The BURIED Book Club discussion
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Stuart Mitchner
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Stuart Mitchner
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Your first link needs correction, Mala!
Hehe! I searched for his books after Nathan posted that link, but like you stated there's almost nothing given about him on net.
Mala wrote: "This writer is keeping tabs on what's happening on Goodreads,maybe he can be invited here to add some details/description to his work"Wouldn't that be cheating? And then we'd run up against that no goodreads author policy. gadsdern cunnunDRUM.
[but since he quoted some several favorite goodsreaders in his Cat piece, perhaps we could make hash out of that policy?] Any ideas whether his books are any good?I mean, aside from his having found a Cat-shaped softspot.
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Any ideas whether his books are any good?I mean, aside from his having found a Cat-shaped softspot. ..."Here's a link to a review of his debut(?) novel Let Me Be Awake :
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
A promising if not profound novel.
"Wouldn't that be cheating? And then we'd run up against that no goodreads author policy. gadsdern cunnunDRUM.[but since he quoted some several favorite goodsreaders in his Cat piece, perhaps we could make hash out of that policy?] Any ideas whether his books are any good?I mean, aside from his having found a Cat-shaped softspot. "
I meant that he shd be invited to add details to his Goodreads page not the BBC one– & cause our page is linked to his Gr page,we'll get the details without making a hash of any policy.
And how would I know whether his books are any good or not! You opened the pandora's box by linking his blog to your review!
Hi, I just stumbled on this, about me, of all people. I wish the books were out there, would love to have readers. Little Brown published and dropped both soon after. I've been writing about books, art,music, film, and anything that moves me for almost ten years now in Princeton NJ's weekly Town Topics. Recent columns are on Why We Have NO Salinger Yet and on Olivier's Henry V. I like to mix all kinds of high and low, and am doing it again tonight with Colin Davis, Berlioz, and Five Easy Pieces. Here are some quotes about the last two books:QUOTES
About Indian Action:
An unusually compelling book, the record, at once comic and frightening, of a consciousness of the sixties as it tries to confront the ancient turbulence and terror of a great religious festival in India. Mitchner's writing makes a claim on us which we willingly give only to very distinguished literary performances.
--Richard Poirier
In the literature of the road this unusual memoir deserves to rank high. A virtuoso celebration in dancing language of a hypnotically rich experience.
--Publisher's Weekly
A hippy commedia dell'arte. . . .Hitchhiking adventures that will ring true to any traveler and even amuse the sedentary.
--New York Times Book Review
More than a travel book. . .should be read as one would read Tom Wolfe's account of Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. . . .Mitchner's style is an extravagant blending of the real with the fantastic.
--Baltimore Sun
A Huck Finn pilgrimmage. . .the skits and sketches of these pre-Easy Riders are engaging. . .moving and funny.
--Robert Kirsh, L.A. Times
A remarkable journey, peopled with unforgettable characters and suffused with a heady literary exoticism. It's Kerouac's ON THE ROAD abroad and shares that book's zest, wonder, and downright hairiness!
--Library Journal
A Drug Generation ON THE ROAD. . .INDIAN ACTION is a rollicking, often frightening trip to a modern, psychedelic heart of darkness.
--Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate
about ROSAMUND'S VISION (1983)
Delights and astonishes by combining elegance of style with a wise, cheerfully caring story about a unique and intelligent couple. . . .Mitchner's lovers are unusual for contemporary fiction: individuals rich in emotions and intellect, capable of growing not just in wisdom but in happiness. Because he tells their story so well, ROSAMUND'S VISION should be considered one of the best novels of the '80s.
--Best Sellers
On a train out of Bagdad, Rosamund Coleridge, an editor from Bristol, England, wins the heart of Charles Chaplin Muldane, a natural ham from New Bristol, N.J., with her rendition of 'Kubla Khan.". . . .It takes Rosamund a while to warm to New Bristol and the language of its natives, but it takes no time for the reader to warm to this high-spirited account of her first nine months there.
--The New Yorker
Can a fastidious free-lance editor from Bristol, England find happiness as the wife of a flaky radio-talk host in New Bristol, N.J.? That's the primary thrust of this stylish celebration of eccentricity. . . .blending a '60s-ish mindset (and an Anne-Tyler-esque love of soulful oddballs) with a fine command of witty, elaborate, ironic language.
--Kirkus Reviews
For sheer reading pleasure and a lot of laughs, this zany, fresh novel is as enjoyable as any I've read this year. Expect to meet at every turn such diverse figures as Thomas Edison, Poe, Coleridge, Melville--all in a splendid mix of events and unexpected happenings.
--Winston-Salem Journal
Entertaining...a sweetly comic tale (NYTBR); An exultant and imaginative book (LA Herald-Examiner); A literature-lover's delight and a tremendously good read (Suffolk Va. News-Herald); Finally here is a book for people who love books: a literary delight that celebrates life and literature (Elkhart Truth); Light, larky, genuinely funny enough to make you laugh out loud (Publishers Weekly)
u (Little, Brown 1976) (Little, Brown, 1983). : ,
Thanks for dropping by, Stuart. And a very heart-felt thanks for the piece you did on Darconville's Cat.Question: Is it correct to assume that the rights to your two books are still held by Little, Brown, or have they reverted to you? And is there, then, any possibility of your books being converted to e-texts or made available by a print-on-demand service? Or just simply re-issued properly like the industry used to do once upon a time and on occasion?
And for the rest of us, despite all moneys going to dealers and handlers and not to the deserving party (BUT at least they become read again which is the life-aura of books), both Mitchner books are available cheep on amazon and abebooks:
Indian Action, from US$1.99+s&H:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listin...
A little more at abe:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Searc...
Rosamund's Vision:
From US$1.36+s&H
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listin...
abe about the same:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Searc...
[whose got an excuse now?]
Welcome,Mr.Mitchner & thanks for sharing with us the details about your books. I'll happily buy Indian Action if it's available in ebook format.I've read a couple of your blogs & am definitely looking forward to the latest one as Five Easy Pieces is one of my favourite Jack Nicholson performances– that chicken sandwich scene- every actor should see that- classic!
Thanks for your interest. The net is the great mystery. Years ago by accident I found that the first chapter of Rosamund had been performed as a play at Stetson U, totally without my knowledge. Though I own the rights to both books, there is no ebook as far as I know. But as Nathan points out, copies are going for less than the postage from abe.com, amazon and others.I hope Theroux appreciates the fact that he has readers on Good Reads. His publisher supposedly sent the review on to him, but I've never heard from him, though I did hear indirectly, through an interview, that he appreciated my "open-hearted, open-minded" review of Laura Warholic back in early 2008. Most of the new books I've written about have been serious (great) reads, like Savage Detectives and 2666 by Bolano, both Pynchon's last two. Under the Volcano is another. Last year I did several columns on Dickens for his 200th. Proust this year. I also tend to write about personal classic favorites like Melville, Keats, and Coleridge. And Shakespeare this week.
Writing weekly columns satisfies the demon in me that would be writing novels or travel autpbiographies if there was any hope of publishing, but I gave that up four years ago when I couldn't even get an agent to look at a sequel to R's Vision, so all my energy goes into the columns and occasional pieces for Princeton Magazine and Urban Agenda, both published by Town Topics.
Scribble Orca suggested I might post a link to my columns for Town Topics. I'm always glad to have readers. But there are hundreds going back back back to Nov 2003 or beyond that if you count the article in the Village Voice on jazz tenor Wardell Gray from June 2003. The archive since late 2011 is here: http://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/c...Before that, the last review in the previous site
format was on Thackeray on his 200th.
http://www.towntopics.com/dec0711/boo...
If you scroll down there's an archive of all the book, DVD, Record reviews. Then if you click on Art inthat same issue, there's an archive of all those, which often have a literary or rock and roll spin.
I've noticed that since we went to wordpress, the access to the previous archive isn't as effective as it once was, but you can see the range. This is a dream job. I write about whatever choose, no matter how unlikely the combination (like the one I'm working on, Jack Nicholson and the late Colin Davis.
I'm glad you are enjoying your job at Town Topics,Mr.Mitchner. Loved your review of Theroux's Laura Warholic or,The Sexual Intellectual!Mr. Theroux shd've sent you a personal note of thanks...but he is a bitter man.
Just placed an order for your Rosamund's Vision- it'll take around 2-2.5 months perhaps to reach my part of the world– Vollmann's books did!
I do hope you get the recognition that you so rightfully deserve!
Stuart wrote: "Thanks for your interest. The net is the great mystery..."The best way to get unBUried is by posting a profile on Wikipedia with links to book reviews and any websites where you and/or your work is profiled. Anyone in this group wikipedia-savvy enough to set up a profile for Stuart?
All I'd really like to do is to peek at this blog every now and then. I really appreciate the ref above to looking at secondhand bookshops since that's the setting of Rosamund's Vision. However, I don't want to get distracted by the procedural details, since I have a lifelong tendency not to join anything (any club that would have me as a member, as Groucho said). That's why I've avoided facebook all these years, and have no clue about what most of this is about. I think GoodReads and BBC are great ideas, but since I have deadlines to make every week and lots of responsibilities on the homefront, I shy away from distractions, even pleasant ones like this. The links I gave should be deleted if they go against policy, but I don't know how to do that. Thanks again to everyone.
Stuart wrote: "All I'd really like to do is to peek at this blog every now and then."Glad to have you around. This little group is still new, but we hope to have an opportunity to do justice to works which have most likely had injustice served them on their first go-round. The power of the internet, etc, all of which to me, also, is a still a bit awkward.
And about the policy thing, we're still a young group and not always entirely sure what the policy thing is. I do hope that, in addition to your books, your other writings might also have a chance to circulate among goodsreaders. Your services to the (mostly) BURIED books of Theroux say to me that you clearly are one of us [also that thing Groucho said, most of us, many of us, that's also the reason we find ourselves here].
Please do drop in now and again. I hope before too long we'll have a review or two, despite the youth of our unEARTHing project.
I am one of the characters in Indian Action. (How often do you get a character from a book write in?) I can assure you that Mr Mitchner was no kind of Hippy. He was lurching around India in a crumpled lounge suit carrying a plastic raincoat, as I recall. The book is very good (although it is a pack of lies about me).
Roger I met 50 years ago, and he is a man of parts: a poet, a writer, a naturalist, an adventurer, and a dynamite saxophonist. And he's remembering me from 1963 not 1965-66-- I'm not even sure what a lounge suit is. I did have a grey suitcoat that may have once belonged to a suit from Brooks Brothers. And the raincoat, yes. None of us were over there "being hippies." I've never been a joiner, as I told Nathan.The only self-confessed hippie I remember was a German guy who took a comradely bite out of my doughnut in New Delhi and was soundly denounced for his illusory gee-we're-all-in-this-together share and share alike attitude. As for Roger in the book, there's no way in the world I could have done justice to two such life forces as he or Ray, the other main character. I muddled through, making them up from memory as I went along.
Stuart wrote: "Roger I met 50 years ago, and he is a man of parts: a poet, a writer, a naturalist, an adventurer, and a dynamite saxophonist. And he's remembering me from 1963 not 1965-66-- I'm not even sure what..."Okay Stuart, it's time to contact Dzanc Books and see if they'll do an ebook release of your book(s).
http://www.dzancbooks.org/
Roger wrote: "How often do you get a character from a book write in?..."We did hear from David Copperfield one time, but that may have been a sock puppet account...
Jim wrote: "Roger wrote: "How often do you get a character from a book write in?..."We did hear from David Copperfield one time, but that may have been a sock puppet account..."
HA!
Roger wrote: "I can assure you that Mr Mitchner was no kind of Hippy. "
Hi Roger! Well, if you're referring to Mala's comment then I believe she said it in a light, fun manner and didn't actually mean that Stuart was/is a hippie :)
I was joking too. I agree that to publish Stu's work as ebooks is a good idea.
Hi I'm late to the party,as usual! The funny line below Stuart's pic,duly edited out,I did want to keep the 'cute' part though cause Stuart you do look good for umm some one your age,I think.It'll be interesting to see some of those pics from India visit- you could email them to me & I could post them here. Think abt it.
Honestly,anyone backpacking in India in the 60's would've been taken for a hippie (so I've heard),cause at that time,India was full of them.
And doughnuts were available in Delhi in 1962!!! Srsly? I read that in 1969, Sonia Gandhi,(the president of Congress Party & widow of late prime minister,Rajiv Gandhi),had to import pasta from her native Italy as it wasn't available in India!
@ Stuart: Would like to hear your thoughts on India of those bygone days. I saw you referenced the Kumbh Mela & the Dal lake in Kashmir in one of your blogs. Loved your latest on Berlioz,Colin Davis & Five Easy Pieces ( watch that movie,guys). Here's the link to that article:Up the Hill and Over the Top With Berlioz, Jack Nicholson, and Sir Colin Davis (1927-2013) | Town Topics
http://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/2...
Mala: at my age, I should mind being called a cute hippie? Or a cute anything? All it did was make me smile,my wife, too. In the mid-60s, though, backpackers from the west, whatever they could be termed, were surely not as visible a presence as they would become in later decades. Yes, the doughnut was for real--that's why it was so precious, probably the first doughnut I'd seen in the better part of a year. Can't remember the name of the cafe or coffee house--the Standard, possibly--but it faced on the middle of Connaught Circus/Circle, and it had a balcony, which is where the incident occured.
We were in India when Shastri died and Indira took over. I seem to remember she made an appearance at the Mela.
Thanks for reading my column.
[image error]This is Mr. Mitchner in his heyday as seen on the back cover of Rosamund's Vision - a pretty regular guy, no hippie!
Mala wrote: "a pretty regular guy, no hippie!"Despite not being a hippie, I've gotta put a little more effort into obtaining copies of his two. Looking forward to your review, you Wielder of the Spade!
These dainty hands were not meant for shovelling... but never mind;-)
Got Indian Action three days back! Again Abe delivered before estimated date! Hope I can read it in this year itself.
The BURIED Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Indian Action : An American Journey to the Great Fair of the East (other topics)Rosamund's Vision (other topics)
Stuart Mitchner
"Born in Kansas, raised in Indiana, a graduate of Indiana University, Stuart worked at the Eighth Street Bookshop in Greenwich Village, as a college rep for W.W. Norton, hitchhiked to India and Nepal and back for a year and a half, which he wrote about while doing graduate work at Rutgers; the book was Indian Action, published by Little Brown, which also published his novel, Rosamund’s Vision. He’s been writing about books and the arts for Town Topics since 2003; he’s published poetry, fiction, essays in Poetry, Partisan Review, Raritan, and the Village Voice."
I first heard of him when NR shared his blog on Darconville's Cat in his (NR's)review of the same & if the smashing intro is anything to go by then perhaps he deserves to be read.
What espcially struck me was how ingeniously he used movies from popular culture like The Night of the Hunter & Gilda (do watch them,they are Good), to explain an elite work like Darconville's Cat! Snobs take note – popular culture too has a place along with the highbrow ;-)
Here's the blog:
“Darconville’s Cat”: The Power and Glory of Vengeance Writ Fantastically Large, by Stuart Mitchner, 21 Mar 2013: http://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/2...
This writer is keeping tabs on what's happening on Goodreads,maybe he can be invited here to add some details/description to his work ,they are just bare titles as you can see here:
Indian Action : An American Journey to the Great Fair of the East
Rosamund's Vision: A Novel