A record number of people turned up for my first book discussion in this series. I thought it would be one of my last events in Silver Spring, as so few people had been showing up for author appearances lately. And I was having trouble finding new people to come to Silver Spring and talk on interesting topics, though the folk singers always draw a crowd. So do the dancers.
This book discussion on Udozinma Iweala's book, Beasts of No Nation, was scheduled months ago. Some people who came had read it, and one called it a "tour de force" which it is. As it's a book discussion, not an author appearance, and I had been so busy with the Burma thing, I had not made an attempt to find or invite the author. Maybe I should have, maybe not. Anyway, C. was so kind as to remember the first book discussion I did there about two years ago, on Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red and his other super novel, Snow. And that was scheduled right at the time when Pamuk was undergoing his trial for "insulting Turkishness." Two people from the Turkish Embassy showed up and were very vocal, and hotly denied the Armenian genocide, but I gave the last word to a librarian who had read all of Pamuk's books. That seemed only fair. Pamuk went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature a year later.
This time, C. said "Did you see the article about this guy's father in The Washington Post this morning? A nurse that his father had an affair with extorted money from his father," but has now lost the case.
http://saharareporters.com/www/news/detail/?id=431
I don't believe "the sins of others" father, mother etc. have anything to do with the children, and moreover I don't believe even the life of authors has anything much to do with a fictional novel.
So I said, "It will sell more books." L. said, "They are selling well already."
Good, because it's a mighty good book and it draws attention to the problem of child soldiers in Africa and elsewhere. A few days ago Human Rights Watch published another report on child soldiers in Burma.
Iweala's Beasts of No Nation is written in an invented English that is charming and lyrical, all in the present continuous tense. M. said as she was reading the book, she got so absorbed she started talking the same kind of English herself.
That happens to me every time I read a good book, by a writer with a distinctive voice. I don't speak "the new language" aloud but I start to sound like the book I am currently reading when I write or talk to myself in my head, which I think everyone does all the time.
That's why it is so important to read appropriately while writing something. Some read only 16th century literature when writing a novel set in the 16th century.
I hope the Iweala family can put this all behind them, they truly sound very gifted, and that Uzodinma keeps writing.
Something I did not know before, the novel was developed from his Harvard Masters capstone. I did notice he thanked Jamaica Kincaid.
I did not know Kincaid taught at Harvard.
What do the rest of us who aren't in our twenties and not in an MFA program with a mentor willing and able to help us do?
I guess the answer is just keep on writing and sending out work.
A good book is the best revenge.
Copyright Kyi May Kaung
This book discussion on Udozinma Iweala's book, Beasts of No Nation, was scheduled months ago. Some people who came had read it, and one called it a "tour de force" which it is. As it's a book discussion, not an author appearance, and I had been so busy with the Burma thing, I had not made an attempt to find or invite the author. Maybe I should have, maybe not. Anyway, C. was so kind as to remember the first book discussion I did there about two years ago, on Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red and his other super novel, Snow. And that was scheduled right at the time when Pamuk was undergoing his trial for "insulting Turkishness." Two people from the Turkish Embassy showed up and were very vocal, and hotly denied the Armenian genocide, but I gave the last word to a librarian who had read all of Pamuk's books. That seemed only fair. Pamuk went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature a year later.
This time, C. said "Did you see the article about this guy's father in The Washington Post this morning? A nurse that his father had an affair with extorted money from his father," but has now lost the case.
http://saharareporters.com/www/news/detail/?id=431
I don't believe "the sins of others" father, mother etc. have anything to do with the children, and moreover I don't believe even the life of authors has anything much to do with a fictional novel.
So I said, "It will sell more books." L. said, "They are selling well already."
Good, because it's a mighty good book and it draws attention to the problem of child soldiers in Africa and elsewhere. A few days ago Human Rights Watch published another report on child soldiers in Burma.
Iweala's Beasts of No Nation is written in an invented English that is charming and lyrical, all in the present continuous tense. M. said as she was reading the book, she got so absorbed she started talking the same kind of English herself.
That happens to me every time I read a good book, by a writer with a distinctive voice. I don't speak "the new language" aloud but I start to sound like the book I am currently reading when I write or talk to myself in my head, which I think everyone does all the time.
That's why it is so important to read appropriately while writing something. Some read only 16th century literature when writing a novel set in the 16th century.
I hope the Iweala family can put this all behind them, they truly sound very gifted, and that Uzodinma keeps writing.
Something I did not know before, the novel was developed from his Harvard Masters capstone. I did notice he thanked Jamaica Kincaid.
I did not know Kincaid taught at Harvard.
What do the rest of us who aren't in our twenties and not in an MFA program with a mentor willing and able to help us do?
I guess the answer is just keep on writing and sending out work.
A good book is the best revenge.
Copyright Kyi May Kaung
