George Saunders' Bedtime Story

The Late Show, with Stephen Colbert, has included a running skit that brings modern literary figures in (Jonathan Franzen and John Irving) to read bedtime stories to Stephen.  In last week's iteration, George Saunders reads Festive.  A down-on-his-luck dad writes in his diary about his struggle to

communicate the Christmas spirit to his kids without breaking his budget. The tale makes use of Saunders’ signature style, a fragmented, personable stream of earnest hopes and desperate insecurities. (“Note to self,” the dad says. “Set low dollar limit per kid … Gaze at sky to assuage kids’ sense of having been gypped by low limit.”)

George Saunders - Tenth of December - Follow-up

As a final follow up on George Saunders after last night's animated conversation, here are links to a couple of interviews about specific stories: the title piece Tenth of December as well as The Semplica-Girl Diaries.  Neither is very long but both go into great detail about the art of crafting the story from the initial idea to all those particular details we were discussing last night.  Very evident that no element is accidental or an afterthought.


 
Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20th at 7pm.  We are reading Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.  An excellent, literary piece of gritty crime fiction.
 

George Saunders Day

"You say it's your birthday!"

In an unexpected coincidence (and at the risk of further confusion on dates for our meeting), today is George Saunders' birthday.  I'm attaching below a little write up from The Writer's Almanac (Minnesota Public Radio) courtesy of Todd Ofenloch.  Meeting is tonight, hope to see you there.
 
It's the birthday of short-story writer George Saunders, born in Amarillo, Texas (1958). He grew up in a suburb of Chicago, and he loved books about World War II and baseball. In high school, he discovered Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and books by Ayn Rand and Khalil Gibran, and they changed his life. He said: "It definitely went directly from the page into my heart. I think I was a really good reader in the sense that I was a desperate reader, desperate to find out what was good, what was true, how a person should live."
He was particularly influenced by Ayn Rand; he started thinking of himself as a character from an Ayn Rand novel. He said: "I want to be one of the earth movers, the scientific people who power the world. And I don't want to be one of these lisping liberal artsy leeches." So he went to the Colorado School of Mines to study engineering, then worked various odd jobs, and finally decided to apply to the Syracuse Creative Writing Program. There were two professors who wanted to let him in, even though everyone else objected — most of the other students were stars from Ivy League schools — so he was let in as a "grand experiment." He said: "I felt more like a 'clerical error.' [...] While the other students knew all about Shelley and Keats, I knew about Alfred Wegener, the father of plate tectonics, whom we affectionately used to call 'Big Al.' But fiction is open to whoever comes in the door, as long as you come in energetically, and so I had a feeling there was room for me."
His books include CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996), The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip (2000), In Persuasion Nation (2006), and Tenth of December: Stories.
Saunders said: "Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to."

Something fun in the Sunday Boston Globe.....

If you are like me, the first section you grab in your Sunday Boston Globe (even before reading about the Pats quest for perfection or the fast rising Celtics) is the Arts section to check out Jan Gardner's New England literary news column for updates on the local books scene.  If you are not like me, and you somehow missed it, our book group had a nice profile this last weekend:

Bill Kohli prefers reading fiction over history, biography, or thrillers, and he is a fan of single malt scotch so that’s how he runs Bill’s Book Group for Guys at Wellesley Books. He usually picks a novel, sometimes on the quirky side, and he always provides a selection of drinks — a single malt scotch or bourbon, as well as beer, wine, and sparkling water.

The book group — now 3 years old — typically draws 15 to 20 men, including eight to 10 regulars, ranging in age from 30s to 70s. The first group after the summer hiatus, which discussed Emily St. John Mandel’s science fiction novel “Station Eleven” (Knopf), drew 25 attendees.

Kohli, who co-owns Wellesley Books with his wife, Gillian, says members of other book clubs are often surprised to hear that his group spends most of the two hours devoted to the meeting actually discussing the book. Some female customers at Wellesley Books have told Kohli that they enjoy reading the group’s selections. None yet have asked to attend a meeting. For now, Kohli says, the group is a “great alternative to a typical ‘guys night out.’ ”

The book for the next meeting, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. at the Wellesley bookstore, is “Tenth of December” (Random House) by George Saunders, a master of the modern short story. Tickets, $25, include a copy of the book and refreshments.

Speaking of George Saunders, Ralph Blair passed along this profile from the Sunday Magazine in the NY Times that calls the Tenth of December the best book you'll read this year. As well as this introduction to his previous collection of short stories which gives you a great perspective into his background in upstate New York and development as a writer.

Hope you all are enjoying the book and can make the meeting on Wednesday, December 2nd.

Tenth of December - Station Eleven

Over the weekend, Wellesley Books was a supporting sponsor of the Boston Book Festival, which included supporting the events and book signings at the Emmanuel Church on Newbury Street.  One of the major events at our location was titled The End is Near, hosted by Christopher Lydon and featuring Emily St. John Mandel of Station Eleven as one of the panelists.  She was lovely, well spoken, interested to hear about our book group and eager to attend someday to set the record straight!  However, she thinks this may be her only foray into the dystopian genre.

Additionally, there's a great companion piece for Tenth of December in The New Yorker this week.  You can find the link below.

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/my-writing-education-a-timeline

My Writing Education: A Time Line - The New Yorker We'll send you a reminder of where you left off. Tobias Wolff calls my parents’ house in Amarillo, Texas, leaves a message: I’ve been admitted to the Syracuse ... Read more...

Don't Miss This!

Definitely check out  Mary Karr: By the Book in the NY Times this weekend.  She's smart, pithy, and her reading syllabus fits nicely with many of our group discussions.  It could also make great source material for future selections!  For many of you, her take down of John Ashbery of "Leaving the Atocha Station" fame will be the highlight.  She also had a significant intellectual and romantic relationship with David Foster Wallace.  For those of you who've read Infinite Jest, she is the rumored inspiration for the PGOAT character.  Just seeing this makes me want to go out and tackle great literature!

Tenth of December - George Saunders

Thanks again to all who attended the meeting for The Sisters Brothers last Wednesday for what may have been our most universally appreciated book yet.  I can only think of three possible explanations:

1. I'm slowly bending you all to my will.
2. I stacked the debate with friends and family.
3. The whisky selection was so successful that no one felt like arguing.

In any event, I think we can all agree the conversation is more stimulating and fun when the opinions are more varied.  With that in mind, our next book is Tenth of December, a collection of short stories by George Saunders. The stories are accessible, slightly absurd, and the current darlings of The New Yorker, the NY Times, and writers like Mary Karr who declares Saunders "The best short-story writer in English - not 'one of,' not 'arguably,' but the Best."  I know just reading that will set many of you on edge, so you'll find plenty to love (or hate) in this collection.  Either way, it should make for a great discussion on Wednesday, December 2nd, at 7pm.  That's the Wednesday after Thanksgiving (please don't confuse the date with the book title!)

By the way, when you're in the store picking up the book, you might want to run downstairs and take a look at the remainders section.  Our book buyer, Lorna, found some come copies of James Salter's memoir/recollection Burning the Days available for a very attractive price.  It's a great non-fiction companion read for those of you who loved All That Is.

The Sisters Brothers

Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic reception at our return from the Summer recess last night.  I thoroughly enjoyed the vigorous Station Eleven discussion which moved briskly despite the size of the group.  As I mentioned at the end of the evening, our next meeting is scheduled for October 7th, a slightly quicker than usual turn around as I'm trying to fit it in between a few other commitments.

We are reading The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt, a darkly comic and outrageously inventive work that offers  a decidedly off-center view of the traditional western novel.  I laughed out loud at the terse philosophical musings and staccato banter between two brothers, hired guns, on a manhunt across the California Gold Country.

I hope to see everyone on the 7th at 7pm.

End of Summer - Station Eleven

Tomorrow night at 7pm - Red Sparrow author Jason Matthews will be discussing his new book Palace of Treason.  I'll be hosting the event.  If you are available, please come and help support the store.

Next Wednesday, September 9th, Bill's Book Group for Guys will be discussing Station Eleven in our basement beginning at 7pm.  To whet your appetite, I came across this bit of dialogue recently while watching Gosford Park, the Julian Fellowes' film set during a shooting weekend at an English country house that was a precursor to his development of Downton Abbey:

   -  "Jennings, old boy, I'll have a bourbon."
   -  "William, we have ordinary scotch or single malt."
   -  "Ordinary for me, I'm just an American."

We'll only serve the good stuff next week, even if we're all Americans. Hope you can make it.

DFW - Follow up

For all you DFW lovers (and haters) here is an interesting new piece.

http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/rewriting-of-david-foster-wallace.html

Vindication

GENIUS.

Leaving the Atocha Station author Ben Lerner - 2015 MacArthur Foundation Award recipient

https://www.macfound.org/fellows/938/

Atocha Station - Novel or memoir?

Writing a novel or memoir?

 I really enjoyed the discussion last night and was pleased with the generally favorable Lucky Jim.  For those of you who were interested in some additional contextual reading, here is the link to the WSJ Book Club featuring Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust.  We also talked about The Patrick Melrose Novels.

The next Book Group meeting (and last before the Summer) is set for Wednesday, June 10th at 7pm.  We will be reading Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner.  The protagonist, a brilliant if unreliable American Poet visiting Madrid on a prestigious fellowship, has a background that strongly resembles that of the author.  Is this a memoir or a novel?  "Fresh, unpredictable, intellectually stimulating, and often quite funny," the book is one of several recent releases that challenge the structure of traditional narrative fiction.

 I promised to attach a link to the James Woods review of Leaving the Atocha Station.  Try to stay open minded!

Summer Reading -- 2015 Continued

Ok, you can count me out of the Yu Hua Fan Club.  I got through two chapters and put it down.  I find his writing to be irritating, not entertaining.  I had the same reaction to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"  hated the writing style (but enjoyed the movie version).  Maybe I just don't have an appreciation for translated text.  I am surprised to be out of synch with several of you on Yu Hua, but there it is.  

Come to think of it, I seem to be out of synch with the masses in several respects:  I dislike being in an audience of any kind (inconsiderate people in groups are intolerable), I especially do not like watching people play music, whether symphony, bluegrass or jazz. Just give me CD's, ma'am. Also, I have never watched an episode of "American Idol" or "The Bachelorette." 

I just enjoyed reading "Prague Fatale," my third in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series. A nice detective mystery in the now familiar Gunther style and wartime setting.  After Chucking "Brothers" as noted above, I have started Larson's "Dead Wake" and have liked it so far (it passed the two-chapter-trial-test.)  

My next scheduled book will be "The English Spy" by Danial Silva, the most recent release in the Gabriel Allon series.  I happened to attend a book discussion with the author last week in Brookline.  Among the topics discussed was increased evidence of anti-Semitism in Europe and especially France.  After reading Kerr, I feel an unsettling sense of deja vu as I read statements like, "It isn't safe to be a Jew in France today." 

Silva discussed the frustrations of dealing with Hollywood producers.  The hero of Silva's spy novels is Gabriel Allon - a secret agent for "The Office" (Mossad) who operates under the cover of a restorer of masterpiece works of art.  (Allon is the agent who tracked down each of the Palestinian assassins at the Munich 1972 Summer Olympics and killed them.)  
Hollywood execs are worried that a pro-Israel movie might not be popular on the world market today, so they wonder, "Does Allon have to be a Jew? Or can he have a Muslim sidekick?"  This is why you won't see Silva's work on the big screen anytime soon.   

OK, what are the rest of you guys reading?
Dennis Noonan

Still testing with Bill! This is a newly initiated post as opposed to a response to another post. I found the link for "New Post" difficult to pick out against its background even after I knew to look for it. Maybe a different color font?

Summer Reading - 2015

As the reality of a 3 month Summer hiatus for the Book Group hits home and you are looking for a way to stay connected, here are some suggestions for Summer reading:

• Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr - The collection contains the first 3 books of the Bernie Gunther series. We would have read this instead of The Quiet Flame except for the length.
• Light Years or A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter - He passed away last week at the age of 90 and these are his master works. I am so glad we read All That Is earlier this year. He once referred to himself as a “frotteur,” saying he liked to rub words between his fingers. 
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt or All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - These modern epics continue to be enthusiastically recommended by many in our group but are just too long for our regular meetings.
• A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra -  If you loved The Orphan Master's Son, this book is set in a small village in Chechnya and spans two wars.  Curiously both Marra and Adam Johnson teach creative writing at Stanford.
• The Palace of Treason by Red Sparrow author Jason Matthews - This spy/thriller series set in post-Soviet Russia and written by a 33-year CIA veteran has great characters and depictions of spy craft.
• True Grit by Charles Portis (with fantastic intro by Donna Tartt) or The Sisters Brothers (winner of the 2012 Tournament of Books) by Patrick DeWitt - As a companion to The Son but with a Butch Cassidy flair.
• The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St Aubyn - These four short novels in one collection are an interesting modern follow up to our Lucky Jim discussion on the deterioration of the English class system. Highly autobiographical, St Aubyn is considered the greatest living prose stylist and once you are familiar with these you will see references to them constantly.
• And of course, Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel - Our selection for the September meeting of the Book Group and Winner of the 2015 Tournament of Books.

For what it's worth, here is my reading plan for the summer:

•  Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
• The Dog  by Joseph O'Neill
• 2666 by Roberto Bolano
• Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
• Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
• The Bird Skinner by Alice Greenway

As always, I reserve the right to change my mind and head a different direction. Please respond via comments about books you plan to read or have enjoyed over the course of the Summer.

Bill

James Salter RIP

The Obituary was in today's Boston Globe.  All There Is was his last novel. He was 90 and apparently at the gym working-out when he died.  Moral: Exercise is not necessarily good for you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/books/james-salter-a-writers-writer-short-on-sales-but-long-on-acclaim-dies-at-90.html

Lucky Jim and The Definitive List

In a message dated 5/13/2015 7:17:23 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, bill@wellesleybooks.com writes:

My son sent me this link, last night.  I think it's some sort of paean to Don Draper as Mad Men comes to a close. Take a look and see how many you've read and how many you own but haven't tackled (yet!).  We can see how many we cover as a group.  At least I know you all have one!

http://the-toast.net/2015/05/12/books-that-literally-all-white-men-own/


See you this evening....

====================

To which one white male replied:

The list - like so many "definitive" lists is total bullcrap.  Despite the fact that most of the authors are male, it appears to be merely a farrago of well known book titles.  

(I doubt that any real white men own a copy of "Boewulf" or "I, Claudius", or John Lennon's drawings).

Where is Michael Connelly, Robert Parker, Patterson? Silva?  Robert Frost, Mark Twain? Menken?  Mosely?  Faulkner?  Excel for Dummies?  The Bible?  Bartlett's?   Ludlum?

The list was compiled by a chick or someone impersonating a vacuous chick -- who needs a therapeutic Atkinsonian face slap (p167) and a drink of whisky to bring her to her senses.  

Still might be fun to discuss the list, since I suspect that a lot of the guys in the group will be thumbs down on "Lucky Jim" -- if indeed they read it all the way through. 

As for myself, I first read it in the 60's, and my recollection is that I thought it a rousing good comedy at the time. But none of it seems familiar to me now - 45 years later, and my taste for affected literary diction has changed.  Richard Russo has modernized this genre with "Straight Man."  Which reminds me, Where is Richard Russo on the (expletive deleted) list?

See you tonight,

Dennis Noonan   

Considering "Consider The Lobster"

On the wild assumption that anyone besides Bill is reading the blog, I'm inclined to voice an opinion on our current project.  So far I have read four of the essays:  The Visit to the Porn Convention, The reviews of the  John Updike's Novel "Toward the End of Time" , Tracy Austin's autobiography review, and "Consider the Lobster."  

I was reminded of the early works of Tom Wolfe and the essays of Hunter Thompson.  I used to love this kind of hip writing,  that someone described as, "PHD writing about lowbrow subjects."  But nowadays I find it less engaging.  I did enjoy the elegant trashing of Updike and the others.  But I felt that cute little Tracy Austin should have been spared, as she is not and doesn't pretend to be a writer.

I think Wallace is a great writer, with an eye for exquisite detail and a penchant for witty observation. However, his writing is so densely erudite as to leave the reader (me - at least ) exhausted after wading through ten pages or so of prose -- and don't get me started on those fucking tiny font footnotes....

I don't know if I will read the other essays before the group meeting on the 25th, but I think I have enough to join the conversation and I always look forward to the usual excellent libations.   

Dennis Noonan

James Salter - All That Is

Hi all -  Looking forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday at the store.  I hope you are enjoying the book, although I would guess it has potential to be one of our more incendiary choices.  To help frame the conversation, I'm attaching a few articles on the author and book.  There's lots more out there if you look.
I sincerely hope you can make the meeting.  I've got a nice single malt I brought back from London and a private bottling of rye from Whistle Pig of Vermont.

James Salter could be the greatest writer you've never heard of although he's written many Hollywood screenplays and even resorted to writing profiles for People magazine. There has been a big push recently to get recognition for his work.


Is James Salter sexist?  Is he a writer for men only? Enjoy this debate between Roxanna Robinson and Katie Roiphe.