Literary Event

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Gin Phillips Speaks

November 1, 2010 in book review, Literary Event by Kim | No comments

If you liked The Help, then read The Well and the Mine.  Personally, I liked it better, it’s quietly thought provoking.  The book starts with a dramatic action, a woman drops a baby down a well, and all the characters struggle with the event.  These characters are ordinary people, very much like someone the reader knows. There isn’t a crusade, just regular people dealing with a terrible economy, racism, and a tragic event.  When I was reading it, the book I kept thinking about wasn’t The Help, but To Kill a Mockingbird.

Gin Phillips joined the Cafe Conversation at the Beverly Hills Literary Escape with Ethan Canin, David Ulin and Mona Simpson.  I wondered how she would do as a first time novelist with three authors who have traveled around the book tour block several times.  She more than held her own.  I heard her again at the Saturday historical fiction lunch with Tatjana Soli.  Here are a few of her comments:

  • Economic Similarity? Many consider the book timely (even before the Chilean miner crisis) because it is set in and was published during severe economic downturns. Phillips understands the connections people are making but described a much more frightening world in 1931.  The society her characters live in do not have a safety net.  There isn’t Social Security, disability, or Medicare.  If a miner was hurt or disabled the family was facing an abyss of suffering, many were quickly homeless and starved to death.  Occasionally the community could help, but the community couldn’t provide long term assistance.  Moreover, there wasn’t even a minimum wage or a limit on the number of hours in a working day.  Canin quipped “I saw a bumper sticker recently that said “Unions, the people who brought you weekends.”  Her characters lived in a much harsher world.
  • Racism.  The mines were the only place in Alabama where black and white men worked together.  Segregation was so strong that the two races rarely mixed which resulted in each race believing the stereotype of the other.  Working together complicated these racist opinions.  Phillips found from her own reading that frequently the South is depicted as a vast lynching ground under Jim Crow laws, or a character shows up akin to a modern day Bill Clinton.  Neither is realistic.   Read the rest of this entry »
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Robert Goolrick Convinced Me To Buy His Book And He Wasn’t Even Talking About It

October 28, 2010 in book group, Literary Event, spirituality by Kim | 1 comment

Julie Robinson described the morning sessions of the Beverly Hills Literary Escape as conversations among a revolving group of authors that the audience could listen to and participate in.  I couldn’t quite get it, would they veer off onto pitches for their books, would it be inside publishing jokes, would I feel bad if someone wasn’t assertive enough to join the fray?  It was none of that, in fact, as difficult as they are to describe, the Cafe Conversations were a highlight of the weekend.

Sunday morning’s conversation circled around the subject of faith, spirituality and religion.  Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion, Eric Lax, writer of Faith Interrupted, and Michael Krasny, radio interviewer and author of Spiritual Envy mesmerized us with their discussion of belief, unbelief and serious pondering over the meaning of life.  [Loved their conversation, I bought all of their books also.]  About half way through, Robert Goolrick, author of The Reliable Wife, joined the stage. I recalled picking up his book last summer, reading the back and putting it back down.  It wasn’t for me.  I could see how many would, and do like it, I could envision reading it by the pool or on the beach, but I wasn’t going to either of those places, so I passed.  Now I own it.

Before Goolrick joined the group, the conversation was a variation of “I don’t know what I believe about God” or “I knew and now I don’t know” or “I know a little.”   Goolrick told everyone what he does know and that is that the practice of religion, he couldn’t care less which religion, gives a person an internal life.  He described living in NYC years ago, where he felt he lived life very publicly, that everyone did.  Sunday mornings he went to the most upscale Episcopalian church to give himself an hour to consider how close he was to being a good and moral person.  It gave him the space to contemplate his life and actions.  He couldn’t care less how people spend their Sunday mornings, he cares who people are and the practice of religion shapes who people are.

In Goolick’s opinion, goodness is the only thing that matters.  Goodness is the only thing that survives when we die.  He defines good by action.  What acts of goodness Read the rest of this entry »

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Colum McCann wins the First Annual Medici Book Club Prize

October 26, 2010 in award, book group, Literary Event by Kim | 1 comment

The Beverly Hills Literary Escape concluded giving Colum McCann the  Medici Book Club Prize.  The $5,000 cash prize is awarded in recognition of a distinguished work of fiction that has inspired thoughtful conversation and contributed to a deeper understanding of the human experience.  McCann’s exploration of the intertwining of various lives and events in 1974 while constantly driving the reader towards 9/11 in Let the Great World Spin exceeded the expectations for the award.

When I read the first few pages of Let the Great World Spin, in my head I knew McCann was talking about Petit tightrope walk, but from my forehead down I was reliving the morning of 9/11/2001.  I asked McCann where he was when that morning, he said at 71st and 1st in New York City with his wife and children. His father-in-law worked in the first building hit but the second to come down.  The family didn’t know he survived until six hours later when he appeared on their doorstep covered in dust and debris.  McCann’s daughter ran to him and said “Poppi smells like fire.”  They explained it was from the smoke and she replied “no, he smells like he’s on fire from the inside out.”  McCann’s father-in-law showered and threw all of his clothes away, he never wanted to see that suit again.  However, he took off his shoes at the doorway and they have kept them in the same condition.  The shoes will be part of the 9/11 museum.  Clearly, McCann’s experience comes alive in the opening chapter of the book.

Here are few of McCann’s other comments during his conversation with Julie Robinson:

  • Hope in Reality. He used the tightrope to show that we are all on a tightrope either half a mile up or just six inches up like Jasmine’s daughters, or the a mother who sends her son to war, or a mother who witnesses her daughter walk the streets.  He wanted the book to be about recovery and grace, so all the characters chose to live and survive.  While recognizing that the world is harsh, he answers with a so what?  He chose to write a book that embodied how hard life can be, but to imbue it with hope.  He doesn’t find hope sentimental, but tougher to maintain than cynicism.
  • Spoiler Alert: One of his goals was to write a ‘good’ character, which is difficult.  He wanted a Catholic character because of the recent bad events in the church.  McCann modeled Corrigan (note his initials are JC, I didn’t catch that, McCann pointed it out) after a true-life radical priest.  McCann didn’t want Corrigan to die and he tried all kinds of scenarios to ‘roll away the stone’ and resurrect him, but it never worked.  McCann mused that for evil to exist it only has to happen once, but for good to exist it needs to occur repeatedly.  The reader experiences repeated acts of kindness with Corrigan.  I think everyone misses him and wishes he didn’t die.
  • Tightrope. McCann believes that the tightrope walk will be remembered as one of the great art achievements of the 20th century because it created a moment of fullness and completeness.  Moreover, it can never be replicated.  A little book trivia, McCann changed Petit’s walk Read the rest of this entry »
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O’Neill Speaks

October 19, 2010 in history, Literary Event, memoir by Kim | No comments

No, not Eugene, although that would be quite a trick.  Last Friday, the Beverly Hills Literary Escape hosted an intimate coffee with Joseph O’Neill.  He was in town to discuss his recently re-released memoir, Blood-Dark Track. The book was initially published a month after 9/11 (i.e., before Netherland) in such a way that “it wasn’t in any bookstore.”  O’Neill said it was safe to say that the only people who read it then were his family.

The book is the tale of O’Neill’s two grandfathers.  His Irish grandfather was an extreme activist, heavily involved in the IRA.  In contrast, O’Neill described his Turkish grandfather as an extreme bystander, someone who felt he could continue on with business ignoring the implications of the brewing world war.  Both views landed them in jail during WWII.  The Irish grandfather was imprisoned for his IRA involvement.  The Turkish grandfather travelled to Palestine to pick up a crop of citrus fruit to sell in Turkey and was arrested as a spy for the Axis countries.  O’Neill used both characters to ‘bore a hole through history.’  He recommended people discover their ancestors to learn more about their family and the bits of history that cling to them.

O’Neill admitted that as a result of the book tour, he was thinking about connections between Netherland and Blood-Dark Track.  The writing of Blood-Dark Track organized a lot of his political thoughts that otherwise would have spilled out in Netherland.  Without Blood-Dark Track, Netherland would have been a different book.  While Netherland is a post-9/11 book, he feels Blood-Dark Track is also.  It shows how his family dealt with a dramatic event, WWII, and the confusion caused by evaluating what they believed in and were willing to fight for.  He sees a connection in the books concerning how we view ‘the other’ or whether we see them at all.  His Turkish grandfather was alive during the Armenian genocide, yet his family said they ‘didn’t see it.’  O’Neill argues that they created a life that resulted in ‘not seeing.’  O’Neill consciously used cricket as a metaphor for the American vision, how far are we willing to see others who engage in activities were are completely unfamiliar with.  How we create lives so that we don’t interact with ‘others,’ and what the result can be of our unseeing.

O’Neill doesn’t think he could write Netherland now because he has lost his outsider view.  He described the advantage of being an ‘insider’ is the access to information, but the upside to being an outsider is that the person doesn’t have blinders on.  O’Neill’s lived here a few years and what stood out to him in the past is now just part of the scenery.  Although, he said he is still surprised Read the rest of this entry »

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Bookstore Tourism is Rolling Again!

October 3, 2010 in bookstore, Literary Event by Kim | 2 comments

Several years ago, I followed a series of links on the Internet to discover Bookstore Tourism by Larry Portzline.  I immediately bought the book.  What I remember thinking as I read it is that were other people like me, people who looked for bookstores when they were traveling along with great restaurants and unique activities.  In the “old days,” Larry also led organized tours to various stores.  Well, happy days are here again!  For the first time in years, Larry will be leading a bookstore tourism event to Greenwich Village.  Here are the details:

On Saturday, October 9th, Larry is commandeering a chartered bus, picking up 50 bibliophiles in Harrisburg and Lancaster, and dropping them off at Washington Square Park with a map locating 23 area bookstores.  Larry’s description of a few of the stores:

The stores include everything from the Strand, which advertises 16 miles of shelf space, to Bonnie Slotnik Cookbooks, just a few blocks away, which is the size of a living room but has a worldwide reputation.  (No lie, she carries cookbooks from all the way back in the 1700s and has chefs and collectors from all over the world calling her.)  Some other favorites:  Three Lives & Company, Housing Works Bookstore Care, Books of Wonder, Partners & Crime . . . I could go on and on.  Some new stores on the list:  the Scholastic Store, the Taschen Store, and Idlewild Bookshop.  It’s a fantastic mix of new, used, and specialty bookstores.

The bus leaves at 7PM giving the participants 8 hours of bookstore shopping time.  This is the blueprint for my perfect day!

If you’re interested in joining this tour or learning about future tours, contact Larry through his website, via Facebook, or via Twitter.


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