Jonathan’s Comments (group member since Mar 05, 2009)

Jonathan’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

. . . you guys are the best, thanks . . . i think all of you know what a long and humiliating journey this has been for me (and promises to be in the future) . . . it's cold out there, and i feel like the luckiest guy alive to have my dreams coming true, and to have pals like you guys to celebrate with!!!!

Kerry wrote: "Speaking of Lulu becoming a movie, any new news on the option JE?"

. . . coming along, i'm told, close to attaching a director . . . apparently the film scouts are abuzz about 'west of here,' which i just found a home for yesterday:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/artic...

. . .hey ben, what's the big idea using my computer, huh? you think now that you're a big crowd favorite you can just waltz into my basement and start hacking into my computer? . . . oh okay, i see how it is . . . in case you couldn't find it, my social security number is: 537-6739-2947 . . .my paypal password is: *******, and that is also my good reads password . . . but if that's not enough for you, ben, here's my facebook password: *******

. . .okay, so i guest-edited an issue of knock, and last night we had the release party at the jewel box theater in seattle, where our own benji celebrated his print publication debut by drinking three diet cokes and knocking them dead in his performance debut (i was lucky enough to hold his paper!) . . .check out this review of the event:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/litriffs/


. . . i also must note, as some of you already know, that my issue is chalk full of fictionphiles:

matt (e-monk)
ben
neil
pavel
liss
jimbo
keith
downs
patrick (art)

. . .and i'm proud to say that is THE ABSOLUTE BEST issue of knock ever . . .here's a preview:

http://www.knockmagazine.com/issues/1...

. . .hats off to our brilliant comrades!

. . .happy birthday, jen! . . .am i a day late?

. . . oh don't be humble, marge . . . the notes you gave me on the early draft of west of here were brilliant . . .

. . . the i-man is back in the house!

. . . that tub will be in your basement if you want it, jimbo . . . i'm getting fat, i need a deeper one . . .

. . .welcome, jo ann, you'll meet brilliant people here . . .

. . . well, of course i planned this long before i even knew we were preggers . . . i'm happy that owen will get to meet his great big lovely extended family right from the get-go!

. . . i spent a lot of time as a kid in steinbeck country-- monterey, watsomville, gilroy, that neck of the woods, and you can really feel steinbeck's inspiration . . . i also paid visits to nathaniel west's house, fante's bunker hill . . . and of course, as an overzealous adolescent north beach was my stomping ground: i'd stomp around in a serape vest and a beret with peter orlevsky's book of clean asshole poems in my pocket, trying to relive the beat life . . . i blush just thinking about it . . .

. . . i am reading two very different debut novels . . . for anyone who has read today's three guys, one book blog, please forgive the redundancy:

I'm midway through reading two novels at present, both of which came as recommendations from editors I greatly admire--one a commercial editor, and the other an indie editor--both of whom are excellent readers. These novels could hardly have less in common; one is a rollicking western adventure set in the 1860s, and the other is a tender-hearted coming-of-age set in New York City in the 1970s. One features a male protagonist, the other a female. One doles out its language in measured helpings, while the other speeds along under its own momentum. But they have this much in common: they're both imminently charming and readable, and they both feel lived-in.

The first book is Chris Hannan's Missy, which came as a recommendation from David Rogers at Picador. I've been obsessed with westerns in recent days. It fascinates me to see how contemporary writers deal with the well-worn tropes of the genre, how they will undermine our expectations of western mythology, from the subversive machinations of McCarthy, to the envelope-pushing of Proulx. “Missy” by the way is a frontier euphemism for laudanum, or liquid opium. While a Scottish playwright may sound like an unlikely candidate to pen a great American western, Hannan is so comfortable with the task that you forget he's even there, taking risks with his language at every turn. Dol McQueen is an unforgettable protagonist. Think Mattie Ross, older, bawdier, and more penetrable. Hannan offers all the hard-scrabble adventure--all the opium, gunplay, and whorehouse splendor-- you'd ever want in a western. And yet, what's really driving this story so far, is the tenderness of Dol McQueen, which is lovely, if not misguided.

As of now, you could say I'm gonged on Missy. I'll let you know how the rest of the novel pans out. For the record, Picador will be handling the trade paper release of Missy in July.

The second book I'm halfway through this week is Peter Selgin's Life Goes to the Movies, which came as a recommendation from Dan Wicket at Dzanc, who has yet to let me down. Much like another recent Dzanc title I covered, Hesh Kestin's The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats, Life Goes to the Movies is a coming of age in which a bigger-than-life supporting character takes our young protagonist on a journey which changes his life. In this case, the protagonist is Nigel DePoli, a rural Italian immigrant's son trying to find his way in the Big Apple in the mid-70s. Enrolled in art school, Nigel is soon waylaid by Dwaine Fitzgibbon, an addled Viet Nam Vet turned auteur. Like Kestin's Shushan Cats, Dwaine is as elusive as he is charismatic, charming as he is contrary. Selgin makes it easy for this reader to share Nigel's fascination. I'm impressed by Selgin's range. His treatments, from the madcap to the vastly uncomfortable, are handled with equal skill, and Selgin writes with a tenderness that is, dare I say, refreshingly feminine?

. . . wake me up when it's over . . .

Chris wrote: "Kerry, I think Chandler used the rain for both. It's atmospheric (no pun intended), but it's also thematic. Rain can often suggest sadness or maybe even cleansing, but in The Big Sleep I think it..."

. . .amen, to this last bit, swanny . . . i'll take it one step further and say that it's imperative that descriptions serve the story above and beyond themselves . . .for me, this is how i decide what to describe when confronted with a new character or setting: what can i say about the moral character or "nature" of the person i'm describing (think gerard smith's sleeves)? how can i describe the setting so that it serves the thrust of the novel (think of lulu's apartment)? . . . it drives me bonkers when a writer like david guterson puts the whole story on hold to describe the woodsy setting, as if it were something distinct and separate from the action . . .

. . . okay, so deadwood makes the list, too, thanks, matt . . . i read welcome to hard times about five years ago and remember liking it quite a bit (though not as much as ragtime). . .

. . . i'll put warlock on my list!

. . . he handles it quite masterfully, as far as i'm concerned . . . it feels lived . . . the language is so wonderfully colloquial . . .

FYI, here's the publishers review coverage of "missy" which came out last june:

This wildly entertaining first novel from Scottish playwright Hannan takes place in the down and dirty Wild West and features one of the most bombastic, fantastic heroines in recent memory. Nineteen-year-old Dol McQueen is an intelligent, strong-willed hooker with a weakness for liquid opium, or "missy." "Sometimes when I'm gonged," says Dol, "I have an immense feeling inside me that I can govern Chaos." And chaos is just what she gets when a crate of choice opium lands under her bed, stashed there by a grisly pimp called Pontius who warns her to keep quiet. Dol carries on with her business and gets increasingly attached to that fortune beneath her bed. The real pandemonium is unleashed when a spooky, brutal gang enlisted by the rightful owners of the opium arrives in town bringing mayhem. Dol-along with her mother, Pontius and the opium-flees into the desert, the escape slowed by lack of water, mule-pinching Indians and Dol's withdrawal from her missy, an experience that leaves her clearheaded but vulnerable to the truth about what she has become. Hannan nails the setting, crafts a sizzling plot and, with Dol, gives readers a lovable, larger-than-life star.

. . . since i finished 'west of here' i've been slightly obsessed with westerns, mostly because i hadn't read many before i wrote the book, and i'm fascinated to see how other modern writers treat the material . . . i'm reading a great western right now called "missy" by scottish playwright chris hannan . . .the irresistible voice reminds me a bit of matty ross from true grit, but a little bawdier . . . also, i want to read deadwood . . .

. . . i just read greg's most recent novel, the last white man in america . . . and let's just say that i used the names mccarthy and faulkner in writing my blurb!