Not really reviews, because I only talk about stuff I like.
Maira Kalman is a “graphic” essayist/memoirist–her form isn’t standard comics, but a mixture of painting and photos. I adore her work, her use of color, her upbeat ways of making meaning.
And if you want to feel good about ways to move forward with our communities–even when it comes to sewage in New York City–your time reading her latest blog couldn’t be better spent.
The book is Asterios Polyp by Dave Mazzucchelli. 
I love graphic novels and this one got a great write-up in Entertainment Weekly, so I grabbed a copy as soon as I could.
Almost everyone who writes about it says read it, then read it again. I agree.
There’s a lot to like about this novel which tells the story of a middle-aged man whose life falls away to literally nothing and who sets out to rebuild it and himself in whole new ways. I particularly loved the visual depiction of the two main characters’ ways of seeing the world–one in a precise, architectural, controlled format depicted largely in blue, and the other a more free-flowing, synchronistic, emotional worldview depicted in pink. As their worlds come together or split apart, the colors and visuals represent a complexity not conveyed by words alone. And when the words and the visuals each add more to the other, then a graphic novel is really working its magic. This one goes even farther with nuanced characterization, terrific humor, and an eye-popping sense of irony.
Scott McCloud blogged on the book as well. He’s an expert on graphic novels and offers more to think about in terms of medium than I can, so check it out.
I think all of us “non-graphic’ writers can learn a lot from reading graphic novels. The best dialogue is compact, multi-layered. Scenes can change with the simplest of cues. Time spent helping a reader “see” a person or setting or perception clearly is time well spent. In particular, this reminded me of the importance of understanding and conveying not only how different my characters are but how different the entire world is for each of them, as they move through it, experiencing it and creating it from their own unique perspectives. Part of what can make mystery novels work is the fact that no two characters see the same thing in the same way. It was good to be reminded how that extends not just to witness reports of an event, but to every single aspect of life.
I’m off to read the book again. . .
Thanks to the recommendation of my local friendly librarian (an author’s best friend), I stocked up on terrific young adult novels to read for the next few weeks. I
settled in with The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol 1: The Pox Party figuring to spend the weekend reading it. Instead, I read it through without even getting up from my chair. Only later did I find out it won The National Book Award. Well-deserved.
This book plays with genres and points of view in remarkable ways. Set in Revolutionary War Boston, author M. T. Anderson uses the genres popular in the day to tell this tale. His control of those and of point of view is seamless. You don’t realize how well you’ve been treated as a reader until you’re done with the story and reflect on it.
The book also raises wonderful questions–questions absolutely still alive today–regarding freedom, liberty, selling the rights of a marginalized group for political gain, rationality, education, and the dignity of human beings. Everyone should read it. I’m surprised it’s classified as a “young adult” book; it felt as adult as anything I’ve read. There’s much for me to learn from it as a citizen, as someone concerned with justice, and as an author.
I think I’ll read it again before I have to return it. And get Volume II on my wish list as well!
Writers need their sleep. And so do we all, especially if we’re learning new things.
I feel vindicated. I’ve always been a 9-hour-minimum sleeper, at least, if I want to be alert and functional. In college, I told people sleep was my Number One priority. Then studying. Then social life. I was a real charmer then, as now! Still, I stay healthy and mostly on top of things, even if I always felt guilty about being lazy.
But I just go my hands on a new book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina. And it has a handy and fun website you can check out to get a taste for the book.
Anyhow, he explains that we need sleep time for our brains to process what we learned during the day. “Sleep well, think well,” he says. He says naps are a good thing! Love him! Can’t wait to read the book.
It’s about a teddy bear who has willed himself to live only to be arrested for being the most heinous terrorist mastermind. Yes, really. As the official website says:
Emotionally gripping and intellectually compelling, Winkie introduces the most memorable protagonist since the Velveteen Rabbit, and—with the help of a lesbian Moslem cleaning woman, a stuttering attorney, and a Lacan-spewing bear cub—brilliantly exposes the cruel absurdities of our age and explores what it means to be human in an increasingly barbaric world.
It’s a strange book. I loved it. Mostly I wondered what sort of creative bravery it took to write it and to believe that it had a chance in hell of getting published. If I had an idea like this I would never, ever believe it would see the light of day at a publishing house.
I would love to have seen the face of the agents/editors who first saw this thing. How many times (if any?) was it rejected? Who had the guts to buy it and what made the risk worth taking? Kudos to those visionaries.
This, of course, reveals a great deal about my own writing life–particularly the stuff I don’t write. I’ve often thought that’s a problem. Now that I see it written out like this, I feel that more strongly than ever. I need to write my winkies too! Even if I don’t think there’s a chance they’ll ever get published. I should let the world decide that, not me.
Hm. Quite a little pep talk for myself. What do you think? Do you guys give yourselves pep talks? Do you writers out there write your winkies?
I rather like that phrase, that call to arms: WRITE YOUR WINKIES!
I wonder if Chase would mind?
It’s a little ritual I have: to take a day near the end of April of beginning of May, stock up on chocolate and skim milk and read a mystery from start to finish. I started the practice decades ago during college. I’d finish my last exam but because I worked with housing, I couldn’t leave until everyone else went home. So I’d take a new pack of Oreos and a gallon of milk to my room and crawl into bed and read. Sometimes I’d read several books in as many days. These days, I’m lucky to get in one. But it’s a treat.
So this year I read Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I never plan ahead what I will read on the magic day–I just go to my shelf and pick the book that calls to me from my “I’ll Read This Someday” shelf. I knew only my mother liked it (she’s a pretty good book recommender), that the author had died young just after delivering the manuscript to his publisher, and that it is the first of a trilogy (evidently he delivered all three to his publisher before he died). Oh, and it’s been an international sensation.
Well, I certainly liked it well enough to read the whole thing in one day. It’s written as many popular thrillers are–with quirky characters cast into a strange land, with cliffhanger endings at the end of most chapters, with private troubles and local social troubles and humanity-level troubles all intermingling. That’s all stuff I strive to do in my own books. I’m alway happy to see how someone else does it. And I loved his characterization–such a varied group of people, each depicted in strong ways. I don’t want to give too much away by talking about it–but studying how he brought people to life as quickly as he did was useful to me.
*** Mild spoiler alert. I don’t tell you anything about the mystery plot but I do mention some of the events of the book, so if you don’t want to know anything, don’t read any more.
***
***
The only thing I didn’t like was the level of sexual violence against women in it–the graphically represented stuff. Now take that with a grain of salt, oh readers! I’ll just remind you all–I’m a terrific wimp. I have a very strong reaction against this sort of thing. Even network television flips me out. I know bad things happen and it’s even okay with me if they happen in books and movies and television. But I’m the sort who like to have suspense built and then suggestions made. Probably because I grew up watching Alfred Hitchcock movies which still are some of the scariest things ever made. Suggestion engages my imagination. Graphic representation just freaks me out.
But that’s me and not most everyone else on the planet, I know. And as that sort of thing goes, this novel is mild. I will read his next book one day, but I wouldn’t move it to the top of my list.
A young friend told me I had to check out this book for a new take on recording life. I can’t stop re-reading it.
Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty.
You may not recognize her name, but I’m willing to bet you’d recognize some of Maira Kalman’s art if you checked out her website or her visual column “And The Pursuit of Happiness” on the New York Times blogsite (where I believe this book originally appeared in monthly segments). Her Presidents’ Day piece on Abraham Lincoln takes a subject that many of us think of as a dull assignment for a listless middle school essay and makes it sing with beauty and meaning. Which is what her book does as well with the things many of us take for granted.
Kalman opens this memoir of a year with, “How can I tell you everything that’s in my heart” next to a painting of a dodo and further musings on extinction. It’s hilarious, touching, and true. She shows how the stuff of everyday life contains magic. Even if you feel that you have no drawing ability (like me, though I love to do it anyhow), this book will inspire you to look more carefully at life. Plus you get the bonus of studying her art.
Great inspiration for journalers, memoirists, and folks who just want to look at their worlds with more curiosity and appreciation.
How did I miss this book for so long? Have you missed it too?
It offers breath-taking wisdom on the meaning of life, choosing hope in the face of suffering, dignity, and humor. It also offered great material for a writer considering how to enrich characterization.
Viktor E. Frankl’s tiny book, Man’s Search for Meaning, first appeared in 1946. Though it tells the tale of his experiences in concentration camps (four!), it uses those experiences to call each of us more fully into ourselves and into the significance of our own lives. Barely 150 pages, the book illuminates Frankl’s experiences and the theory of human psychology he developed as a result of them. These theories offer encouragement to all of us. For instance, Frankl claims that often it is a ”difficult external situation which gives man the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself.” He urges people to view life’s difficulties as calls to develop inner strength. “One could make a victory of those experiences, turning life into an inner triumph.”
It might sound dull, to say this book is both memoir and treatise on psychology, but I found it anything but. As a person interested in human spirit and spirituality, I resonated with the idea that all people must strive “to find a concrete meaning in personal existence.” As a writer, it gave me oodles to think about in terms of character development. Because I write mysteries that include a lot of social drama (even though might seem humorous to readers, it often isn’t to the characters!), my characters–Lonnie Squires especially–are often asking themselves how they are going to endure the painful circumstances of their lives. Frankl helped me understand that for most people, it’s discovering a Why that helps them endure the How. Good food for thought for everyone suffering social oppression. Heck, good food for thought for everyone.
I like to read more than one book at a time. Unless it’s fiction. I can only read one novel at a time, but I can have several nonfiction books, art books, books on creativity going at once. They all mix in my head in terrific ways. And for the last several weeks, even as I’ve been looking at my other Spring Breezes books on writing, I’ve had the great pleasure of looking at Lynda Barry’s What It Is (Drawn and Quarterly 2008).
“Looking at” describes the experience more than “reading.” Perhaps “absorbing” is an even better word for my relationship with this book. It’s almost indescribable. Barry does with images–collage, painting, lettering–what we normally see people trying to do with words. She wonders about things like memory and creativity and what images are and where it all comes from within us. She gives terrific lessons for how to write in more effective and meaningful ways. And she gives it to you through your right brain.
I felt the book moved through three basic parts: her musings on the big ideas behind creativity of all kinds, her writing instruction, and a section reproducing some of her notes from her own writing process.
Some years ago (how many? I can’t remember!) I had the great experience of taking a one-day workshop with her and it changed my writing forever. I use a technique or two I learned from her at some point in nearly every workshop I lead. If you ever have a chance to take a class with her, do it! In the meantime, check out this book.
This week I checked out Bill O’Hanlon’s Write is a Verb: Sit Down. Start Writing. No Excuses. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2007.
A lot of “how to make yourself sit down and write” sorts of books exist out there and more than a few grace my own shelves. No matter how many of them you’ve read, liked or disliked, O’Hanlon’s book is worth a look for three big reasons.
First, his approach is not to tell you what you should do to make your writing life more energetic and prolific. Instead he tells you how to figure out for yourself what will work for you, your personality, your lifestyle, your habits and context and fears and so forth. Makes a lot of sense, given that O’Hanlon’s “real” job is as a therapist. Though he’s clearly also a writer, with more than twenty published books under his belt. So, if you’re up for working out your own plan–and doing the little bit of honest assessment of your life and personality required along the way–you’ll get a lot out of it, I think.
Second, the book comes with a DVD which has some nifty and worthwhile stuff on it. A video of an hour of O’Hanlon’s workshop. Sure, it mostly repeats what’s in the book, but I’m a firm believer in multiple learning styles in every person, and I know that reading material and watching material puts that stuff in at least two different places in my brain. More stores to draw information from in the future. The DVD also includes four of O’Hanlon’s podcasts and I liked them well enough to head to website to see if I can find more. Finally, the disc includes all of the worksheets from the book so you can actually print them if you want to. Multiple times. As one who never fills out in-the-book worksheets, I thought this was terrific.
Third, and perhaps most important (and so congratulations to all of you who read this far!) is the information on approaching editors and agents and how he packages it. Most of us have heard of the importance of good marketing information in any book proposal we write. Well, O’Hanlon spells out exactly what this means and how important it is. He calls it “platform.” How can YOU help market the book–and how many people can you reach? Don’t have your own podcast? Consider putting one up. Haven’t had media training? Maybe you should get some. And if all that sounds too much too tackle, O’Hanlon gives some creative and surprising suggestions for using the contacts you have–that you may not even have thought of as “contacts”–to build the platform agents and publishers so desperately want to see in a potential book. This alone was worth the price of the book to me.
Check out O’Hanlon’s website too.
