World Books: Can you tell us a bit about your visits to individual book clubs to discuss Orange Mint and Honey? How did that come about? How did you find the experience?

Carleen Brice: Book clubs contact me through my website, www.carleenbrice.com, or approach me at events and whenever I can, I make it a point to attend in person or via phone. It’s wonderful to hear the discussions first hand. When you’re writing about your characters, it’s just you and them in a room. It’s really fun to see other people relate to them and treat them like they’re real—feeling sorry for them or getting mad at them—just like I did when I was writing.

At first people are a little shy because the author is right there, but eventually they loosen up (the drinks served at book clubs might have a little to do with that!) and start saying how they really feel about the characters and the plot. I encourage that honesty (though so far it’s easy to do because nobody has hated it). It’s fun to hear one person say “I thought it was wrong for them to act out in the church the way they did.” And then someone else say, “I understand it. If I was Shay I would have been hollering too!” It makes me feel like I did my job when some of the group is siding with Shay and some of the group is siding with Nona, which happens at every single book club.

One World Books: Did any of the early feedback you received about Orange Mint and Honey impact the way you wrote this novel (which, by the way, is simply stunning)?

Carleen Brice: Thank you! I wouldn’t say the feedback impacted how I write. I feel like I learned a lot writing my first novel, but writing this book was a completely different thing so I don’t know how much was applied to it. My goals were the same: to make people think and feel and for them to be entertained. It was inspiring to see how people responded so well to my first novel. Gave me hope that readers are interested in the same kind of characters and stories I am.

***

The full interview is available on Carleen’s website, and you can catch Ms. Brice this week in Denver:

Sunday, August 16 at 6:00 p.m.
West Side Books
3434 W. 32nd Avenue
Denver, Colo. 80211
303.480.0220

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo courtesy CarleenBrice.com

Bookmarks 8.11.09

Marvel Comics 70^th Anniversary Party in Arlington, Texas (August 12, 7:00 p.m.) – Captain America and Spiderman may still be young and muscular, but their creator, Marvel Comics, is turning 70 years old. Marvel’s birthday party, held at Lone Star Comics, will be a chance for old and young fans to geek out, chill with superheroes, and eat birthday cake.

Monsoon Voices in Phoenix, Ariz. (August 14, 7:30 p.m.) – Literature is a very sensorial thing—sometimes it’s better when heard and seen along with the taste and smell of a cappuccino. So on August 14, head to Unlimited Coffee for an issue of Monsoon Voices, “the live literary magazine of poetry, prose, and song.”

Jane Austen Ball in Alexandria, Va. (August 15, 8:00 p.m.) – This ball, held at Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, is sure to fulfill the fantasies of every Mr. Darcy lover in the D.C. area. There will be period dancing, music, and dress, and the chance to relive the beauty and grace of England’s Georgian countryside. Reservations required.

From Bugs to Beasts: Storytelling through Collage by Eric Carle in Washington, D.C. (through September 1) – Who among us was not enchanted by the colorful collaged illustrations The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a child? This exhibit, open at the Stanford in Washington Art Gallery, showcases both the process and product in the artwork of Eric Carle. His famous works and lesser-known pieces alike are on display.

Golden Legacy: 65 Years of Golden Book Illustrations in Omaha, Neb. (through September 6) – Little Golden Books have been a favorite with parents, teachers, and children since their debut in 1942. This exhibit, at the Joslyn Art Museum, will feature gorgeous, original illustrations from the series.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Catalina magazine

Bookmarks 8.4.09

The Cringe Reading Series in Brooklyn, N.Y. (August 5, 9:00 p.m.) – If you thought your angsty teenage poetry, letters to celebrity crushes, diary entries detailing miserable first dates, etc. should be burned or locked up forever, you’re wrong. This reading, held the first Wednesday of every month, invites you to read them out loud before a commiserating audience at Freddy’s Bar.

Fiction Writer’s Retreat in Ancramdale, N.Y. (August 8, 8:00 a.m.) – Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership will be hosting its first Fiction Writers’ Retreat this weekend. The event will workshop novels and young adult literature and highlight the social responsibility in the writing life.

Adult Spelling Bee in Milwaukee, Wis. (August 8, 3:00 p.m.) – If you have a competitive streak and a photographic memory for words, sign up for the Adult Spelling Bee at the Divine Mercy Fun Fest. It will be held at 695 College Avenue, and the winner will take home a cash prize.

The Summer Vermont Book & Ephemera Fair in Woodstock, Vt. (August 9, 10:00 a.m.) – This book fair, held by the Vermont Antiquarian Booksellers Association, is a gathering of the Northeast’s finest booksellers. Special guests include renowned bookbinder Malcolm Summers, who specializes in antique book repair and leather-binding.

A Keeping of Records: The Art and Life of Alice Walker in Atlanta, Ga. (through September 27) – Alice Walker is a pioneer on the front of feminism, civil rights, and literature. In Emory University’s Woodruff Library, her personal archives—letters, notes, papers, drafts—are on display for the first time.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: flickr

Lit Talk: Author Bich Minh Nguyen

It is somewhat astounding and certainly a blessing that we can count Bich Minh Nguyen (pronounced Bit Min New-win) among today’s authors when one considers her early life.

When she was 1-year-old, her Vietnamese family fled Saigon on April 29, 1975, the night before it fell. Nguyen now teaches literature and creative writing at Purdue University, published a memoir entitled Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, in which she tells the story of cultural identity through food, and will release a novel entitled Short Girls soon.

Below is an excerpt from an interview by Tommy Nguyen of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop with the very personable Bich Minh Nguyen, who talks about her memoir, heritage, and appetite.

***

Tommy Nguyen: There seems to be a very common coming-of-age setting for the very first wave of Vietnamese American children: '70s hand-me-down clothing, '80s pop and new wave music, Buddig luncheon meat and Pringles. Tell me about the socio-economic realities of that particular time and how they helped define this generation of Vietnamese Americans.

Bich Minh Nguyen: Can I ask you where you grew up?

Tommy Nguyen: I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, until I was five years old, and then my family moved to Orange County, California, in the early 1980s.

Bich Minh Nguyen: It's just really interesting hearing where other people resettled after the refugee camps. In my mind, all the lucky people got to go to California. But I think I know more people who resettled in small, more [Middle-American] towns. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, the work that was available to immigrants or refugees was factory work. My dad did that for many years, and so did my uncles, even though they were trained to do other work in Vietnam. My dad, for example, was going to be an eye doctor. But in Grand Rapids, my dad worked in a feather factory, and that smell of feathers was on him whenever he came home. I knew, always, even as a little girl, that this was blue-collar work. I didn't know the word "blue-collar" back then, but I somehow knew it was blue-collar in the pejorative sense of the word. Most of my classmates' fathers did not work in factories. So very often I felt the class difference, which was compounded by the racial and ethnic differences. Children learn right away what the status symbols are. For example, I knew that generic cookies were very shameful, and I thought about these symbols a lot because I felt they prevented me from fitting in. My stepmother really wanted us to have free school lunches, but we were just above the qualifying level. That was her reality-- she saw it as "trying to get by." I didn't see it that way. I read so much as a girl, and I had these fantastical visions from--well, British literature, frankly. I felt that there was this other, better world out there. And I was stuck in this one.

Tommy Nguyen: Tell me more about your obsession with food, and how that influenced your understanding of class and culture as a young girl.

Bich Minh Nguyen: Let me start off by saying, Vietnamese food in Grand Rapids, up until very recently, was just strange. All the Vietnamese shops were in a particular part of town, totally segregated. We were the only ones in our neighborhood who were Vietnamese and cooked this "weird food." I had a very strong sense that it was not normal. Of course, I would never want to invite my friends over; they were always white girls. I was afraid they would think I was gross-- I think "gross" was a word that was used quite often back then. Secretly, I loved my grandmother's food. But I would never bring her food to school; that would be like wearing a "Kick Me" sign.

***

You can check out the full interview here. Nguyen will be reading at Women and Children First next week.

Wednesday, August 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Women & Children First

5233 N. Clark St.

Chicago, IL 60640773.769.9299

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Nguyen's site

Bookmarks 7. 28.09

Literary Death Match in New York, N.Y. (July 30, 7:00 p.m.) – This event, held at the Bowery Poetry Club and Café, can’t be described better than it is on its own site: “Opium Magazine's Literary Death Match marries the literary and performative aspects of Def Poetry Jam, rapier-witted quips of 'American Idol''s judging, and the ridiculousness and hilarity of Double Dare.” This looks like one not to be missed, friends.

Printer’s Ball and Gaper’s Block Get-Together in Chicago, Ill. (July 31, 5:00 p.m.) – Chicago’s literary web magazine Gaper’s Block will co-host the Printer’s Ball at Columbia College’s Ludington Building. The event will be a mixer for the city’s publication scene, and include music and a poetry slam. Complimentary beer is available for those over 21.

The Flamenco Poets Society Presents Passages by Women in Houston, Tex. (August 1, 8:00 p.m.) – The Flamenco Poets Society seeks to complement the majesty of poetry with the heat and rhythm of flamenco music and dance. Passages by Women, held at The Artery, will feature three Latin-American female poets reading against the flamenco guitar of Randy Cordero.

Alabama Bound: Contemporary Fine Press and Artists’ Books in Mobile, Ala. (through Nov. 13) – This exhibition features many high-quality books of art from a variety of Alabama art groups, from watercolor to graphic design to quilting. It showcases individual artists’ work and the book itself as an art form.

Edgar Allan Poe: More Than a Poet in Baltimore, Md. (through December 6) – This exposition at the Enoch Pratt Free Library will showcase rare personal letters, notes, photographs, and other memorabilia belonging to Poe. You’d have to be stark Raven mad to miss this Tell-Tale exhibit. If you aren’t Ushered in, you’ll Rue the day forever.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Wisc.edu

Lit Talk: Author Gay Talese

Italian-American author Gay Talese has lived for the majority of the twentieth century and made an illustrious career for himself. With Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and others, he helped to define the genre of New Journalism in the 1960s, and since then has been covering topics from Frank Sinatra to boxing to mob violence to swinger culture. At the beginning of this interview with Robert Birnbaum, the full version of which is available here, Talese discusses inspiration and what makes a writer.

***

Robert Birnbaum: I know you are an avid Yankee fan. Is there a story that you think sportswriters are missing about the Yankees and the Red Sox?

Gay Talese: I could come up with 50 stories that I am thinking about.

Robert Birnbaum: Seriously?

Gay Talese: I have, without being immodest to you or anyone, a way of looking at a subject—it could be the Yankees, it could be a tree in Boston—where I would say to myself, There is another way of looking at this tree, or this ballgame or these players. Yes, indeed. Do you want a whole series of story ideas? No.

Robert Birnbaum: In A Writer’s Life, you are sitting at a restaurant and you see a man eating a fish—then the paragraph continues on for another page or so—it reminded me of when we were in high school biology and you are shown a drop of water under a microscope—

Gay Talese: Yeah, it’s the imagination of the nonfiction writer. It is nonfiction we are dealing with, as you know—it’s what can be—the way of seeing is very private but can be very creative, and you can take any assignment, any subject, and write about it if you can see it in a vividly descriptive or instructive way. And as you mentioned, I am a restaurant-goer. I go to restaurants a lot. I work alone all day. At night I like to have something to do where I am around people and a restaurant is the best excuse of being around people. I don’t care about the food that much. I care about the atmosphere. Restaurants are a wonderful escape for me. And are for a lot of people. People go to restaurants for so many different reasons. To court a girl, to make some deal. Maybe to talk to some lawyer about how to get an alimony settlement better than they got last week. What I have done since I was 50 years younger than I am now—which is to say 24; now I am 74—I think what I do is write nonfiction as if it were fiction. On the other hand, it is clearly, verifiably factual—but it is a story. It is storytelling. It isn’t telling you a story of somebody you already know. It is, more often than not, somebody you do not know. Or if it is somebody that you do know that I am writing about, it will be something that you don’t know about that person. It is a way of seeing, a way of going about the process of research. It might be interviewing, or it might be hanging around. For example, many colleges in their writing programs teach some of my work. What they often do is teach something like “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” something I wrote when I was 25 years younger or more. That isn’t about Frank Sinatra at all. I didn’t even talk to Frank Sinatra—

Robert Birnbaum: [laughs]

Gay Talese: What I did was I hung around people who hung around Sinatra. You mentioned in reference to the book I have out now, “You go to a restaurant and you see a guy having a certain fish for dinner.” And he is eating the fish, and across the room I am watching him from another table eating the fish. And I am thinking, Now let’s take this fish and do it in reverse. Instead of the fish in his mouth, let’s take it out of his mouth and move the whole process of that fish back to the time when it was in the kitchen being prepared by the chef. And before it was in the kitchen with the chef being cooked to a certain specification by the diner, it was in a box of ice and before it was in a box of ice, it was being transported by plane to a New York airport, thence to the Fulton Fish Market. But before that the darned fish was in the water somewhere being caught by some disgruntled fisherman who was in water that he shouldn’t have been in—

Robert Birnbaum: [chuckles]

Gay Talese: And he is having trouble with his wife and he is on his miserable ship off Newfoundland somewhere and this awful guy, this awful guy, is a fisherman now, and he is grousing to himself when he catches all these damned fish and a whole process is going back into the personalities of the people who catch fish, the people who are trolling—watching fisherman in places they shouldn’t be because they are in lawless waters. All these things that can rise to the mind of a creative person just by virtue of being across the table from a person devouring a piece of tuna. It’s all traceable in a factual sense if you move backward. But it also is something that many, many people sitting in a restaurant, idling their time over their own dinner wouldn’t have the curiosity—it’s all about curiosity.

***

Readers will have the opportunity to see Gay Talese promote two re-released works, Thy Neighbor’s Wife and Honor Thy Father, in New York City on Tuesday:

Tuesday, July 28 at 7:00 p.m.
150 East 86th St.
New York, N.Y. 10028
212.369.2180

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo by Fred R. Conrad/New York Times

Lit Talk: Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks is a true woman of the world. She was born and raised in Australia, but completed her Master’s in journalism at Columbia University and married her husband Tony Horwitz in France, during which period she converted to Judaism. As a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, she covered crises in the Middle East.

Her international experiences are tangible in the diversity of her books: The Nine Parts of Desire deals with her work among Muslim women in the Middle East; Year of Wonders centers on a plague outbreak in 17th-century Puritan England; Pulitzer Prize-winning March tells the story of the absent father of Louisa May Alcott’s March sisters; People of the Book chronicles the history of the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the oldest versions in Europe of the traditional Passover service text. Below is an excerpt from an interview on her website about People of the Book:

***

Interviewer: Your previous two novels are set during Europe’s plague years and the American Civil War. Now, you’ve created an epic story about art and religious persecution. What is it that draws you to a particular subject? Or a particular historical era?

Geraldine: I love to find stories from the past where we can know something, but not everything; where there is enough of a historical record to have left us with an intriguing factual scaffolding, but where there are also enough unknowable voids in that record to allow room for imagination to work.

Interviewer: What do you think it is about the real Sarajevo Haggadah that has allowed it to survive the centuries?

Geraldine: It’s a fascinating question: why did this little book always find its protectors, when so many others did not? It is interesting to me that the book was created in a period—convivencia Spain—when diversity was tolerated, even somewhat celebrated, and that it found its way centuries later to a similar place, Sarajevo. So even when hateful forces arose in those societies and crushed the spirit of multi-ethnic, interfaith acceptance, there were those individuals who saw what was happening and acted to stop it in any way they could.

Interviewer: Were you already working on People of the Book when March won the Pulitzer Prize? How does winning such a prestigious award affect your writing?

Geraldine: I was working on People of the Book even before I started to write March. I’d been struggling quite a bit with the World War II story: it’s such a picked-over period and I was looking for a backwater of the war that wouldn’t perhaps feel so familiar to readers. That search was leading to a lot of dead ends when I suddenly got the idea for March and it was so clear to me how to write that book that I just did it.

The Pulitzer Surprise, as my then-nine-year-old son so accurately dubbed it, affected my writing only in that it interrupted it for a while by drawing renewed attention to March. But after a few weeks of pleasant distraction I was back at my desk, alone in a room, simply doing what I’ve always done, which is trying to write as best I can, day after day.
***

The full interview is available here, and Geraldine Brooks will be at the following sites this summer:

Sunday, August 2 (Time TBA)
Martha's Vineyard Book Festival
520 South RoadChilmark, Mass. 02535

202.645.9484

Thursday, August 13 at 7:00 p.m.
Martha’s Vineyard Museum
59 School St.Edgartown, Mass. 02539

508.627.4441

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo by Randi Baird/Viking Penguin Publicity

Bookmarks 7.14.09

Bodies in the Library: Who Done It at Litquake? in San Francisco, Calif. (July 16 at 6:00 p.m.) – This fundraiser for the Litquake Festival will be held at the Mechanics Institute Library and will feature several Bay area mystery writers in an intimate, mingle-worthy setting. Additionally, there will be a raffle whose prizes include signed copies of newly released mystery novels and the chance to become a character in a new mystery.

Decatur Book Festival Fete in Decatur, Ga. (July 16, 7:00 p.m.) – This party, held at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, is an enormous gathering of book clubs in the Atlanta metro area. There will be wine, good, and local authors mingling and discussing the book club institution and how to make yours better.

Drunken! Careening! Writers! in New York, N.Y. (July 16, 7:00 p.m.) – Really, the event title alone should be enough to draw you to this event, but if anyone needs further description, Drunken! Careening! Writers! will be an evening of drinking, readings, and performances with “actors-slash-memoirists-slash-screenwriters” at the KGB Bar on 85 E. 4^th Street.

DePaul’s First Annual Summer Writing Conference in Chicago, Ill. (July 17-19) – This conference is open to writers of all ages and experience levels. It will be a weekend of craft classes, readings, panel discussions (such as “Publishing in Literary Magazines” and “Ethics in Memoir”), open mic sessions, and a keynote address by Achy Obejas in “Writing and Responsibility.”

Prayers in Code: Books of Hours from 16^th-Century France in Baltimore, Md. (through July 19) – Books of Hours, devotional and ornamented books from the Middle Ages, were both instruments of prayer and status symbols. This exhibit, free and open to the public at the Walters Art Museum, displays some of the later, transitional, unusual examples of the genre and examines the relationship between the images and the prayer text.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Flickr

Lit Talk: Author Alia Yunis

Though One Thousand and One Nights was written hundreds of years ago, it’s still a goldmine of inspiration for readers and writers. Its most recent reincarnation is The Night Counter, a novel by Alia Yunis, in which a dying old woman spins nine final tales for the Scheherazade of legend and in doing so, unveils her dysfunctional family and strange, long life. It is a novel of charming humor and magical realism. Below is a Random House interview with the author, who was born in Chicago and has roots in Lebanon:

***

Random House: In The Night Counter, the description of the sights and smells of Lebanon are so evocative, the reader feels transported to the Middle East. What sounds, tastes, smells, etc. make you feel transported to that region?

Alia Yunis: For every season of the year and for every season of my life, there are smells and sounds and pictures I associate with the Middle East. But there is always the smell of jasmine, the calming, time-setting, sound of the call to prayer, and the sad sight of overflowing garbage bins. Within the region, your senses let you know that now you’re in Jordan, now you’re in Egypt, now you’re in the Persian Gulf. Lebanon, whose beauty is literally Biblical, is blessed with spectacular mountains and seascapes, like a petite, delicate, somewhat fragile California. It is where I fell in love with the sea, and ever since, I have not been comfortable living far from the sound of waves.

Random House: At heart, this is a novel about the meaning of family. How did your family shape the story and the writing process? How do they feel about the book?

Alia Yunis: As a result of the “troubles” in Lebanon and Palestine, my extended family lives around the world, and I have first cousins I have never even met. So in many cases our commonality is limited aside from a shared love and passion for those places. Some are more liberal than me, others more conservative, depending on the topic being discussed. I think some of them will find certain things in the book offensive or not tasteful, while others will relate to those very things. In fact, I imagine most would have both reactions, depending on what part of the book I was referring to. For example, Amir’s homosexuality would make some of my relatives cringe, or in some cases even stop reading, whereas my parents would just shrug and say, “Oh, yet another gay man in her life.” On the other hand, my parents would be so offended by the “foul language” Bassam uses and probably wouldn’t read that part.

Random House: How much of the novel is based on personal experience?

Alia Yunis: I don’t think anything we write, no matter how researched and fact-based, whether fiction or nonfiction, takes its shape without going through the prism of our personal experiences. This is a work of fiction, and I can’t honestly point to any character and say “that’s my best friend” or “that’s my grandmother.” But I know the people in my book very well just the way they came out of my head, and they wouldn’t come out my head if they weren’t a conglomeration (subconscious and/or conscious) of my reality.

Random House: The oral storytelling tradition is strong in Lebanon, and the power of myth, fable, and story are evident in the shape of the novel. Did you think about these cultural touchstones as you were writing? If so, which ones?

Alia Yunis: My mother is a voracious reader—self-help, religion, politics—but she considers reading fiction a waste of time and takes no joy in the unraveling and revelation of characters and their worlds, which makes fiction so great to me. This is highly ironic as I recently realized after meeting a distant cousin for the first time that my mother is the biggest storyteller in my life. That cousin knew almost nothing about me. However, I knew so many stories about him. When my mother came to the United States in her twenties, she had no relatives in North America, and like Fatima, she longed for them. And I think to make up for that longing, she would tell me stories about them, long stories that went off in scores of tangents and involved people who over the years I came to know quite well although I hadn’t yet met them. Often the stories were stories her mother had told her about her parents. She was my first Scheherazade, but I have known many in the Middle East, as there has been so much loss and change there in recent generations, and with little recorded history, oral stories are what sustain the memories.

Random House: What aspect/character/moment in your book do you think book groups and other readers will talk about the most?

Alia Yunis: This is hard for me to say. At this point, I’m too close to everyone in the book to pick a favorite character or event. I’d be more curious in people telling me what aspects and moments they found interesting.

***

Ms. Yunis will be reading at the following locations in the upcoming weeks:

Sunday, July 19 at 4:00 p.m.
Vroman’s Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, Calif. 91101
626.449.5320
Saturday, July 25 at 5:00 p.m.
Book Soup
8818 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, Calif. 90069
310.659.3110

--Emma Silverman

Photo by Gabe Medway
Wednesday, August 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Books, Inc.
601 Van Ness Ave.
San Francisco, Calif. 94102
415.776.1111

Bookmarks 7.9.09

The American Library Association Annual Conference 2009 in Chicago, Ill. (July 9-15) – This is the largest, best-attended tradeshow for those working in the library field, from elementary school libraries to the Library of Congress. It will be held at the McCormick Center. It is a gold mine for those interested in the library industry, but don’t speak above a whisper, or you might get shushed by the other attendees.

Books and Bars in Minneapolis, Minn. (July 14, 7:00 p.m.) – A book club that unites frank literary discussion with pints of beer and potent cocktails. This Tuesday, the club will be discussing Rivka Galchen’s Atmospheric Disturbances, and all are welcome, including those who haven’t read the book.

(Book)Fest in the West in Scottsdale, Ariz. (July 11-18) – This book festival is designed to soothe and stimulate both body and mind. During the days, enjoy a mud bath or a steam room at a local spa, and in the evenings, commune with your fellow book-lovers to discuss a different genre each night, from thriller to historical fiction.

Pages of Gold: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan in New York, N.Y. (through September 13) – This exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum displays lavish, red-blue-gold pages from the illuminated manuscripts of the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. The dead medium, which unites of visual art and literary storytelling, is a feast for the eyes, and one that can rarely be experienced on this side of the Atlantic.

The Greg and Leo A. Daly III Fund for Architectural Books in Washington, D.C. (through November 15) – This exhibit at the National Gallery of Art explores the 18^th- and 19^th-century move toward Greek and Gothic revival in architecture. Wander through the blueprints and images of facades to get a sense of how the faces of neighborhoods came to look as they do today.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Daily Candy

Lit Talk: Author Achy Obejas‏

Achy Obejas, a Cuban lesbian living in Chicago, is a true “writer’s writer.” She has published six acclaimed books, reported on arts and culture for The Chicago Tribune and on Latin music for The Washington Post, and won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Her novels tend to investigate questions of personal, national, and sexual identity, and have been noted for their gritty, lyrical honesty. Below is an interview with Laura Sheppard-Brick of the National Yiddish Book Center about Obejas’s 2001 novel, Days of Awe, which focuses on the Cuban-American protagonist’s unearthing of her Jewish roots.

***

Sheppard-Brick: You are not Jewish, but Days of Awe is largely about Judaism and Jewish identity and has probably been widely read in the Jewish community. Has this in any way changed the way you relate to the Jewish community? Has it changed how you look at your own heritage?

Obejas: When I began Days of Awe, I was pretty comfortable with my relationship to the Jewish community and to Judaism; to a great extent I even took it for granted. My father’s side of the family is descended from anusim [Spanish Jews, forced to convert to Christianity], my family lived for a long time in a neighborhood with a significant Jewish presence, and my brother, who lived in Israel for several years, is married to an Israeli. I can’t begin to count the number of Jewish lovers I’ve had, and how easy it was to slide in and out of each other’s cultures. I know the values I subscribe to — particularly when it comes to social justice and individual responsibility — are more the result of growing up around Jewish friends and having Jewish teachers than anything else. As far back as I can remember, I’ve always celebrated Pesach, and as an adult I’ve made a conscious choice to fast on Yom Kippur. But the more I studied and researched for Days of Awe, the more immersed I became in Jewish history and lore, the more complicated I saw any claim to identity. What I’ve said before is that I don’t have Jewish damage; that is, I wasn’t raised with any of the negative effects. I have Cuban damage, which is probably close enough — I really think there’s cultural affinity, if not outright overlap. If anything, writing this book has only deepened my respect for my Jewish ancestors and my gratitude to the Jewish people I’ve had in my life. The process, while wrenching at times, has been wholly enriching.

Sheppard-Brick: Your first novel as well as many of your short stories speak very directly about issues in gay and lesbian communities, while in Days of Awe Ale’s bisexuality is presented as simply an unimportant fact of her life. Do you think that there are areas of society where homosexuality has become a non-issue? Do you attempt to influence perceptions of the queer community with your writing?

Obejas: I don’t think Ale’s sexuality is unimportant. To the contrary, I think it’s vital, like all our sexualities. Of course, many people live lives under siege because of who they love. This is an injustice. But there are some of us who are not conventionally heterosexual who are lucky enough to live lives in which we don’t have to hold up a placard or struggle every minute. Sometimes that means living in a civil society where different sexualities are protected, other times it may simply mean societal lassitude. Sometimes — like in my case in Cuba — it means carving a niche with different elements, which may include privilege, a certain indifference, or any other set of circumstances. When it comes to sexuality, I've never been especially interested in assimilation but I am interested in normalization. In Days of Awe, I tried to just let everybody be whatever they were going to be, to live and love according to their hearts rather than any particular label. What I hope my writing does is touch readers, no matter who they are.

Sheppard-Brick: Days of Awe draws many parallels between Cubans and Jews. Do you see these as authentic similarities, or just the creations of someone trying to reconcile disparate identities?

Obejas: I honestly believe there is tremendous cultural affinity, if not overlap, between Cubans and Jews. I have a whole list in Days of Awe, kind of tongue-in-cheek, which ends with both groups thinking they’re god’s chosen people. But some things are real: the emphasis on education, the intense importance of family, all the weird tensions and ambivalences around assimilation and what it means, the stubbornness too — although that plays more to stereotypes. We share some of those too: being passionate, and loud, and the whole connection with commerce. Cubans are called the Jews of the Caribbean, and that springs from a prejudice toward both groups. I think what’s most important for me is that we’re both dynamically spiritual people — and by that I don’t mean necessarily mean religious. What I’m talking about is having a sense of the divine in everyday life, not just awe but also a sense of accessibility and intimacy: among Cubans we call that speaking to god as “tú” instead of “usted.”
***

The full interview is available here. Achy Obejas will be reading at the following locations soon:

Friday, July 17 at 12:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library
400 S. State St.
Chicago, Ill. 60605
312.747.4396

Saturday, July 18 at 7:00 p.m.
Book Cellar
4736 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, Ill. 60625
773.293.2665

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Flickr

Bookmarks 7.7.09

Illustrating Books for Children with Harry Moore in Orlando, Fla. (July 7, 6:00 p.m.) – Anyone interested in the art of book illustration will benefit from discussion and instruction from Harry Moore, a character artist for the Spongebob Squarepants books and several other projects from Disney and Hasbro. The event will be held at Planet Digital Education. Call 407.970.4792 for details.

Writers of New York in New York, N.Y. (July 8, 12:30 p.m.) – This panel discussion held in the Bryant Park Reading Room and monitored by Thomas Beller will feature authors Jonathan Ames, Alice Mattison, Colum McCann, and Joseph O’Neill. All are local New York writers, and will lend insight to the writing life and how their city seeps into their work.

Scenes of Life: Works from the WPA Philadelphia Printmaking Workshop, 1935-1943 in Philadelphia, Pa. (through July 10) – When the WPA established a printmaking workshop in Philadelphia during the Great Depression, it aimed to stimulate art and the economy by paying artists for their work. The prints on display at the Free Library of Philadelphia espouse the ideals of democracy and hope during the toughest of times.

The Science of Obscurity in Chicago, Ill. (July 10, 7:00 p.m.) – This is a science fair hosted by the Chicago Underground Library at Jupiter Outpost. But don’t come expecting colored chemicals running through tubes or analyses of lab rats’ test results: instead, it will present literary works in progress as science fair experiments. Other highlights of the evening will include a cathartic burning of rejection letters and a literal book launch (via a catapult).

The 2009 Winkie Convention in Pacific Grove, Calif. (July 10-12) – This conference is the 45^th annual celebration of all things related to Oz, Dorothy Gale, and Frank L. Baum. This year it commemorates the 100^th anniversary of the publication of The Road to Oz. Events will include a 10-minute ballet, a costume contest, an Oz trivia game, talks from Oz illustrators, and more.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: The Judy Garland Database