Mark Sarvas's Blog, page 14

CHOOSING LIFE

MOTEV favorite David Grossman is a novelist I don't know as well as I'd like - the galley of his latest novel, To the End of the Land has been staring reproachfully (albeit prominently) at me since BEA - but George Packer's outstanding profile in the New Yorker has me resolved to change that.  (I've ordered See Under: Love, and The Book of Intimate Grammar, but if TEV readers have any additional recommendations, I'm all ears.)

Among the first visitors to the Grossman house that week [after the death of his son] were Oz and Yehoshua. Grossman confided to Oz, "I'm afraid I will not be able to save the book," to which Oz replied, "The book will save you." Yehoshua told him, "Don't change the book. It is an organic thing. Go with the book, and the new elements that will enter, let them enter."

The day after the end of shivah, Grossman returned to his novel. Everything was now broken to pieces—the world was no longer a home. Yet if this was to be his fate he wanted to explore its every nuance, and in this novel he could. The book would become his home. For that, at least, he was grateful. The story and the themes of the novel didn't change, but the process of writing became heightened, as if he were seeing with new eyes.

Within a year, the novel was finished, and in 2008 "Isha Borachat Mi'bsora" ("Woman Flees Tidings") was published in Israel. An English translation, by Jessica Cohen, appears this month, under the title "To the End of the Land."

Grossman told me, "This book was such an act of choosing life."

L.A. EVENT: SPOKEN INTERLUDES - SILVER, SIMPSON & MORE

TEV favorites Marisa Silver and Mona Simpson will be part of the lineup when the Spoken Interludes series returns to Los Angeles this Sunday.  You can find the details here, hope to see you there.

NOT TELEVISION, BUT A NOVEL

I can think of no better way to begin the slow journey back to relevance here than with a link to Lorrie Moore's superb NYRB appreciation of The Wire, that rare show that deserves all the superlatives that collect around it.  

So confident are Simon and Burns in their enterprise that they have with much justification called the program "not television" but a "novel." Certainly the series's creators know what novelists know: that it takes time to transform a social type into a human being, demography into dramaturgy, whether time comes in the form of pages or hours. With time as a medium rather than a constraint one can show a profound and unexpected aspect of a character, and discover what that character might decide to do because of it. With time one can show the surprising interconnections within a chaotic, patchworked metropolis.

I'm presently busy with finalizing a syllabus for my first Novel II class, finishing Part One of my novel, and generally navigating an exceptionally chaotic period.  But I've got a terrific new intern to introduce, interviews and books to discuss, and frankly, there will always be a great reason to put off returning one more week.  If not now, then when?

More to come.  

WHAT'S HE BUILDING IN THERE?

Signs of life have been detected.  Stay tuned for a post-Labor Day renaissance.

FRANK KERMODE DIES

I hate that I continue to break my silence only for obituaries, but another true giant has fallen.  The legendary Frank Kermode, one of the great critics of the age, has died at 90.

His death was announced by The London Review of Books, which he helped create and to which he frequently contributed.

The author David Lodge called Mr. Kermode "the finest English critic of his generation," and few disagreed with that assessment.

SIGNS OF LIFE

Something is stirring around here ... the Worthy Readings sidebar has been updated through October ...

UCLA WRITERS FAIRE

Just a brief note from my deep freeze to let you know I will be appearing this Sunday at UCLA's Writers Faire.  It's a chance to sample a bunch of UCLA writing teachers in the wild, and it's free to boot.  I'll be on two panels: "Creating Compelling Fictional Characters" (and yes, I've already complained about the redundancy), and "Making it to the End: Story Staying Power for Novelists."  A number of fine writers will be appearing, and there will be gourmet catering trucks as well, so...

TONY JUDT DIES

I hate to break this protracted summer silence with sad news, but Tony Judt has died.  Regular readers of this site know that I admired him deeply, an admiration that at times tilted into a kind of love for someone I never knew personally.  He was a humane, cultivated, thoughtful man, very much the product of his time and place - late 20th century Europe - and I fear his likes will not be seen again.  I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends, and I recommend all my readers ...

L.A. EVENT: 24 HOUR LITERARY MARATHON

Earlier this year, I joined the Writers Junction, a new creative writing space in Santa Monica, and that's where I have been working on the new novel.  It's turned out to be a wonderful and inspiring community of like-minded literary folks.

This Saturday, they are doing their first 24 Hour Literary Marathon - a full day of readings and appearances by writers, discussing fiction, non-fiction, TV writing and more.  TEV favorite David Francis is among the readers, and at 4:30 (p.m., not a.m.)  I ...

NOT DEAD, JUST RESTING

No, TEV has not gone dark.  And yes, I'm ok.  

But it's been a hectic summer and I have been struggling on several fronts as I try to get things back on course here.  I am, however, working on a response to Wyatt Mason's recent David Foster Wallace essay in the NYRB, and I hope to have it up this week, after which I will attempt to resume a more familiar pattern of posts.  

Don't give up yet, folks.  There's life yet in this old dog.