Linked Stories by Gina Isabel R.

Bill Clegg, literary agent of note, writes in the NY Times on his own brushes with disaster and his recovery. His observations on our fascination with crisis and our disinterest in the aftermath or rebuilding are quite interesting:

No matter how spellbinding for the onlooker, instances of calamity are isolating experiences for those at the center. It looks crowded, but in fact it’s lonely. When fire engulfs the building, everyone stands back and watches. Even the owner must observe at a safe distance. Ambulances and firetrucks circle the mess, but only long enough to contain the demise. Then the circle breaks and everyone goes home.

…

The story of recovery is less visible. This may have something to do with traditions of anonymity in many recovery programs. It may also be the case that the story of ruin is just simply more captivating, especially if the fall is swift and from any height.

Maybe this is why a denouement is so short?

The NY Times review of THE LAND OF DECORATION has this funny aside for those of us tasked with submitting books for CIP:

(Note to fans of the Library of Congress’s classification system: Cheating won’t help you. The Library has hedged its bets by classifying this book as both “Religious fiction” and “Psychological fiction.” The novel falls into the categories “Girls,” “Fathers and daughters,” “Good and evil” and “Miracles” too. Somehow a book featuring precise instructions on how to make people out of clay, beads and pipe cleaners has not been cataloged under “Handicrafts” as well.)

Nice to know someone out there is reading that page!

Last Sunday at NJPAC, Hal Holbrook portrayed Mark Twain in his two-hour Mark Twain Tonight! show. Twain is probably one of my favorite writers, just because of his simple, accessible humor. (Reading Huckleberry Finn in high school after hating The Red Badge of Courage may have also helped.) A NY Times article from last year had this to say:

The undisputed monarch of Mark Twain impersonators is Hal Holbrook, 85, who has played Twain going on 57 years, longer than Samuel Langhorne Clemens did. Mr. Holbrook began a successful Hollywood acting career with his one-man show “Mark Twain Tonight!” which continues to sell out theaters. (He declined to be interviewed for this article.)

Among self-described “Twainiacs” it is sometimes said that the legions of Mark Twain impersonators would be more accurately described as Hal Holbrook impersonators.

Let’s emphasize that a bit more: LONGER THAN SAMUEL CLEMENS HIMSELF DID.

Holbrook’s show at NJPAC was quite relevant to our times, touching on themes of political corruption, religious corruption, and general corruption, with that straightforward, sometimes blunt humor that is so Twain. Afterward, I found it remarkable that I thought him so funny, despite the fact that he was not bombarding me with one-liners, irony, inside jokes, etc., the mile-a-minute humor I’m used to - and frankly demand - from modern-day comedians.

Catch Holbrook on YouTube here.

Last Tuesday, I had the pleasure (how overused, right? let’s say a moment of raspberry-vodka-infused kismet) of seeing Davy Rothbart and Rosecrans Baldwin read from their respective soon-to-blow-your-face-off books My Heart Is an Idiot and Paris, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down. They read together at the Russian Samovar on West 52nd St. as part of the FSG Reading Series. [Note: In the interest of transparency (take that, politicians!), I admit I do work part-time at FSG, but that in no way should hamper your feeling of having your face shredded after reading their work.]

Davy Rothbart: Founder of Found Magazine, who has also done pieces for This American Life. The basic premise of Found Magazine is that readers will send in letters or notes they’ve found, like, you know, on the streets, to give us a peek into strangers’ lives. Davy read a few found pieces, as well as a surprisingly funny personal piece about growing up with a deaf mother (somehow, the fact that it was humorous made it all the more real and moving, proving my formula: humor + sincerity + undercurrent of pathos = brilliance). Davy is an excellent reader, something I can’t say about many writers, and now my list of writers I could listen to all day long has increased to two people (the other person being Jim Shepard). Here’s a clip I found (found!) of Davy for y’all: View via YouTube. Find his book here.

Rosecrans Baldwin: Now here’s where we get serious. Rosecrans’s new book is about  working at a Parisian ad agency while barely speaking French and knowing nothing about advertising. Sounded pretty cool - but how was I going to know this dude was legit? Luckily, I had my Russian- and French-speaking friend along with me - and she brought her friend from study abroad in France. They totally sympathized with Rosecrans’s funny, awkward stories about Paris. And I admit, as a Latina who’s had to navigate the kiss-on-the-cheek ritual across different cultures (and had to deal with French waiters snapping Bonjour! at me in Paris like they were trying to teach me something), I appreciated his take on le bis. It was…so true.

My formula works again - humor + sincerity + …pathos? - that’s all you need!

And some good company. And some raspberry-flavored vodka.

Slate Book Review has a fascinating review of By Blood by Ellen Ullman, although what struck me the most was the review’s brief though sharp examination of the obstacles inherent in incorporating modern technology in stories:

Here’s one example from the review:

But By Blood’s treatment of identity has more in common with the milieu of classical tragedy (Electra wondering what’s happened to Orestes, Oedipus blithely unaware of the identity of the man he killed at the crossroads) than with the world of Facebook, where reunions with lost family members are as simple as clicking “Friend”—hardly the stuff of drama.

So true. Where will the drama be, then, in future narratives, as we start to lose more and more of the mystery in the world?