Month: October 2005


Reading Recap: Elliott Bay Book Company

Audience: About 35.
Anxiety index: 7 (out of 10).
Book given away: Minaret, by Leila Aboulela.
Surprise guest(s): My friend Megan C., whom I haven’t seen since grad school.
No. of Moroccans who said hello:2

One of my favorite bookstores in the U.S. is the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle; it was a special treat to have a reading here. In addition, bookseller Rick Simonson has been very supportive of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (going as far as to give copies of the book to people coming through town) so I felt I was among friends when I arrived. On top of that, the Arab Center of Washington co-sponsored the event, and they did a wonderful job getting the word out.

I read from the middle of the book, the first scene in “Better Luck Tomorrow.” One of the most pleasurable parts of readings for me is the Q&A–I’m always interested to hear what people have to say. This time, I had a couple of questions about the choice of writing fiction in English. Even though it isn’t my native language, it is the language in which I function–I communicate with it, I read in it, I think in it. After a few years of living in the States, I found that my fluency in my own native language wasn’t at the level where I would want it to be in order to write well. Now, the strange thing is that when I write my characters, I hear their dialogue in my ear in Arabic, and so the challenge for me is to write in a way that I can retain the rhythm of the Moroccan language as well.

Later, I did some shopping at the store, picking up a copy of Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire trilogy, on Rick’s recommendation. It provides a Latin American view on the making of the New World, through short vignettes describing major and minor historical events of the 15th century onward.



False Starts

I wanted to apologize to readers who’ve gone to Barnes & Noble to look for Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and weren’t able to find it. There was a glitch in the chain’s computer system; the release date was listed as November 7th instead of October 7th. I’m told that this has been corrected, and Hope should appear in those stores within the next few days. You can also, of course, order it online from B&N.com.

Meanwhile, Borders is experiencing some shipment delays. The cartons of books didn’t leave the warehouses in time to make it to stores by the official release date of October 7th. This, too, is being fixed. So, if you normally shop at Borders, try your store again in the next few days and you should find it. Or go to Borders.com.

And of course you can always find the book at all independent bookstores and online retailers.

I want to thank the many readers who’ve brought this to my attention. You guys rock! I appreciate your support very much. In fact, I’d like to give a free, autographed copy of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits to the first reader who sends me an email with the subject line “HODP” and a street address.

Update: Todd C. from Vermont gets the signed copy.




Booker Prize 2005

Despite the persistent rumors that Julian Barnes’s Arthur and George would win the 2005 Man Booker Prize, the award last night went to John Banville’s The Sea. There’s lots of coverage in the British press. The Times, for instance, provides a glimpse of the judging process:

The chairman of the judges, Professor John Sutherland, described The Sea as “a masterly study of grief, memory and love recollected”. He hailed the quality of Banville’s writing: “You feel you’re in the presence of a virtuoso. In his hands, language is an instrument.”

But he acknowledged that the melancholic subject-matter made it a “slit your throat novel” which was perhaps too difficult for some readers – and some of the judges. Professor Sutherland had to cast the deciding vote after the judges were split at the end of their one-hour judging session between Banville and Ishiguro.

“There were six novels that were all good – and then a bloody guillotine is coming down on your head in an hour. The discussion could have gone on for three days. There’s something abnormal about these novels competing. It’s very sad that you have to have a gladiatorial combat to get people to read good novels.”

Over at the Independent, Boyd Tonkin throws a hissy fit over the choice of Banville.

Yesterday the Man Booker judges made possibly the worst, certainly the most perverse, and perhaps the most indefensible choice in the 36-year history of the contest. By choosing John Banville’s The Sea, they selected an icy and over-controlled exercise in coterie aestheticism ahead of a shortlist, and a long list, packed with a plenitude of riches and delights.

And that’s just the nice part. He’s pretty pissed at John Sutherland, the chair of the judges, whom he accuses of distorting the views of fellow judges back in 1999. Read the full piece here. For a radically different take, you can also hear from the winner himself, in this BBC report:

Banville said: “Even if I’d lost I’d still think it was a good year for the Booker. It’s been a good year for fiction.

“It’s nice to see a work of art winning the Booker Prize – whether it’s a good work of art or a bad one, it’s what I intended it to be.

“I’m very encouraged that people have responded to a book that’s very carefully crafted.”

We know at least one reader who is ecstatic about the win. You can also read Mark Sarvas’s interview with Banville, conducted just a few weeks ago, over at his blog: Part 1, part 2, and part 3.



Caz Profile

The New Zealand Herald has a profile of Caryl Phillips, whose intriguing new novel, Dancing in the Dark, is a fictionalized account of the life of Bert Williams, a West Indian actor who made a fortune performing in blackface in the early 1900s.

The Faustian nature of this bargain intrigued Phillips, who has written about race and identity his entire career. “The more I read about him, the more I thought to myself: what on earth was he thinking?” Phillips takes a sip of lemonade and cringes. “I mean, what on earth would make somebody go against the grain � and continue to perform and embrace the mockery of this image?”

Some of the answers can be found in Dancing in the Dark, which turns Williams’ life into a three-act of novelettes. The first section describes Williams’ journey to the stage. The second introduces his rise to fame, his weakness for drink, his sexless marriage, and the problems that developed with his African-American co-star, George Walker. In the final section, Williams has a short, lonely ride at the top, a stranger to everyone, including himself.

On a related, but non-fictional front, I recently received an advance review copy of Mel Watkins’s Stepin Fetchit, a biography of Lincoln Perry, the actor who made a name for himself in the 1920s and 30s by playing Uncle Toms and other figures of comic relief for white America. I haven’t gotten to it yet (still buried under a pile of assignments) but hope to read the new Caryl Phillips novel at the very least.



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