I thought I read a lot until I met J_, We were working in the same law firm and introduced to each other as great readers. But J__ leaves me in the dust. For example, when we first met and ran over lists of our favorite books she added, “And of course, I love A Confederacy of Dunces.” That brought me up short. I hadn’t even heard of A Confederacy of Dunces. If you haven’t, get ready. This isn’t one great story, it’s two. The story behind the story is incredible. This young guy, John Kennedy Toole, writes a comedy novel during the late 50’s and early 60’s while he’s serving in the army. He comes home to his native New Orleans, starts teaching and finishes the draft of the book. He finishes the novel and ships it off to one of the best publishing houses at the time, and the editors indicate they are interested in publishing it. (This rarely happens to a first-time novelist). The book needed work, they said, but they’re interested. So Toole goes back and revises. And revises. And revises. After almost a decade of rewrites and revision, the publisher turns the book down. All…
I love the work of Anne Tyler. Her prose is open, direct, kind and she writes about the people I know. Her characters are the Americans I grew up around, people from the working and upper-middle class who lives are usually defined by geographical boundaries and aspirations. These are not the folks who dream of learning a second language, becoming famous or climbing Everest. These are the middle-class, middle-income, middle everything Americans. (God love us, we can be so boring at times.) Anne sees our faults and our fears and still loves us (especially those from her native Baltimore) but her novels tend to disarrange our neat little worlds. Underneath her open sentences are some serious ideas and I like the way she displays them. Most readers know her more famous books, Breathing Lessons and The Accidental Tourist but my favorite has, I think, the quintessential Anne Tyler title: Saint Maybe. Set in the early 1960’s, the Bedloes are convinced they are the prototype of a American family. They are an established family in a well-settled neighborhood and their youngest son, Ian, seems the most well-sorted of all. His looks, brains and sports ability are all better than average, though…
I came late to the Stephen King party. His books first hit the national consciousness when I was a teenager and at the time, I decided they were bad. Not because of the subject matter; I’ve been terrifying myself with stories since I first picked up a book. No those early stories were poorly written, in my opinion, fiction man-handled onto a page by someone without subtly or regard for language. Except for the film adaptations, I ignored the man’s output until 1999 (which is a separate tale in itself) when I found the author everyone else had been yakking about for decades. I am sure some of Mr. King’s writing skill improved through sheer practice and I hope he’s had help from the best editors in the business but I’d guess the single greatest factor that improved the man’s work is his sobriety. His later books have a focus that was missing in his earlier work.. Nothing shows the change more than comparing the two stories of Danny Torrence: The Shining and Doctor Sleep. The Shining is, of course, the account of the Torrence family’s tragic adventures in the Overlook Hotel. Jack Torrence tries to turn his life around…
I nearly forgot I said this is a place to discuss, books, plays and short stories. As long as I’m finally getting around to plays, I’d like to start out with a favorite: A Moon for the Misbegotten. Every person has life-changing experiences. Some of these are obvious turning points like marriage or the death of a parent, some are not. One of mine was a play I saw at age fifteen, a modern drama. At fifteen, I couldn’t say why I identified with the characters or why it moved me so (other than it was a great performance) but the work and the author got under my skin for the rest of my adolescence. It is still a singular piece though now I understand it a bit more. It was written by Eugene O’Neill and it’s called “A Moon for the Misbegotten.” Few people outside of the theatrical world understand the impact of O’Neill but, to put it simply, he made American Drama human. Theatrical plays written in this country before O’Neill were either broad comedies or melodramas. I’m sure they were lots of fun to watch, containing virtuous heroes and dastardly villains but there was nothing an audience…