Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 98

Coming Soon: Author Interview and Book Giveaway

Watch this space! I recently read Susan Woodring‘s Goliath, a wonderful and surprising novel about a small town in North Carolina. I contacted the author–a friend from my MFA program–and we’re putting together an interview that I hope to post next week.

And in conjunction with that interview, I’ll be giving away a copy of the book to a lucky reader.

Stay tuned for details!

The New Yorker: “After Ellen” by Justin Taylor

August 13, 2012: “After Ellen” by Justin Taylor

Q&A with Justin Taylor

Scott, who is kind of a jerk, packs up his car in Portland while composing a “dear John” note to his girlfriend, Ellen. He plans to leave it on the table and just disappear, leaving her without a car or a real explanation. He also turns off his phone and doesn’t answer her calls. He’s self-absorbed and rationalizing his behavior. By the time he gets to San Francisco, he stops. He stays in the Omni, using his parents’ credit card, which they finally notice. As I said, he’s a jerk.

Then he cashes in some of his trust fund (he has a trust fund?) to get an apartment, he steals a dog, and takes up with a woman he doesn’t really seem to think is a long term relationship for him. But the dog gives birth on his couch and . . . now everything’s different.

Really? Or maybe it’s not different, because except for his fondness for the dog and the puppies, he seems to be as big a jerk as ever. Maybe slightly less self-absorbed.

On the plus side, the story isn’t about kids or cancer or infidelity. The scenario is unusual and the perspective, from the jerk’s point of view, is refreshing. (It’s interesting that the author says he’s written about the same incident—based on something that happened to a friend—from the other side, but wanted to explore it from the side of the guy leaving.) On the negative side, the ending seemed premature. I like open-ended stories, but this one seemed to just stop.

The story is part of a new collection the author is working on, one with some overlapping characters and themes.

Fall for the Book–September 26-30

I’m pleased to announce that I will be giving a reading and signing books at this year’s Fall for the Book festival, September 26-30. I’ll be appearing on Thursday, September 27, at 10:30 am at the Sandy Springs Bank Tent together with short story writer Edward Belfar.

Following us, in the same general vicinity, you can hear novelists Wiley Cash and Alice Walker. I’m definitely going to stick around to hear them.

And check out all the participants. It’s a stunning list.

The Gathering of Writers: August 18, 2012, Winston-Salem

On August 18, 2012, in Winston-Salem, NC, I’ll be joining 5 other writers in the first Gathering of Writers, sponsored by Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine.

I think the program is a good one. The six writers on the faculty are John McNally, Valerie Nieman, Tracy Crow, Susan Woodring, Kim Wright, and me. Each of us will address a topic the craft of prose writing and participants will be able to attend 4 sessions, in addition to a faculty reading.

Plus, the night before, Press 53 is hosting a party to celebrate the launch of my new book, What the Zhang Boys Know.

The event should be a lot of fun and is reasonably priced. It’s limited to 53 writers (Press 53–get it?), so register today!

Tips for Writers: Show AND Tell

I had the honor today of speaking at the 2012 “Navigating Your Writing Life” Symposium of the Virginia Writers’ Club. Only in its second year, the symposium is an opportunity for Virginia writers to come together to discuss topics of importance. This year’s program included sessions on finding an agent, marketing eBooks, hooking readers, and more. The keynote address was given by Charles Shields, the biographer of Harper Lee and Kurt Vonnegut. Charles is a terrific speaker and did not disappoint.

But the purpose of this post is to report some of what I talked about in my session, which was called “Show AND Tell.” My basic point was that the traditional advice that all writers hear—Show, Don’t Tell—is misleading. In fact, most effective writing includes a balance of showing and telling. While showing is critical for creating a “felt experience” for readers (to quote Janet Burroway), there are times when a writer will need to “tell.”

We first discussed “showing” and some of the techniques for doing that effectively. These include using specific, concrete details in dialogue, description, and action. (Don’t say, “He was angry”—create a character who acts angry, looks angry, or speaks angry. See Creating Fiction by Fred Leebron and Andrew Levy.) To achieve work that is vivid on the page, leave out the psychological adjectives and replace them with connotative details, especially those that evoke the senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. Also, the felt experience may be diminished by filtering language (she heard, he saw, etc.), when the scene could be rendered more immediately. Show the sound and the sight.

But there are times when “telling” can be useful and the most efficient way to move the story forward. For the sake of pacing, for example, you may need to replace scene with summary. Description, also, is sometimes a matter of telling instead of showing, although the best descriptions combine the two. Exposition is almost always “telling” but can be used by an author to set the scene and the tone, and also sometimes takes the form of authorial intrusion—comments made by the author aimed at the reader. Finally, “telling” sometimes IS showing, for example when it reveals a characters state of mind.

So the old rule that we’ve heard a million times—Show, Don’t Tell—is wrong. As Grace Paley told me when I took a workshop with her several years ago, the real rule is Show AND Tell.

I have to mention here the article Colson Whitehead write in The New York Times last week: “How to Write.” It was funny and strange (He recommends having adventures: ” “Rustle up some dysentery; it’s worth it for the fever dreams alone. Lose a kidney in a knife fight. You’ll be glad you did.”) The reason I bring it up here is that his Rule No. 1 is “Show and Tell.” But he must have gotten that from me (or possibly Grace Paley, which is where I got it.)

The New Yorker: “Thank You for the Light” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

August 6, 2012: “Thank You for the Light” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Since F. Scott Fitzgerald isn’t around to defend himself or answer questions, this week’s fiction, a “rediscovered” Fitzgerald story, is discussed in a podcast by fiction editor Deborah Treisman. The introduction to the podcast includes the rejection letter The New Yorker sent Fitzgerald’s agent when the story was submitted in 1936. They didn’t like it much then, and they probably should have stuck to their guns. (I suppose they get kudos for publishing a “new” Fitzgerald story, even a bad one.)

But anyway, here it is. Interestingly, the story features a woman, a widow who travels a sales territory peddling women’s undergarments. She works hard and doesn’t read and can’t watch movies to relax, so she’s quite hooked on smoking. In her new territory, it’s more difficult than it had been, which causes her more stress, which makes her want to smoke more. She slips inside a Catholic church where she figures she might light her cigarette on a votive candle. But then . . .

I won’t even attempt to say what the story is supposed to mean. That even the smallest prayers will be answered if asked in the right way? That the Virgin Mary loves hard working women?

What did you think?

The Comedians, by Graham Greene

Lately I’ve been listening to audio books in the car, even for short trips around town. Today I finished listening to The Comedians by Graham Greene, a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. (The recording wasn’t great and the reader wasn’t as good as many I’ve heard, but that was only a problem at first; I soon got used to him.)

The book is set in Haiti during the rule of “Papa Doc” Duvalier. A British resident, Brown, returns to Port au Prince from New York after an attempt to sell the hotel he owns in the Haitian capital. On the ship he meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Americans and evangelists for vegetarianism, and “Major” Jones, who claims a colorful past fighting the Japanese in Burma. Brown resumes the affair he is having with Martha Pineda, an ambassador’s wife, and he hosts the Smiths in his hotel. Meanwhile, Jones worms his way into the favor of Papa Doc’s militia.

They all have their respective run-ins with the government as the security situation in the country grows worse and worse, and more is revealed about their pasts, especially Brown and Jones.

It’s a fascinating book. I can’t wait to read and/or listen to more.

Virginia Writers’ Club Symposium: Navigating Your Writing Life

The Virginia Writers’ Club Symposium is upon us. This coming Saturday, August 4, the VWC will convene at the Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville for the 2nd Annual Symposium. It looks like a very good program–other than me, of course.

There are 2 sessions in the morning and 1 in the afternoon–you pick from among 3 choices for each time slot–plus the keynote address by Charles Shields, the author of two wonderful biographies, Mockingbird (about Harper Lee) and So it Goes (about Kurt Vonnegut).

Plus, there will be time to socialize with the other participants, network, buy the books of the presenters, and generally have a good time.

THE REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS MONDAY, JULY 30 — so don’t delay!

The New Yorker: “Permission to Enter” by Zadie Smith

July 30, 2012: “Permission to Enter” by Zadie Smith

I wasn’t happy with this story at first, mostly because it seemed like a typical teenage angst piece, just set in a minority community in London. But it gradually became more than that, and in the end I think I like the story a good deal. Except maybe not the ending. Still thinking about that.

However, I was disappointed to learn from the Q&A with Zadie Smith that the “story” is an extract from a novel, which explains disappointing ending, the long time period covered, and odd structure (which I definitely do like). So, the publication is nothing more than advertising for a book, and maybe not worth discussing on its own.

Still . . . it deals with two girls from a housing estate in North West London. Their paths diverge and cross again while in college. Keisha Blake, who midway through the story becomes Natalie when she goes away to college, is experimenting, as is her friend Leah Hanwell. But Natalie seems to be seeking “permission to enter”—permission to leave her life behind and enter a different world, one that is more diverse and definitely more privileged. And it’s also one that isn’t constrained so much by family and church.

All of which is reasonably interesting, and so I think the book sounds promising.

The Man Booker Prize, 2012

The long list for the 2012 Man Booker Prize has been announced. This prize is one that I watch each year because it helps to identify some of the best literature in English other than American writers. Without it, I’m afraid there are things I’d miss or never hear about. I’ve heard of many of the long-listers this year, but haven’t read any of these books. The shorlist will be announced in September and the winner will be revealed on October 16.

This year’s long list (with links to samples):

Nicola Barker for The Yips

Ned Beauman for The Teleportation Accident

Andre Brink for Philida (No sample available online)

Tan Twan Eng for The Garden of Evening Mists 

Michael Frayn for Skios 

Rachel Joyce for The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry 

Deborah Levy for Swimming Home 

Hilary Mantel for Bring up the Bodies 

Alison Moore for The Lighthouse (PDF link)

Will Self for Umbrella

Jeet Thayil for Narcopolis

Sam Thompson for Communion Town