Brewpub Book Club discussion
3/4 meeting - Oscar Wao
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Mar 05, 2010 06:08AM
I thought we had a fantastic first meeting! If anyone wanted to share any of the links to interviews and reviews we'd mentioned, or to remind us of the other titles they brought up in the discussion, here's the place to do it.
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Here's the article I mentioned about the author's writers block:http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Junot-Dia...
Kate wrote: "Here's the article I mentioned about the author's writers block:
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Junot-Dia..."
Kate, what was the title of the book you were talking about that involved magical realism and elevator operators (I think)? It sounded really interesting, but I can't remember anything else about it.
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Junot-Dia..."
Kate, what was the title of the book you were talking about that involved magical realism and elevator operators (I think)? It sounded really interesting, but I can't remember anything else about it.
Here is the link to the collection of ten rules for writing fiction. Be sure to check out the second part as well. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/...
Brandy wrote: "Here is the link to the collection of ten rules for writing fiction. Be sure to check out the second part as well.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/......"
I'm a little bit in love with Sarah Waters. And Margaret Atwood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/......"
I'm a little bit in love with Sarah Waters. And Margaret Atwood.
The elevator book is The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead's debut novel. He just finished Sag Harbor to generally good, but also mixed reviews. A chapter of it was in the New Yorker last summer.
I saw that Ten Rules, and it was a counter to Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules, I think. Pretty fantastic.
I just saw this interview in the New Yorker book blog. There's a pretty great explanation of the narrative structure of Oscar Wao :
Yunior's narration was essential to some of the novel's deeper, hidden themes. It's one of the book's mysteries that each reader must try to resolve for herself: why is Yunior telling this story? Is it as an act of contrition, to explain or exonerate himself, or is it something far less charitable? There are many possibilities, and depending on your answer the book takes on a different resonance. The novel contains a guide to help a reader crackle the Yunior narration enigma, but you have to know a little bit about the comic book series "The Fantastic Four." Each of the family members is explicitly linked to one of the Four—Oscar is the Thing, Abelard is Mr. Fantastic, Belicia is the Invisible Woman, and Lola is the Human Torch—something I stole from Rick Moody's incomparable novel "The Ice Storm." So if the Family is the Fantastic Four, which character in the comic's mythology is Yunior linked to? We know he takes on the role of the Watcher throughout, but that's one of his masks. There is someone else. The clues are in the novel, and once you find them it will help you decide whether Yunior's motives for telling the tale are positive, negative, mixed.
Yunior's narration was essential to some of the novel's deeper, hidden themes. It's one of the book's mysteries that each reader must try to resolve for herself: why is Yunior telling this story? Is it as an act of contrition, to explain or exonerate himself, or is it something far less charitable? There are many possibilities, and depending on your answer the book takes on a different resonance. The novel contains a guide to help a reader crackle the Yunior narration enigma, but you have to know a little bit about the comic book series "The Fantastic Four." Each of the family members is explicitly linked to one of the Four—Oscar is the Thing, Abelard is Mr. Fantastic, Belicia is the Invisible Woman, and Lola is the Human Torch—something I stole from Rick Moody's incomparable novel "The Ice Storm." So if the Family is the Fantastic Four, which character in the comic's mythology is Yunior linked to? We know he takes on the role of the Watcher throughout, but that's one of his masks. There is someone else. The clues are in the novel, and once you find them it will help you decide whether Yunior's motives for telling the tale are positive, negative, mixed.
I'm not sure if this was mentioned last week, but Yunior is back narrating in the fiction section of the March 22nd New Yorker.
