You may have heard from, oh, I don't know, the Time Magazine cover or the Vogue profile or the rave reviews or the Picoult/Weiner spat or the author video where Franzen says he doesn't like author videos or the fact that the President of the United States was spotted with it..... anyway, you might have heard that Jonathan Franzen has a new novel out today, his first since THE CORRECTIONS, and it's a pretty big deal.
I haven't yet read FREEDOM, but from the early reviews this novel is everything that our Internet-manic, high concept craving, supposedly dumbed down culture is not. It "[deconstructs] a family’s history to give us a wide-angled portrait of the country as it rumbled into the materialistic 1990s." (NY Times) It explores "the unresolved tensions, the messiness of emotion, of love and longing, that possesses even the most willfully ordinary of lives." (LA Times).
You can't exactly Tweet a summary of what this book is about. Whether you like Franzen's books or not (as you can probably tell: I'm a big fan), it's a novel that punches a gaping hole through the remarkably persistent idea that the publishing industry, and the culture as a whole, is only interested in high concept schlock and the lowest common denominator.
On the other hand, FREEDOM, in its bigness, in its You Must Read This To Be a Thinking Person in America, is already a novel of the times - the big books getting steadily bigger, accumulating hype with gravitational pull, and then there's everything else fighting for attention.
We seem to be a culture that is simultaneously craving books that fit our exact specifications at the same time that we want the shared experience of reading something, loving it, and sharing that experience with our friends (virtual and real life). Culture seems to be moving two contradictory ways - fracturing into ever-smaller niches at the same time that it's coalescing around a few massively popular books and movies. We normally think of the blockbusters in terms of James Patterson, Suzanne Collins, and Stephenie Meyer, but even in literary fiction you have your FREEDOMs and OSCAR WAOs.
And in a still further sign of the time, even though Franzen once said of his disdain for novels in e-book form, "Am I fetishizing ink and paper? Sure, and I'm fetishizing truth and integrity too," FREEDOM is available for sale as an e-book simultaneously with the hardcover.
What do you think? Will you be reading FREEDOM?
Blog: Nathan Bransford (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: E-books, Amazon, Literary Fiction, This Week in Publishing, Barnes and Noble, E-Readers, Future of Publishing, page critique, Add a tag
Thissssssssss Weeeeeeek... InPublishing
Page Critique Friday is alive and well!! It's happening over in the Forums. You do not need to register in the Forums to check out the Page Critique thread, but you will have to register if you'd like to leave a comment. To register, just click here and it should be quite self-explanatory. Other than that it's the same as before, so stop on by.
Lots and lots of news this week, so let's get started.
First up, the most comprehensive review I have ever seen about the relative environmental benefits of e-books vs. paper books was published by Slate's The Green Lantern. The winner? E-books on every count, provided you read more than 18 books on an iPad and 23 books on a Kindle. Even on chemicals/metals, often cited as a problem with e-readers, the Green Lantern judged the side-effects of producing ink more harmful than the metals that go into e-readers. Worth a read.
Random House and agent Andrew Wylie have settled their standoff over the rights to backlist e-book titles that Wylie had announced would be exclusively published by Amazon. In the end, Random House and Wylie came to terms, and the e-books will be published by Random House after all. Word this morning is that Wylie and Penguin are negotiating as well. Bloomsbury publisher Peter Ginna has a great analysis of some of the implications. While early reports tended to characterize this as a "win" for Random House, Ginna points out that it really depends on the deal that was struck (and the ones yet to be struck).
In further e-book news, PWxyz spotted a good explanation from Wired about the economics of e-book pricing, another e-book domino has fallen as Laura Lippman's brand new bestseller is selling more e-books than hardcovers, there's a color e-reader called the Literati coming, the Wall Street Journal took a look at the reading habits of e-book readers (hint: they read more), Seth Godin made some publishing waves as he said in an interview that he will no longer publish the traditional way (citing the frustration of the long wait and filters of traditional publishing), and oh yeah, the NY Times had an article about digital devices and learning and attention spans but I've already ohmigod how awesome was Project Runway last night????
And yeah yeah news news, what about e-books and author revenue? Well, Mike Shatzkin has a really great post explaining how the royalty ma
Blog: Evil Editor (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Inspirational, Literary Fiction, Add a tag
Guess the Plot
Jesus, Mo and Cheese Puffs
1. Jesus is a Puerto Rican immigrant living in New York. Mo is his neighbor and drinking buddy. Together they have a dream to transform the snack food industry.
2. Mo and his wife Flo pack the car with Cheese Puffs and head for sunny California so Flo can get plastic surgery from a TV doctor. Along the way they meet Angel, a homeless woman who tells them about Jesus. Will Angel renew their faith, or will they give her some Cheese Puffs and tell her to get lost?
3. Jesus and Mo are middle grade Vampyres without a care in the world . . . until their school cafeteria, trying to meet strict new healthy lunch regulations, adds garlic to the Cheese Puffs. Hilarity ensues.
4. Being Jesus means you can hate but you can't show it. Mo is God's relative but God smat him and threw him into the cheese puffs. Jesus goes back to woodworking, which he likes very much. The puffs, 12 of them, wander the desert until it rains. They melt, Jesus stays a carpenter and Mo becomes Moses.
5. Mo smokes one bowl too many, sending him on an epic crusade for Cheese Puffs. When he opens the bag of cheesy airy goodness and discovers a puff in the likeness of Christ the Savior, a moral dilemma ensues as he considers whether to sell it on eBay.
6. When Jesus Christ appears at Mo's door seeking a bed for the night, Mo is only too happy to oblige. If this doesn't get him into heaven, nothing will. But Mo regrets his hospitality the next morning when he wakes to find Jesus gone and the entire bag of Cheese Puffs eaten.
Original Version
Dear Evil Editor,
When Flo Brown wins $40,000 from a scratch-off lottery ticket it’s vanity that propels her to agree to a cross country trip with her husband Mo. [If it's Mo's idea to take the trip, one wonders if it's Mo who's the vain one.] In no time at all, Flo packs, and is ready to go. She and Mo plan to drive from Indiana to California so she can have one of those “TV doctors" do plastic surgery on her mangled eye. It’s with this premise in mind that she and Mo pile in the car along with extra bags of cheese puffs. [Be specific: Is she looking to hire Dr. Taub on House, or the doctors on Nip & Tuck? Are they packing regular cheese puffs or the crunchy kind?]
From the get-go, their trip is anything but ordinary. Their first stop is at a bitty gas station where the clerk directs them to a favored diner. There they meet a young family with twin toddlers and a broken-down car. Mo, having been a mechanic in Vietnam offers to help. Flo goes with Kendy, the mother of the twins and her toddlers [The twins are the toddlers. Just say Flo goes with Kendy and her kids to the park. ] to the park. What Flo doesn’t know is Kendy is Mo’s granddaughter, but at this point, neither Flo nor Mo knows she exists. [So far you haven't backed up the claim that the trip is anything but ordinary. The granddaughter bit is unusual (in fact, is sounds like a one in a trillion chance), but no one kn
Blog: Starting Fresh (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: literary fiction, Hatchette Book Group, Anita Shreve's A Change In Altitude, Add a tag
Valerie and Hatchette Book Group are sponsoring a giveaway of 3 copies of Anita Shreve's A Change in Altitude. I heard Anita Shreve talk about A Change in Altitude during the Boston Book Festival last October and am very excited to host this giveaway!
About the Book:
Margaret and Patrick have been married just a few months when they set off on what they hope will be a great adventure-a year living in Kenya. Margaret quickly realizes there is a great deal she doesn't know about the complex mores of her new home, and about her own husband.
A British couple invites the newlyweds to join on a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, and they eagerly agree. But during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.
A Change in Altitude illuminates the inner landscape of a couple, the irrevocable impact of tragedy, and the elusive nature of forgiveness. With stunning language and striking emotional intensity, Anita Shreve transports us to the exotic panoramas of Africa and into the core of our most intimate relationships.
About the Author:
Anita Shreve began writing fiction while working as a high school teacher. Although one of her first published stories, "Past the Island, Drifting," was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1975, Shreve felt she couldn't make a living as a fiction writer so she became a journalist. She traveled to Africa, and spent three years in Kenya, writing articles that appeared in magazines such as Quest, US, and Newsweek. Back in the United States, she turned to raising her children and writing freelance articles for magazines. Shreve later expanded two of these articles — both published in the New York Times Magazine — into the nonfiction books Remaking Motherhood and Women Together, Women Alone. At the same time Shreve also began working on her first novel, Eden Close. With its publication in 1989, she gave up journalism for writing fiction full time, thrilled, as she says, with "the rush of freedom that I could make it up."
Since Eden Close Anita Shreve has written eleven other novels: Strange Fits of Passion, Where or When, Resistance, The Weight of Water, The Pilot's Wife, Fortune's Rocks, The Last Time They Met, Sea Glass, All He Ever Wanted, Light on Snow, A Wedding in December and, most recently, B
Blog: Guide to Literary Agents (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Literary Fiction, Successful Queries, Breaking In (Writer's Digest), Add a tag
This new series is called "Successful
Queries" and I'm posting actual query letters
that succeeded in getting writers signed with agents. In addition to posting
the actual query letter, we will also get to hear thoughts from the agent as to why
the letter worked.
The 34th installment in this series is with agent Michelle Brower (Folio
Literary) and her author, Michele
Young-Stone, for the literary fiction novel, The
Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors (April 2010).
Dear Ms. Brower:
Please consider representing my novel, The
Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors.
A literary novel, The Handbook... spans nineteen years in the lives of the
two main characters (Becca, born into privilege in 1969, and Buckley, born into poverty
in 1959), and suggests that people, however disparate, are linked. The 400-page narrative
encompasses multiple themes, but ultimately the book is a story of redemption.
Buckley, whose mother is struck dead by lightning, writes a nonfiction handbook, The
Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, excerpts of which appear throughout the
novel. Becca, a repeat lightning strike survivor, buys Buckley’s Handbook through
an ad in the back pages of a magazine. Becca and Buckley, destined to collide, meet
during a massive electrical storm where there is a surprising reversal of fortune.
Structurally, the novel tells Becca’s story, then Buckley’s—the tension mounting until
the two meet.
I am a thirty-four year old MFA fiction graduate My screenplay Spotting Normal was
a 2003 semi-finalist for the Chesterfield Writers Film Project Award and a 2004 finalist
for the CineStory screenwriting award. My story “Cop Drag” was a finalist in the First
Annual Lewis Nordan Fiction Contest sponsored by Algonquin Books. My second screenplay, Paint
Spain With Bart, was a finalist in the 2006 Screenplay Festival Contest sponsored
by InkTip. I am currently halfway through my second novel.
Let me know if I may send you the first 100 pages or the full manuscript.
All Best,
Michele Young-Stone
Commentary from Michelle
Blog: Guide to Literary Agents (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Literary Fiction, Agent Advice (Agent Interviews), Add a tag
"Agent Advice" is a series of quick interviews with literary and script agents who talk with Guide to Literary Agents about their thoughts on writing, publishing, and just about anything else.
This installment features Lisa Bankoff of ICM (International Creative Management).She is seeking: literary fiction, some women's fiction, some mainstream fiction, and narrative nonfiction written by journalists.
GLA: How did you become an agent?
LB: I was an assistant at ICM and learned by paying attention and asking questions. I was very motivated and wanted to somehow be part of a book's genesis, an act of creation that still astounds me, one thin page after another adding up to a thing of heft and consequence.
GLA: What’s something recently released that you’re excited about?
LB: A recent novel which has a special place in my heart and has sold very well and yet no one seems to have heard of is Laura Kasischke's In a Perfect World. Two others on the cusp of publication: A Fierce Radiance, by Lauren Belfer (June 2010) and Adrienne McDonnell's debut novel The Doctor and the Diva (July 2010).
And a very special and unique work, nothing else like it, is David Lipsky's road trip with David Foster Wallace, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself.
GLA: You specialize in literary fiction. What draws you to this unique category?
LB: If by literary we mean writing that's assured, intelligent, distinctive, sometimes playful and wry, and never boring, then the question becomes how could I not be drawn to it?
GLA: I would imagine literary fiction isn’t the easiest thing to sell. Is it getting easier or harder as time goes on?
LB: It's head-banging hard on some days; on other days, it's the one thing editors can't get enough of—and those are the truly great days.
GLA: Two of the first fiction authors I looked up of yours were Elizabeth Berg and Claire Cook. It seems like many/most of their books could be classified as women’s or upmarket fiction. More than just “literary fiction,” do you find yourself gravitating toward upmarket fiction with women protagonists?
LB: What they share is a talent for capturing the voices and concerns of women with whom many readers identify; their characters feel familiar but in a good way. It's fair to say that upmarket fiction with female protagonists finds me; it's not that I'm on the prowl for it.
Blog: Starting Fresh (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: How Clarissa Learned to Fly by Connie May Fowler, literary fiction, Hatchette Book Group, Add a tag
Welcome to the Book Blog Tour of How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly by Connie May Fowler!
The blurb:
Set amidst the lush pine forests and rich savannahs of Florida's Northern Panhandle, this is the story of one woman whose existence until now seemed fairly normal: She is thirtysomething, married and goes about her daily routine as a writer. But we soon learn that ghosts, an indifferent husband, and a seemingly terminal case of writer's block are burdening Clarissa's life. She awakes on the summer solstice and, prodded by her own discontent and one ghost's righteous need for truth, commences upon a twenty-four-hour journey of self-discovery.
Her harrowing, funny, and startling adventures lead Clarissa to a momentous decision: She must find a way to do the unthinkable. Her life and the well-being of a remarkable family of blithe spirits hang in the balance.
In How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, Connie May Fowler once again demonstrates her keen abilities as a storyteller. A remarkably original and empowering novel about an unexpected midlife awakening, it will resonate and be discussed for years to come.
Review:
I admit that when I read about Clarisse Burden in her large, well cared for and beautifully proportioned house with a husband frolicking with nude models in the garden, I didn't sympathize with Clarisse. I kept wanting her to get angry and kick the deadbeat out of her house!
But as Clarisse's personal history, wit and personality unfolded, I slowly sympathized and could understand why she didn't call her husband on his ludicrous behavior. Albeit, I kept hoping that she would. Getting to know Clarisse - her kindness and generosity to the young reporter, her wry internal voice, and interest in her surroundings - helped draw me in.
Once I got into it, I thoroughly enjoyed How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly. Clarissa's voice is smart, observant, and a little sad. As she focuses on other people and their stories, she becomes engaged and you see how Clarissa was able to write stories that touched people's lives. If you're looking for an unusual absorbing read, I highly recommend How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly.
ISBN-10: 0446540684 - Hardcover $23.99
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (April 2, 2010), 288 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
About the Author: Connie May Fowler is an essayist, screenwriter, and novelist. She is the author of five novels, most recently, The Problem with Murmur Lee, and a memoir, When Katie Wakes. Her 1996 novel, Before Women Had Wings, became a bestseller in paperback and was adapted into a successful Oprah Winfrey Presents movie. She also founded the Connie May Fowler with Wings Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding women and children in need.
Thanks so much to Miriam, Henry, and Hatchette Books Group for this review opportunity!
Blog: Starting Fresh (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: literary fiction, Pocketbooks, Thomas Steinbeck's In the Shadow of the Cypress, Add a tag
Welcome to the Book Blog Tour of In the Shadow of the Cypress by Thomas Steinbeck.
The blurb:
In 1906, the Chinese in California lived in the shadows. Their alien customs, traditions, and language hid what they valued from their neighbors. . . an left them open to scorn and prejudice. Their communities were ruled -- and divided -- by the necessity of survival among the many would-be masters surrounding them, by struggles between powerful tongs, and by duty to their ancestors.
Then, in the wake of a natural disaster, fate brought to light artifacts of incredible value among the Monterey coast: an ancient Chinese jade seal and a plaque inscribed in a trio of languages lost to all but scholars of antiquity. At first, chance placed control of those treasures in the hands of outsiders -- the wayward Irishman who'd discovered them and a marine scholar who was determined to explore their secrets. The path to the truth, however, would prove to be as tangled as the roots of the ancient cypress that had guarded these treasures for so long, for there are some secrets the Chinese were not ready to share. Whether by fate, by subtle design, or some intricate combination of the two, the artifacts disappeared again. . . before it could be proved that they must have come there ages before Europeans ever touched the wild and beautiful California coast.
Nearly a century would pass before an unconventional young American scientist unearths evidence of this great discovery and its mysterious disappearance. Taking up the challenge, he begins to assemble a new generation of explorers to resume the perilous search into the ocean's depth. . . and the shadows of history. Armed with cutting edge, modern technology, and drawing on connections to powerful families at home and abroad, this time Americans and Chinese will follow together the path of secrets that have long proved as elusive as the ancient treasures that held them.
This striking debut novel by a masterful writer weaves together two facinating eras into one remarkable tale. In the Shadow of the Cypress is an evocative, dramatic story that depicts California in all its multicultural variety, with a suspense that draws the reader inexorably on until the very last page.
Review:
In the Shadow of the Cypress is an unusual and engrossing read. The book is told from three points of view: that of Dr. Charles Gilbert, a professor at Stanford University in 1906, that of his contemporary, Dr. Lao-Hong, a Harvard-educated Chinese who takes an active role assisting the Chinese community, and that of Charles Lucas, a graduate student at Stanford in the present. At the center of the book is a mystery of unique Chinese artifacts that were first discovered in Northern California in 1906, at a time that Chinese immigrants are marginalized.
The novel begins with the narrative of Dr. Charles E. Gilbert, a professor of marine biology at Stanford. As Gilbert describes life in Northern California during the early 1900s, he sympathizes with the local Chinese as they face open discrimination and attacks on China Point. Gilbert learns about the discovery of unique Chinese artifacts and his fascination with the mysterious artifacts leads him to a great mystery.
Then the novel the impact that the artifacts have on the local Chinese community from the point of view of Dr. Lao-Hong, a contemporary of Dr. Gilbert's. Dr. Lao-Hong is a Harvard graduate and well respected member of the Chinese community. Born, raised and educated in America, Dr. Lao-Hong often shares
Blog: Starting Fresh (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: literary fiction, women's lit, Hatchette Book Group, Kim Wright's Love In Mid Air, Add a tag
The blurb:
A chance encounter with a stranger in an airplane sends Elyse Bearden into an emotional tailspin. Suddenly, Elyse is willing to risk everything: her safe but stale marriage, her seemingly perfect life in an affluent Southern suburb, and her position in the church. As Elyse embarks on a risky affair, her longtime friend Kelly and the other women in their book club begin to question their own decisions about love, sex, marriage, and freedom. In the end it will take an extraordinary leap of faith for Elyse to find -- and follow -- her own path to happiness.
Review:
I enjoyed Love In Mid Air. Elyse is the lead character and although her failing marriage to Phil and her love affair with Gerry are critical and these relationships move the action forward, Elyse's friendship with Kelly is just as significant to the novel. It's the camaraderie and friendship of the different women in the book club, despite their small differences and occasional rivalries that made the characters come alive for me.
It's the dialogue that sets Love In Mid Air apart. Elyse's internal dialogues are a delight - the biting wit had me shaking my head and smiling at the same time. The book deals with infidelity, love, happiness, and the sacrifices we each make in our journeys towards self fulfillment.
ISBN-10: 0446540447 - Hardcover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (March 29, 2010), 320 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
About the Author, courtesy of the publisher:
Kim Wright has been writing about travel, food, and wine for more than 25 years and is a two-time recipient of the Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Writing. Learn more on Kim Wright's site at http://loveinmidair.com/home/
Thank you so much to Miriam and Hatchette Book Group for this review opportunity!
Guess the Plot
The Milky Way, China Poison
1. Gillian wants to start a new life, so she takes a job with a Chinese dairy, only to discover that her company's milk contains poison. She could speak up, but in China, whistleblowers tend to die young. Maybe Gillian should have started her new life in North Korea.
2. Ten years ago, Jade fled her abusive marriage. Now she's China Poison, semiprofessional wrestler, desperate to win the big cash prize at the Milky Way rumble. But she'll have to wrestle with more than her opponents when she's reunited with the daughter she was forced to leave behind.
3. In 2065, “undesirables” have two choices: life in a brutal institution, or euthanasia, known as “China Poison.” Autistic Anne Miller and her best friend, paraplegic Jake Wilhelm, are determined to find a third option. And they do—at the end of an astonishing, history-making trip to the stars.
4. Journalist Krissa knows something is wrong with the candy bars she's been getting at the dollar store. When she uncovers the Chinese plot to dump plastics and toxins in the flavoring, she knows she's got the story of a lifetime. But will she live to tell it?
5. The broad they called China Poison was bumped off behind the Milky Way Drive-in. I figured the husband for it. Big brute with a face like a wet ham. Then somebody shoots him and the coppers find the gat—with my prints on it. I'm Nick Lugman. And I'm in a whole lotta trouble.
6. With a dead soup-kitchen chef and a trail of candy bars leading to an independent bookstore, homicide detective Zack Martinez knows two things: astrology should be shelved after alchemy, and the mutton-chopped homeless man hiding in the stacks isn't interested in memoirs.
Original Version
Dear:
Re: The Milky Way, China Poison - 38,000 word novella
The rear ender launched the large coffee over Gillian Heath and now she’s going to be late for her job interview. A position in Asia, Shenzhen, PRC. She’s trying for a new life. She couldn’t look at her son’s bedroom door, shut on the empty room anymore. Gillian received the proceeds from the sale of her house an hour ago.
The guy who smacked into her jumps out of his car to see if she’s hurt. She’s not but her silk dress and shoes are covered with coffee drops and streaks.
The man responsible for the wreck blurts out she smells wonderful. His small talk is not going well. He learned he has cancer an hour ago.
“Quit smelling me!” she spits at the moron. Gillian drives to her interview after the terse exchange of information.
Parked, she changes into her wrinkled gym clothes in the car and schlumps to Reception where she convinces the receptionist she has an appointment and isn’t delivering sandwiches.
“Nice to see you again,” Tom Wells, GM, extends his hand and grins at her. She fights off the urge to swing at him but takes the hand. It’s the moron. He’s interviewing her. [You're telling us the entire book. We don't need so much detail. Basically, Gillian is having a bad day. Tom is having a worse day.]
Gillian is running mach five into a new l
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: NY10, alvina ling, literary fiction, Add a tag
Many editors want to hit the sweet spot of a combination of both literary and commercial.
HOLES by Louis Sachar is a good example.
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: NY10, alvina ling, literary fiction, Add a tag
Alvina Ling, Senior Editor, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Alvina's main love is literary fiction.
But what is it?
(A general definition from Alivina) Literary fiction focuses on the character, where commercial fiction generally focuses on the plot.
In the adult world, literary fiction is a genre, but not in the children's book world.
A great example of literary fiction is FIREGIRL by Tony Abbott.
Literary fiction doesn't have anything to do with how well a book is written.
Posted by Jolie
Blog: Becky's Book Reviews (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: adult fiction, literary fiction, Christian fiction, 2009, CFBA Blog Tour, Add a tag
Samson, Lisa. 2009. The Passion of Mary-Margaret. Thomas Nelson Publishers. 313 pages.
"My sisters, if I began this tale at the end, you would know my heart is full of love even though nothing went as planned. I could tell you God's ways are not ours, but you probably know that already. And I could tell you that his mercy takes shape in forms we cannot begin to imagine, but unless you walked in my shoes for the past seventy years, you could not feel the mercy I have been given."
I'll be honest, I was skeptical about this book right from the start. While it hooked me--intrigued me enough to keep reading--I wasn't sure I was liking what I was reading. It had this other-ness to it. This off-putting (to me) flavor where I wasn't quite sure what to think of it, what to make of it. It is a roughly told story that is all-a-scramble. Within a chapter, the narrator might have touched upon four different years with little or no transition. She might be seven, fifteen, forty-two, and seventy-three all in the same chapter. Which, as a reader, I just found confusing. But the story, while its framework may have left me desiring something more straightforward, was without a doubt compelling the majority of the time. The story of Mary-Margaret from birth to death was an interesting one, a compelling one. Raised by her grandmother, she knows that her mother was raped and died giving birth to her. She's known from childhood that she wants to be a religious--a sister. She grew up believing that Jesus was her husband. That she was his bride. Her faith in Jesus is one thing that's undeniable. How she goes about it, well, that's up to you to decide. (You see, Mary-Margaret sees Jesus, hears Jesus, talks to Jesus, has tea with Jesus.) But despite all that otherness about it, part of me liked The Passion of Mary-Margaret. Mary-Margaret was told by Jesus to marry Jude, a drug addict, a prostitute (sleeping with men and women, whoever will pay), a diseased man. A man she more-than-liked as a kid, but a man whom she doesn't trust or respect much since he's taken a different path as an adult. But Jesus tells her he has a plan. She needs to marry this man one way or another. And so she goes about wooing a man who's seen and done it all. What is God's plan in all this? Mary-Margaret finds out one day at a time. What I loved about this one--probably the thing that surprised me most--was how this woman stepped out in faith and chose to see a man as God sees him. Not as all the mistakes he has made, not all the ugliness of his sins, not all the brutality and rawness of his attitude and character. But as a man whom God had chosen to redeem. She saw him through Jesus' eyes. And through Jesus' eyes, he was beautiful. Not that God was done with him, not that God was content to let him stay addicted to drugs, walking the streets, selling his body and soul for a cheap or not-so-cheap fix. But Jesus saw what the man would be. And that is something. So for that alone, I recommend this book. This book looks at hard issues in life--drugs, sex, sexual abuse and molestation, shame, pain, suffering--and it does so as honestly as it can be done.
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
If you're reading this post on another site, or another feed, the content has been stolen.
Guess the Plot (Sorry, too lazy this morning to reduce this to only five fakes.)
Kharon
1. Khoughing with khonstant khatarrh, the khalico khitten Kharon seekhs a khure. A riskh-filled qhuest khoncludes with the akhuisition of a khodex khontaining the recipe for the khure--khoded in Khufic.
2. When Karen Cooper holidays in Greece, she little imagines that helping the weary old ferryman she meets will lead to an unexpected change in her career, her life, and her name.
3. King Khoran has serious girl trouble. Everybody wants to be the Queen. The whole country's loony, he can't get a moment of peace. So he sails away in search of his long lost cousin, Rolligar, former crown prince who scrammed and is rumored to be hiding out on some remote island in the South Seas.
4. Six young mountaineers set out to climb a remote peak in the Himalayas, and soon become lost. They're so lost, they slip through time to a wild ancient frontier and are captured by a force of axe-wielding yakmen who decide to sell them to Alexander the Great's army as entertainers. Will the Emperor appreciate line-walking and rap music?
5. The ferryman of the river Lethe, smitten by the shade of a waifish Goth girl, breaks all the rules by returning with her to the world of the living, only to find that she's happier in the gloomy underworld.
6. Twins Karen and Sharon find a mysterious sequined dress at the thrift shop. When they make themselves matching bustiers from it, they are transformed into the superhero Kharon, and the whole double-dating thing gets even more complicated.
7. A beautiful woman with a red evening dress and a broken-down car, a barking dog, twin midgets, a "magic wand," and a sullen cook with a limp -- these are all out of place at Willows Manor -- but were they part of the jewel heist of the century or the murder of aged billionaire Pasha Parma? It's Mike Kharon's job to find out -- if he can stay ahead of the masked bandit long enough to discover the truth!!
8. In the ancient land of Yofflia, a thin little prince nicknamed "Grasshopper" seeks enlightenment down by the fishing hole. When a winsome damsel comes skipping along with a basketful of muffins, will he toss off his crown and say yes?
9. College freshman Karen Smith learned belly dancing, changed her name to Kharon, splashed herself all over the internet, and started handing provocative photos to foreign MBA students, which soon brought her to the attention of Sgt. Jones, vice squad officer. Then a Russian oil mogul's heir disappeared, leaving Kharon's chocolate-smeared picture as the only clue. Now homicide detective Zack Martinez knows he must find Sgt. Jones -- before he kills again!
10. Kharon believes his demise is imminent. Sure, he's innocent, but that doesn't appear likely to halt his execution . . . until a group of vigilantes who believe in his innocence rescue him from jail. Now, with the help of a monk, a circus contortionist, and a dwarf, he must prove his innocence without being re-arrested.
11. Ferrying the dead was boring, until the day that thug Kharon took over for his cousin Charon. Will the Underworld ever recover? Also, a talking flute.
12. Kharon hated his Mom and hid Dad and his little brother, but could he have murdered them? The GPS unit in the computer chip located in his brain says he was at the skate park at the time, but does it tell the whole story?
13. When one of her classmates disappears from campus, Camden suspects Kharon of kidnapping her. Kharon suspects that Camden suspects him, and Camden suspects that Kharon suspects that she suspects him. The big question is whether Kharon suspects that Camden suspects that Kharon suspects that Camden suspects.
14. All her life, Kharon Jones has grown up with that lousy name. When her family moves to a new town, she gets a chance to become popular and admired. However, her arch rival Britancy Broadships has other plans and the battle of the blonds is engaged.
Original Version
Dear Evil Editor,
Going away to boarding school is like getting a new life. I mean, you practically show up wet, cold, and with a freshly snipped umbilical cord or something. It's a pretty big change when you're fourteen.
Sometimes things suck. Like roommates. Especially when your roommate hates you. Or when she says messed up stuff like, "your parents don't want you anymore. That's why they sent you here."
You know that's total crap. Except somehow it gets in your head. So when that butt-munch roommate leaves herself open to the best prank ever, you'd totally take it, right? [What would you take? The prank? I'd say "You'd totally go for it, right?"] Yeah you would. I did. [You did? Is this an autobiography? A cry for help? Do I need to arrange a rescue?]
But I probably shouldn't have. Because instead of getting even with my roommate, I ended up scaring the crap out of this girl named Jamie, who was pretty fragile to start with. Now she's gone. Official word is she went home voluntarily. In the middle of the night. And left all her stuff. Including her wallet. Rumor mill says she killed herself, and that prank I pulled was what sent her over the edge. Everyone hates me. If the rumors were true, I'd hate myself too.
But the thing is, I'm pretty sure all those people have the story wrong. There are a lot of secrets here on this campus when you shut your mouth and open your eyes. The big one is that Jamie was stolen. I just don't know how to prove it. And last night, I'm pretty sure the guy who stole her figured out that I know something.
Kharon is a literary novel, complete at 70,000 words. It could be described as The Secret Life of Bees meets Five People You Meet in Heaven, [If you were gambling that I've read those, you lose.] with thematic focuses on the search for identity and redemption.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
[Title Explanation (not part of query): Kharon is the name of the man our heroine (Camden) believes is involved with the disappearance of students from campus.]
Notes
Okay, first a brief discussion of whether it's a good idea to write a business letter to an editor in the persona of a fictional character. If it paid off with any frequency, everyone would be doing it. There'd be query letters starting off like these:My leg? It got bitten off by a whale. The name's Ahab. Most guys would retire from whaling once they were down to one leg, but not me. I'm gonna find that whale and put a harpoon in his side, preferably before he eats my other leg.
Call me Silas. Yes, I'm a hulking albino. What of it? It so happens I got involved in a tale of intrigue that will shock the Christian world. That I'm a hulking albino is beside the point. Stop staring at me!
Possibly there are agents who would find this clever, though I suspect if they took you on they would rewrite the query letter before submitting to editors. I'm guessing your book is in first person, Camden's POV, and you want to work her voice into the query. But the voice is there, even if you change "I did" in paragraph 3 to "Camden did," and use 3rd person the rest of the way.
In 1st person, you lose the voice in the last paragraph. It should be more like: Kharon is a 70,000-word book I wrote about what happened that semester at boarding school. In 3rd person you can go ahead and talk about the bees who go to heaven if you must.
Here's something in 3rd person that's not much different from your version:
Going away to boarding school is like getting a new life. You practically show up wet, cold, and with a freshly snipped umbilical cord. It's a pretty big change when you're fourteen.
Also, roommates suck, especially when they hate you and say messed up stuff like, "Your parents don't want you anymore; that's why they sent you here." You know that's total crap, except somehow it gets in your head. So when that butt-munch roommate leaves herself open to the best prank ever, you'd totally go for it, right? Yeah you would. Camden did.
But instead of getting even with her roommate, she ended up scaring the crap out of this girl named Jamie, who was pretty fragile to start with. Now she's gone. Official word is she went home voluntarily, in the middle of the night. Right. And left all her stuff? Including her wallet? Rumor mill says she killed herself, and that prank Camden pulled was what sent her over the edge.
But the thing is, all those people have the story wrong. There are a lot of secrets on the Oberon campus when you shut your mouth and open your eyes. Camden can't prove it, but she's pretty sure Jamie was kidnapped by this guy named Kharon. And she's pretty sure that Kharon thinks she knows.
Kharon is a literary novel, complete at 70,000 words. Thank you for your time.
The way the query reads in 1st person (with a few changes) might be a good way to start the book, an intro to the plot. Here's how The Catcher in the Rye begins:If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They’re quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They’re nice and all - I’m not saying that - but they’re also touchy as hell. Besides, I’m not going to tell you my whole goodam autobiography or anything. I’ll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out and take it easy.
In other words, the main character's voice as he announces that he's about to tell the story of a certain period of time. (Not having seen how your story does open, I'm not suggesting you switch to this, just saying it reads like an opening might.)
If most of the characters are about 14 years old, is there a reason this is a literary novel as opposed to YA? Most adults, having been 14 at one time, are aware that there's not much going on in a 14-year-old's head that they care about. It also sounds like a mystery or a suspense novel.
Kharon doesn't have much query space, considering the book is named after him. Should we know a little more about him?
Guess the Plot
All the Way to Amen
1. Katherine is having trouble forgiving the man who killed her only child in a grisly murder--until she realizes through prayer and a spiritual journey that she's made a few mistakes in her life, too.
2. Sunny Pristeen knew she was saved, until the day she let Beauregard Tauchss pull her drawers down in the choir loft. Actually, that would have been OK--Bo was like, really dreamy--except that slimy Luther Lupin saw them and made Sunny pay for his silence in the same coin. He kept his word though, and Sunny thought her prayers had been answered--until the next full moon rose above the horizon.
3. Little Lulu Landry has never managed to keep her eyes closed the entire prayer. Tonight she's determined to make it all the way to amen. But her pesky kitty cat, Lucifer, has other ideas...
4. Tommy and Gina have been dating for two years and they still haven't had sex because Gina was raised a good Catholic girl and she always says her prayers. Tommy doesn't mind Gina living on her prayers but he would like to get into her pants. Now that he's discovered an "Incantation de Concupiscere" can he persuade Gina to go . . . all the way to Amen?
5. Herman's head is bowed, and he's praying -- that he doesn't accidentally emit a snore. If he can just last until the service ends, then he can nap before the game. But it's toasty inside, and his eyelids feel like bowling balls. And now his wife Annie is giving him the Glare Of Hellfire...
6. Spike Thornby must stand in the grass under a full moon and pray aloud in a heartfelt and inspiring manner before his crush, Linda May, will consider his proposal, but -- woe! Interruptions galore! Fierce dogs, howling fathers, wayward robbers, and someone who may or may not be St. Jerome or the hobo from Toledo, disrupt Spike's recitations with such regularity May is doubtful he will make it . . . all the way to Amen.
Original Version
Dear Agent:
If someone murdered one of your loved ones—and not just any loved one, but the love of your life, your son—could you forgive the killer? [Yes, just as I feel certain he'll forgive me when I hire a hitman to take him out.] That is the predicament Katherine Wainwright faces in All the Way to Amen.
This story analyzes the concept of forgiveness. [You're losing me. I don't want to read about philosophy; I want to read about grisly murders.] Katherine Wainwright is an affluent woman who loses her son to a grisly murder and ultimately forgives his killer. [That sentence just rehashes the first paragraph.] Her spiritual journey forces Katherine into gut-wrenching self-examination, a process with which I believe many readers will identify. Katherine has done many things throughout her life that garner forgiveness [I don't see "garner" as the right word here. Possibly you're going for "merit" or "warrant" or "deserve," though it's not up to her whether she deserves forgiveness. I'd go with "beg."] including a one-time tryst with her brother-in-law that produced her son, a fact that doesn't surface until many years after the boy's death. This imperfect woman who once lived a life trying to exude perfection must learn how to forgive herself before she can forgive others—especially the man who took her son from her. [Who am I to cast stones at this man who committed a grisly murder when I once had fantastic sex with my sister's husband? (Or was it her husband's brother?)]
Many people gain satisfaction from watching the privileged endure hardship; however, I feel readers will cheer Katherine's return from despair as she becomes a more self-actualized and compassionate human being. The central theme of All the Way to Amen is pertinent in today's society of self-absorption, impulsive litigation and where vengeance, rather than forgiveness, is often considered the next reasonable step. I believe this book will appeal to women ages 30 to 55, especially mothers, and at 65,000 words it is paced for a quick and easy read. [You make it sound like you purposely cut it down to 65,000 words as a favor to the readers. I'd like to think it's 65,000 words because that's how long it was when you got to the end, not because you wanted it to be quick and easy for us.]
(I give my bio info and publishing history here)
Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Notes
I believe many readers will identify [with the process].
I feel readers will cheer Katherine's return from despair.
I believe this book will appeal to women ages 30 to 55.
Believe it or not, it doesn't matter to the editor what an author believes about her own book. This stuff isn't as bad as the claims that the book will sell millions of copies or make a great movie, but the editor can decide how the book will affect readers and to whom it will appeal. The best way to convince us to read your book is not with themes and societal importance; it's with a compelling plot. Thus:
Is the murder in the book? Does Katherine discover the body? Is there a confrontation between Katherine and the murderer? Does the murderer get away with it? Does she look for the murderer, hound the police, visit him in jail? Is there another key character? We want to know what happens. I'm not sure she doesn't sit around reflecting on her life for 65,000 words.
3. As a hurricane blows in, Mae Wong and her crew of burly lifeguards dash along the beach trying to convince the last drunks to board the rescue bus to Kansas, but that diabolical gang known as the Weather Underground hovers nearby in an underwater sub -- preparing to unleash the full power of their Nuclear Vortexicating Implodimatic Blasticon! Will our heroes save Sandbar Bob in time?
4. When rich heiresses start finding their lost poodles washed up on the sand, everyone knows masked Detective Sgt. Bud Frickenshaw must find the Fiend Feline of Beach Boulevard -- before the pesky kitty kills again! But what about beautiful Evelyn Smith and her missing butler? And those surfboards the Jackson twins can't find???
5. Anaheim, California: a city where dreams go to die, where the cheap motels, bars and strip joints suck up more than their fair share of people. Detective Zack Martinez doesn't work here, but when the daughter of his second wife's new husband winds up dead outside the Matterhorn Bar, he knows he'll have to get involved.
6. Rathbone Surcote has a dream: to replace the white sand of SoCal with blacktop and organize the bitchenist race circuit in the world. Standing in his way is a militant organization of surfers, a group of environmentalists concerned about a bunch of terminally ill whales, and riptides capable of washing entire packs of competitors out to sea. But when a beautiful urban planner realizes there may be a way to ease congestion in the city's major arteries by routing traffic to the shore, Rathbone realizes he may have a chance.
Original Version
Little nine years old Sonny Lacroix carved his sling shot from a single piece of pine wood. It was a beautiful work of art for a nine year old boy. He worked for days to carve its Y shape, and then spent another few days sanding its rough edges to perfection. It felt so good in his hand; so smooth. Who would ever think that such an innocent child's toy as this could set up a sequence of events which would have generations-long consequences for so many? [And yet when Sonny shoots an acorn at a chicken, who mistakenly assumes the sky is falling, it's not long before planet-wide war breaks out.]
Beach Boulevard is not just the story of star-crossed loves [as you might have assumed from my opening paragraph]; at a deeper level it asks the fundamental questions of faith: Can each of us survive life's inevitable suffering, without faith? If you have real faith, must it be tested?
Beach Boulevard as told to us by Rudy Lacroix begins in the early forties on Beach Boulevard in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. It was a conservative time and place. The action in Beach Boulevard [What action? So far there's been no action except the three-day whittling of a block of pine into a Y shape.] moves to Los Angeles during the late fifties and sixties. We experience many changes through that era of cultural upheaval. Finally, matters resolve [What matters resolve? There've been no matters.] with a surprise ending back where we started: On Beach Boulevard. [The surprise is that something finally happens.]
Coming in at 85,000 words, Beach Boulevard is a Literary Fiction novel which allows each reader to answer those questions for herself. [What questions?] My name is XXXX XXXXXXX and I wrote Beach Boulevard for the mature audience.
Notes
The only part of this that isn't vague is the building of the slingshot, but we don't care how meticulous the kid is in carving and sanding his toy. We're willing to listen to one sentence telling us what he does with his toy that sets the story in motion, but after that we want to know who the characters are and what their goals and obstacles are. In other words, the plot. When and where aren't especially important. Who and what and why should be your focus.
Whose faith is tested? Who's suffering? Why does the story move to Los Angeles? Tell us something about the main characters. Tell us why we would want to read their story. This query doesn't provide any information about your story. Start over.
Guess the Plot
Semiprecious
1. Jewell drifts from man to man: a Vietnam vet, a rock musician, a used car dealer, a right wing Christian. This may explain why her four daughters, Ruby, Emerald, Pearl and Jade, are so different. When Jewell is killed, can the girls draw on each other's strengths as they make their way into adulthood?
2. Habbard G'Lana, King of Huylandia, has four daughters: Opal, Jasper, Agate and Aventurine. He summons Princes of all lands to compete for their hands in marriage. But will an assassination attempt, a murder, and the sudden appearance of a dragon derail the happy event? Also, a hunchbacked wizard.
3. When all the other girls got assigned their jewel names for their coming of age, Heidelleine got Quartz. Not Beryl, or Lapis or some other respected semiprecious stone, but the common quartz...thus dooming her to a life of common labor in the high tech manufactory. But when she meets Jayson Obsidian, together they make...The Tool of Endor!
4. Daughter #1 was "Precious", so what nickname did dad come up with for daughter #2??? Semiprecious. And that is why 90 pound weakling Jane Melrose is slinking through the dark alleys of Brooklyn in search of a drug dealer, when voila! She meets a hunky dude in a bat suit! Will they get a burger and fries? Or heroin for two?
5. When Gollum's evil twin Gomer learns that the ring of power has been destroyed, he sets out to locate a plastic ring he once found in a Cracker Jack box, dubbing the trinket his . . . Semiprecious.
6. Open-road trucker Chuck Watson has always called his semi "Precious." But when the other truck drivers at Big Mama's Truck Stop see him talking to his rig and kissing its hood, Chuck gets a ribbing like never before. Can he regain his self-respect by winning the National Truck Roadeo?
Original Version
Dear NAME,
I am writing to introduce you to my literary novel, Semiprecious, for which I am currently seeking agency representation.
A family saga running from 1972 through 2004, Semiprecious is a journey into the blue-collar upper Midwest, where the paper industry steadily churns trees into noxious smoke and the corner bars are neon-lit havens of working class camaraderie though [through] the long, bleak winters. At the novel's center is freewheeling matriarch Jewell McQuinn, an irrepressible frizzy-haired blonde determined to live a life a million times bolder and happier than her mother's ever was. Often seeing herself as a the star of her own TV show, Jewell spends decades drifting across central Wisconsin with a cigarette in hand, hopping from adventure to adventure, job to job…and man to man. Over the years, she becomes involved with a haunted Vietnam vet, a local rock musician, a used car dealer, and even a right wing Christian keen on changing her sinful ways.
Out of these relationships come children: four daughters uniquely affected by their mother's unconventional lifestyle. Growing up inhaling her secondhand smoke, encountering her half-dressed boyfriends in the middle of the night, and exhilarated by the escapades they share with her, Jewell's daughters each develop their own methods of survival. Ruby, the eldest, is chronically embarrassed by her mother [yet exhilerated by her escapades?] and, in response, angrily champions all things traditional and conservative. Her sister Emerald, meanwhile, idolizes and emulates Jewell's rebellious spirit. Pearl, sensitive and pensive, retreats into quiet fantasy worlds--while Jade, the youngest, cultivates a cold, lovely aloofness that masks the painful secrets of her childhood. [Once you said they each developed their own method of survival, that was enough. We don't care who used which method. We want to know something that happens.] When Jewell is suddenly, violently removed from their lives one winter night in 1996, [Finally. An event.] the sisters must draw on each other's strengths as they each awkwardly stumble into adulthood.
But while Semiprecious is largely the story McQuinn girls' relationship to their mother, it is also very much the story of their relationship to the "mother" city they grow up inside. Most of the novel is set in Pawlaw, Wisconsin, a fictional city based on my hometown (Wausau, WI) and infused with just as much northern Fish Fry Friday culture and pioneer logging lore as the real place. [I don't care to read about the McQuinn girls' relationship to Pawlaw and its fish-fry culture. Not in the query anyway.] Like the McQuinn sisters, Pawlaw, too, experiences growing pains while moving toward the new millennium, as the Hmong immigration explosion of the mid-1980s forces a 99% white small town population to readjust its norms and attitudes. [If we put the first phrase last, this would make a great entry in our next bad analogy exercise: Pawlaw experiences growing pains while moving toward the new millennium as the Hmong immigration explosion of the mid-1980s forces a small town population to readjust its attitudes . . . like the McQuinn sisters.]
Narrated in a third person omniscient voice with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor throughout, the full manuscript of Semiprecious runs 54 chapters, 584 pages. I have enclosed the first chapter ("Opening Credits") for your review. If you are interested in reading further sample chapters or the entire manuscript, please contact me and I will happily forward you additional material. I have enclosed an SASE for your response.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Notes
There's some nice writing in the query, which can't hurt your cause, but the query is too long. I'd dump the Pawlaw paragraph entirely. You can also eliminate the following paragraph. Add the word count to your first paragraph. Page and chapter count don't matter. Word count shouldn't matter either, as 50,000 words that are mostly dialogue will fill more pages than 60,000 words that are mostly action and description, but word count is what everyone hitches their wagon to.
Using your page count, I conclude that your book is over 140,000 words. I don't see how you can hold our attention that long without leaving central Wisconsin, but if you can, some mighty interesting stuff must happen to these characters, and you need to provide some examples in the query instead of the lengthy descriptions of each daughter's personality.
Perhaps the book should end when Jewell dies, and the story of the gems can be the sequel. That'll shorten it considerably, and if we cut out the growing pains of Pawlaw, that's another 20,000 words saved. See how easy that is?
I would choose a main character and focus on her. Not Jewell if the book runs eight years after her death. One of the daughters. The one who's you, if one of them is you. Otherwise maybe the eldest.
I'm not sure how we reconcile the claim that Jewell spends decades drifting across central Wisconsin with the statement that most of the novel is set in one city.
I'm not crazy about Jewell naming all her daughters after gems. Possibly I'm the only person who would find it hard to like a character who found that idea cute.
The two references to Jewell's smoking aren't needed in the query.
Blog: Editorial Ass (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: sales, literary fiction, Add a tag
I got the following note a couple days ago.
Dear Moonrat,
A couple of months ago, my literary novel was published by a major trade publisher. I have a rough idea of how many copies I've sold, but not how that compares to my publisher's expectations. What constitutes good sales for a literary novel? No one will give me a straight answer.
Thanks.
Ah yes. I will give you a straight answer, because I'm a sucker, but I'm sure others will argue with me.
The opening line to this discussion is probably (of course) "It depends," but I won't insult you with that. I'll give you a number.
7,000.
If you sold 7,000 or more copies, in hardcover, of your literary novel, you're a star. (Some people sell much more, but 7,000 is a serious threshold. Who knows why.)
If you've sold between 4,000 and 7,000 copies, in hardcover, of your literary novel, you did a damned good job. You're what they call a "strong seller." You're also in a good position to place your second novel well, with your current publisher or elsewhere.
If you sold between 2,000 and 4,000 copies of your literary novel, you sold pretty strongly. You're still in a good position to have your publisher want to take on your second project, or to comfortably find a home elsewhere.
If you sold below 1,500 copies, your publisher is probably disappointed, although they will never tell you that. Instead, they will tell you that debuts are hard, and literary fiction is nearly impossible. Both these things are true.
These numbers are specific to literary fiction--"commercial" fiction is going to have slightly higher expectations behind it. Your publisher might also be happier or sadder with your numbers depending on how much they paid for your novel, but odds are, if it is in fact literary fiction, they bid with these kinds of specs in mind. But regardless of how your publisher feels, if you break the threshold, you'll still look good to other publishers.
These numbers are, of course, my opinions. I'd be interested to hear other industry professional opinions, and also reader's opinions--are you surprised? Did you imagine that fewer or more copies constituted success? (Sometimes, stuck in my ivory tower, I lose perspective.)
Blog: La Bloga (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: fiction, literary fiction, popular fiction, Zapata, Add a tag
According to Judi Clark at mostlyfiction.com, "...it can be the broadest category and in a sense is a catch all, but the intention is to list books that really draw you in with language, imagery, character insight and sense of place".
In an article in the Guardian Unlimited, Robert McCrum wrote,"What is 'literary fiction'? To many, it's the titles on the short list for the Booker Prize. To some, it's those serious-minded novels of high artistic intent by writers with a passionate commitment to the moral purpose of fiction.
To others, it's a slippery piece of book jargon. It's certainly a label that's attracted its share of critical opprobrium. 'Literary' can be synonymous with 'highbrow', but I've heard 'pretentious' and even 'unreadable'. Literary fiction is what many writers aspire to, though quite a few will also run a mile at the first hint of it, too. Every reader will have his or her idea of what constitutes such a category".
(Above quotes from an online article by Nancy Boisseau)
I have this conversation with my sister blogista, Ann Cardinal about once a month. We're both writers, both MFA people, been to writer's residencies, and learned the hard way the ins and outs of getting published. One theme we keep coming back to is the idea of 'literary' vs. 'popular' fiction. Truth be told, I'm sort of a heretic in that I feel it's a false construct, much in the same way the term 'value-free-science/history/sociology' is.
I've read that popular fiction is more concerned with plot, less with character, less thought provoking. I categorically reject this. One blurb on literary fiction really drove home the point that I want to reject: that literary fiction is equal to literary merit. There's nothing artistic, nothing popular, nothing cultural that isn't influenced by the dynamic of who's in power, who's values, tastes, mores are held up as 'norms'. How is John Cheever considered literary fiction, and Raymond Chandler not? Shakespeare in his time was the bawdy, populist, people's scribe. How is superbly crafted noir any less about alienation than Salinger? Are there puerile, self-indulgent, navel gazing books out there with little wit and heart? Of course.
But I would say that you're just as likely to find them on The New York Times best-seller list as on the sale shelves at Borders. Really, it's something that's been in my craw for a while, gente ,and so I'm opening the discussion for your two cents, too. Let's have at it!
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From "The Story of the Questions -- The Real Story of Zapata:"
"That Zapata appeared here in the mountains. He wasn't born, they say. He just appeared just like that. They say he is Ik'al and Votan who came all the way over here in their long journey, and so as not to frighten good people, they became one. Because after being together for so long Ik'al and Votan learned they were the same and could become Zapata. And Zapata said he had finally learned where the long road went and that at times it would be light and at times darkness but that it was the same, Votan Zapata, and Ik'al Zapata, the black Zapata and the white Zapata. They were both the same road for the true men and women."
From current Zapatista writing: "The man who assassinated Zapata, Colonel Guajardo, was promoted to General and given a reward of 52,000 pesos for his act, instead of being tried and convicted. After being shot, Zapata was loaded onto a mule and taken to Cuautla, where he was dumped on the street. To prove that he was really dead, flashlights were shown on his face and photographs taken. This didn't destroy the myth of his death, because Zapata could not and would not die! Like Commandante Marcos, he was too smart to be killed in an ambush. Hadn't Zapata's white horse been seen on top of the mountain? Every single person in the valley of Morelos still believes to this day that Zapata is still alive. Perhaps they are right."
Lisa Alvarado
Guess the Plot
Peyton and Isabelle
1. When their mother wearies of the 10-year-olds’ constant bickering, she sends Peyton and Isabelle away for a summer of “tough love”: three months aboard a 30-foot ketch with their eccentric aunt and uncle. Nothing but excruciating boredom looms on the horizon, until a freak squall leaves the boat dismasted and the adults disabled. Can the twins learn to cooperate? Also, an uncharacteristically aggressive pod of whales.
2. Fresh from their California wedding, brides Peyton and Isabelle arrive in Bunkyville, Kansas, to tend to Peyton’s ailing mother. Conservative locals are agog at the groom-less newlyweds. Soon a local sheriff and self-described hunk is convinced Isabelle is The One he’s been waiting for all his life, and sets out to convince her of same. Comic mayhem ensues.
3. Peyton and Isabelle
Went to Sea
In his beautiful sailing boat
They took all the money
From her murdered hubby
And left cops a suicide note
When cops come a'calling
With questions they're trawling
Will their alibi still float?
4. When painting prodigy Isabelle and football player Peyton accidentally start a fire on the fourth of July that kills four people, Isabelle believes they should turn themselves in, but Peyton guilts her into silence. Over the next two decades, Peyton finds himself haunted, not by the people he killed, but by Isabelle and her macabre paintings of burning, screaming people.
5. Peyton and Isabelle have kept their affair secret from their spouses and the nosy neighbors. But when Peyton’s brother (Isabelle’s husband) catches them in the act, Isabelle shoots him dead. Now Peyton and Isabelle are Out in the Country, On the Road to Sham-ba-la ,driving through a Canadian wilderness colder than a Three Dog Night, holding tight to the One thing they know for sure: Eli’s (not) Coming.
6. When Peyton, a pug, gets separated from his family in Hollywood, he worries about how he'll ever get home. That's when he meets Isabelle, a Latina tabby with a heart of gold and plenty of fire. Can they find his home--and will Isabelle be allowed to stay with him?
Original Version
Dear EE,
Peyton Ryder grows up coal-dust poor in the mountains of West Virginia, hunting, trapping and running wild in the woods. The summer he turns fourteen, he and his mother hitch a ride out of their dead-end hollow in her boyfriend's Dodge, hoping to find a better life in Boston.
Mad at the world for depriving him of wealth and a father, Peyton decides to climb out of poverty and never look back. When he wrangles himself a football scholarship to a private school, [With a name like Peyton Ryder, he was destined to attend a private prep school in Boston. Call it the second law of inevitability.] he works hard and fights anybody who gets in his way. To his surprise, he falls in love with a fellow scholarship student, a strangely innocent painting prodigy named Isabelle Woods. [I'm in love with Isabelle Woods, even though I know nothing about her except that she's a strangely innocent painting prodigy. And fictional . . . I gotta get a life.] [What does strangely innocent mean? Is it strange that she, in particular, is innocent? Or is there something about her particular innocence that's strange?]
When Isabelle and Peyton accidentally start a fire on the fourth of July after graduation—a fire that grows out of control and causes the death of four people—their relationship shatters. Isabelle believes they should turn themselves in, but intent on preserving his worldly ambitions, Peyton guilts her into silence. Over the next two decades, Peyton finds himself haunted less by the people he and Isabelle accidentally killed, and more by Isabelle, [and her macabre paintings of burning screaming people. Hey, I had to put it in the query or I couldn't have used it in the Guess the Plot.] who floats in and out of his life, unable to let him or her despair go.
PEYTON AND ISABELLE is a fast-paced literary novel [An oxymoron if ever I've heard one.] of 107,000 words, following the journey of a fearless boy as he becomes a successful, but constrained man, who in one moment, on the verge of adulthood, has to decide how much he is willing to give up in order to make something of himself.
Notes
Well-written, though you haven't made Peyton seem sympathetic. As the fire was an accident, I could see him as a sympathetic character who makes one bad decision, but because he's described as mad at the world, because he "wrangles" a scholarship, rather than earns it, because he fights anyone in his way, I don't care enough about him to feel sorry for him.
Two of the three plot paragraphs are background. We don't need to know about the hunting and trapping and the boyfriend's Dodge. Give a bit of background and get to the story. They start a fire that kills some people. Peyton talks Isabelle into keeping mum. And?
Don't use "mum" in your query.
What about the next two decades? Does Peyton realize his worldly ambitions, becoming rich and successful despite being haunted? Does his bad decision destroy him? Does he blame Isabelle for his ruined life? Do they finally come clean: Officer, remember the big July 4th fire that killed all those people twenty years ago? We're strangely guilty.
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Sometime ago, I met a writer who had just published her first book. I set out to read said book, really wanting to like it. I didn't. It started out with a trite situation about best friends separating when one friend was attracted to a new group of girls, leaving her old friend behind. Nothing about the writing elevated the book beyond that cliche. What I was reading was what I sometimes think of as just words on pages. I had to give up on it.
Last week I read All Alone in the Universe by Lynne Rae Perkins, which is also about a girl left behind when her best friend takes up with someone else. It is not just words on a page. It is a lovely book.
How do you explain why one writer can write something you want to read and another can't?
All Alone in the Universe is not just an "Oh, woe is me. My heart is broken" story. It is the entire story of how Debbie either was cut out by her friend Maureen's new friend or merely felt cut out. (I think the fact that Perkins raises a question in our mind about just what was going on gives the book more sophistication.) It is the entire story of how Debbie either was cut out by her friend Maureen's new friend or merely felt cut out and how she lived through that experience and came out the other side.
She didn't come out the other side better than ever. She didn't come out victorious. She just came out the other side. That's pretty much what happens to all of us when we have a bad experience. Some day we get over it. We're not necessarily better people or happier as a result of what happened to us. We're just over it.
Perkins is the author of Criss Cross, a Newbery winner I loved and Pictures from Our Vacation, a picture book of which I am very fond. All Alone in the Universe is an earlier work. Personally, I think it's not quite as accomplished. The wealthy woman and her employee don't seem necessary to me. And I didn't get the long passage at the end of the book in which the adults in the neighborhood get together at Christmas time and talk about doing things for others. I wasn't sure what that had to do with Debbie and her story. But those stumbles aren't enough to ruin the book, by any means.
Like Criss Cross, All Alone in the Universe isn't specific about its setting, but details suggest the events take place in the sixties, just as events suggest the same time period for Criss Cross. Perkins is just a master at evoking the decade of her childhood. (If Wikipedia is to be believed regarding her birthdate.) Whether child readers appreciate her sense of place in terms of time, I don't know. But as far as Universe is concerned, many children will appreciate all too well the suffering of its main character.
Guess the Plot
The Way of Dispossession
1. When an honest yet poor Nigerian actually finds $10 million US in a dead account, he tries desperately to find someone somewhere in the world willing to help him get it so he can use his ten percent share to get his dying mother a kidney transplant. Why will no one help him?
2. Alaina Gredeinian is a leader in the Sancian resistance, fighting the occupying Fredians. Her roommate Cathy Donaldson is a pacifist. When Alaina's cell blows up a major bridge in the capital city, will it put a strain on their living arrangement?
3. Allan Keanes is a financial "Mr. Fix It". When he's called into one of the country's biggest banks to help sort out their sub-prime losses, he thinks it's just a matter of foreclosure--until he discovers the money markets are in fact possessed by an evil spirit.
4. Harry knows his life is in the dumper, what with the alcoholism, the drug abuse and the trans-gender issues he refuses to face. But when his family stages an intervention with the order of the Monks of Forced Enlightenment, things get a little out of hand.
5. Adex is a mid-level demon inhabiting a 12-year-old girl in Fresno when he is unexpectedly evicted from his home by an exorcist. He finds himself in a shadow realm occupied by displaced fiends, imps, and fallen angels. Only one thing to do: Form a rock band!
6. After giving all his wealth away to a cult, Luke realizes that he has been scammed and that he will never find inner tranquility until he gets his money back. Follow him as he breaks into the cult HQ and faces the leader with only his head, hands and feet as weapons.
7. Rich, successful and empty, Daniel Piermont cannot get his life on track; everything he worked for means nothing. In a bid to find his true self, he dispossesses himself of everything he owns; but when he falls in love with Liana, he realizes happiness is more easily attained with wealth. That's when he remembers his twenty-million-dollar off-shore account in Bimini.
Original Version
Dear Almighty Evil Editor,
I am seeking representation for my novel, The Way of Dispossession.
For almost three years, the nation of Sancia has been ruled by Fredia, its neighboring country. During that time, the underground movement has worked to bring down Fredia’s oppressive regime. The story revolves around Alaina Gredeinian, a leader in the Sancian resistance; Cathy Donaldson, her roommate, a pacifist; and Terrence Harlin, her long-time friend and partner in the resistance. When Alaina’s cell blows up one of the capital city’s major bridges, the government threatens to shut down the city. [Attention, residents of the capital: we're closed. Everybody out. Oh, and it's recommended that you not leave via the western bridge.] In response, the resistance steps up its efforts to smuggle food and other supplies into the city. [Why does food have to be smuggled into the city? Surely shutting down the city doesn't mean no more food for anyone?] Alaina finds herself being run ragged [How about "runs herself ragged," or "is run ragged"? "Finds herself being" is a long way to say "is," and makes it sound like a surprising discovery.] to support this effort, and during one mission, she accidentally reveals her identity to a Fredian soldier. [In other words, she makes a Fredian slip.]
[Soldier: Halt! Who are you and where are you taking that food?
Alaina: I'm Alaina Gredeinian and . . . doh!]
She, Cathy, and Terrence are all imprisoned and interrogated, and Alaina’s family is arrested in retaliation for her involvement with the resistance.
Just before Alaina’s execution date, [Oppressive regimes shoot first, then set the execution date.] the resistance rescues them; however, they are still in danger. Ronnie Hartson, a wilderness guide, [Ronnie Hartson is no name for a Sancian wilderness guide, and Grizzly Adams is taken. How about Wolverine McGuff?] is assigned to help them get to Laucasia, another neighboring country. But hiking over mountains, relying on a chain of “safe houses,” and avoiding Fredian troops are just part of their journey. Alaina deals with her family’s arrest and the aftermath of her prison experience, which was more brutal than either of her friends’. Terrence struggles with his feelings for Alaina and her tendency to push him away. Cathy tries to figure out whether, in light of her beliefs, her minimal participation in the resistance was justified. [Also, she must deal with her unexpected crush on Ronnie Hartson, wilderness guide, right?]
Even arriving in Laucasia does not alleviate their problems. [It may not solve all their problems, but if it doesn't even alleviate them, what was the point of going there?] And when they are eventually called back to Sancia for a final attempt to completely overthrow the Fredian government, they all must confront their fears and issues head-on.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Notes
I'm not finding it that exciting, though I feel I should be. Maybe more about the rescue or the danger and less about the details. How many Fredians are they up against? How many are in the resistance? Their comrades rescue them from prison, their guide gets them to Laucasia . . . when do they do something to help the cause, and what is it? If these three people are ultimately responsible for victory, I'd rather hear about that than about how incompetent they are.
Are these three people so vital to the final attempt to overthrow the Fredians that the assault is being put off while they make their way back through a string of mountain safe houses?
If they can safely return to the capital and stay safe during the final attempt, why couldn't they stay safe after being rescued from prison? Going all the way to Laucasia only to turn around and head back accomplished what?
For some reason I find it jarring that a character named Alaina Gredeinian, a leader in the Sancian resistance, has a roommate named Cathy Donaldson and a wilderness guide named Ronnie Hartson. It's like reading a book about a high school girl named Madison and her BFF is named M'lota Larg and her guidance counselor is D'Ghor of the house of Kanjis.
You write Fredia, but I think Frieda, the Peanuts character with naturally curly hair.
Have you considered making the countries Freudia and Jungia?
Klingon names generated here.
Guess the Plot
The Kings of Box River
1. Card shark, William "Box" River, is going for an unprecedented three-peat as national Texas Hold-Em champion. His bombshell competition, Scarlet Vickens, offers a bribe: if he lets her win, he'll get lucky at love and she'll show him a new meaning to the term "all in." But is he willing to fold his hand and give up fame and fortune when he's dealt three kings?
2. The King family have lived and prospered in Box River, Wyoming for eight generations. But now the Russian Mafia has moved in, and they want a piece of the action. A big piece. Can the King family deal will this threat, or will the Otkupshchikovs become the new . . . Kings of Box River?
3. Jules would give his left eye for a drink. Artemis has been his best friend and drinking buddy since they settled in under the Box Creek bridge three years ago. As Artemis degrades into a cancer-induced dementia and ultimately death, will Jules fall deeper into his self-destructive pit, or will a spiritual epiphany set him on a different course?
4. Outside a small snack bar, near where the Alonguin River ducks between the paper mills and becomes "Box River", two old men play chess, as they have for the past seven years. Each day, chancers, crooks and business men stop by and mumble their requests for advice or money. Then, one morning with a cool frost and long shadows, Solomon doesn't show up to finish a game. That's when the violence starts.
5. The McAllisters have dominated the fishing guide trade of Box River for so long even the local Indians can't recall a time when there weren't any McAllisters on the river. But change is coming in the form of the Bassmasters series. Can the McAllisters survive, or is their reign as the Kings of Box River over? Also, an autistic Sioux boy.
6. Box, Oregon, once a bustling community, is a dying town. The mill is closed, and the mine is empty. When a drifter named King comes along, he and Liam Satler struggle to keep their world together in the face of adversity: dried up farmland, Liam's pregnant cousin and delusional father . . . and of course Jeremy, the prehistoric sea monster living in the river.
Original Version
Dear Agent,
I hope you will consider representing my 85,000-word novel, The Kings of Box River.
Box, Oregon, isn't on the way to anywhere else. Its mill has long since closed, its mine shafts grow weeds, and all that remains of its once-bustling frontier community is a handful of ranchers and the persistent legend of a prehistoric sea monster named Jeremy who is rumored to live beneath the surface of the local river.
Only seven-year-old Liam Satler, son of the town's innkeepers, [Apparently, all that's left of the bustling community is a handful of ranchers and some innkeepers. Do the ranchers stay at the inn, or is that just for tourists?] knows that the legend is true. Since the day he accidentally spotted Jeremy from his backyard, he's been determined to protect the creature from the dangerous world around it. Watching out for Jeremy is a welcome distraction from the things in his life that he can't control: his teacher's inability to understand why he's bored and distracted in school, [Could it be because no one will believe him when he says there' a prehistoric sea monster named Jeremy in the river?] his father's determination to grow apple trees in the dry soil of their yard, [Has dad given any consideration to, like, watering the apple trees?] [The well's done dried up, you say? Where can pop get water now? Wait, how about . . . Box River?] the alarming fragility of his pregnant cousin Holly. [In what way is she fragile? Is Liam the one alarmed by it?]
When a young drifter who calls himself King arrives at the inn [Is it Elvis? Look, there are two ways to put Box back on the map: discover a prehistoric sea monster, which will then be captured and taken to an aquarium, at which point Box drops off the map again, or have Elvis move in, in which case Box becomes the center of the paparazzi universe until he dies for real this time. Wait, maybe the sea monster should be Elvis, grown to such gargantuan proportions he's mistaken for a sea monster by anyone who sees him. Imagine an elephant seal with Elvis's head.] and inadvertently comes to share Liam's secret, Liam isn't sure if he can trust him. However, with his parents thinking about sending him away to school, and Jeremy becoming increasingly difficult to watch over, Liam needs all the help he can get. As the young boy and adult runaway struggle to keep their world in order, they are pushed into actions that jeopardize themselves, the people they care about, and the vulnerable creature they protect.
I would be happy to send along the full manuscript at your request. Thank you for your time and consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Notes
What's the threat to Jeremy and why are Liam and King and those they care about in jeopardy? There's no one left in town but a handful of ranchers, who are presumably on their ranches most of the time, so what does Jeremy need protection from? Who's the bad guy? We will care more about this if we know what the danger is.
What I meant was, there's no one left in town but a handful of ranchers, the innkeepers, Jeremy and his cousin, Jeremy's parents and teacher, any other students and teachers at the school, Floyd the barber, and Spongebob.
How can Box not be on the way to anywhere else when it's on a river? Don't they have boats?
Is this a book for adults? When does it take place?
Why am I thinking, "Puff the Magic Dragon"?
You're probably thinking it would make your book ridiculous to have Elvis in it, but I guarantee most people thought it was ridiculous anyway, the minute you mentioned the prehistoric sea monster named Jeremy.
Guess the Plot
The Lost Girls
1. When Tammy and June walked into the mall they expected to spend an hour showing off their ipods and braces before meeting Aunt Agatha for lunch. But soon they realized Chucky Cheese was nowhere to be found and a sinister 8th grade boy with pimples was watching their every move.
2. Fourteen-year-old Barbara feels and almost looks like an old woman. She's lived outdoors for months at a time, borne a child, and fasted excessively in search of religious affirmation. Her friend Angela is the same. Eventually they realize that the community in which they've grown up is an extremist cult. Can they recover their girlhood and keep their faith?
3. Lap band surgery and dieting have trimmed Bertha down, but her life hasn't improved like she expected. Even a new wardrobe can't take her mind off her old body. Can she come to grips with the changes of massive weight loss, or will she forever look down at her chest and mourn . . . The Lost Girls?
4. A woman who lives next door to five-year-old Maribeth and eight-year-old Lana loves the girls because they remind her of her own child who was kidnaped in a grocery store. She is so grief-stricken when they move away, she leaves her husband, and sets out to find the girls . . . and keep them. Also, a corrupt clergyman named Bob.
5. When three underfunded soon-to-be-Hollywood-starlets get kicked off the bus in Iowa, they think they might as well be stuck on the moon. Luckily they heroically save blind old Mrs. Abernathy from getting hit by a truck, and she gives them her pink Cadillac, plus gas money. But can they find LA?
6. When on a field trip to a museum, a group of girls make a break for the mega mall across the street while their teacher, Ms. Beaker, is flirting with a hunky security guard. Hilarity follows as Ms. Beaker, with the help of the guard, try to locate the lost girls in a mall full of sale-crazed shoppers while keeping the rest of the kids in tow.
Original Version
Dear Editor,
Three months after their mother leaves, their father, compelled by the voice of God, moves Maribeth (5) and Lana (8) Ostrov to Vermillion, South Dakota. [When God tells me to move to South Dakota, I start looking for a new religion.] When they get to Vermillion, the girls are taken care of by Mrs. Blumke an alcoholic, mother of five, whose refusal to accept reality puts Maribeth in danger. [Elaborate, please. In what way does Mrs. Blumke refuse to accept reality, and in what way is Maribeth in danger?]
Deepti Bannerjee lives next door to Maribeth and Lana. She loves the girls because they remind her of her own child who was kidnapped in a grocery store years ago. When the girls move, Deepti is grief-stricken. [They move? They just got there. Did their father move to Vermillion with them, or did he just drop them off at Mrs. Blumke's?] Feeling as though she lost her child all over again, she leaves her husband to find and keep them.
Pastor Bob opens the door to find Ted Ostrov standing on his steps with his two daughters. He concocts a plan to exploit Ted's blind faith and defraud his church of money, [and then he invites them into the house.] which is going perfectly until the flood comes.
The Lost Girls is a 40,000 word literary novel that tells the story of Maribeth and Lana Ostrov and their struggle to be found. [To be literally found by their father after Deepti takes them or by their mother after she realizes she should never have left them with her whacko husband? Or to be figuratively found in the nebulous fog of their batty father's delirium?]
Raised Baptist in a homeschooling family, I am the second oldest of eight children. I am currently pursuing my MFA at_______ in fiction. [Interesting. And what are you currently doing in reality?] The Lost Girls is my first novel.
Notes
Just when I was thinking this was the story of Deepti's search for and possible kidnaping of the girls, up pops Pastor Bob, and a new plot, which immediately fades into the floodwaters. If everything in this query is vital to the main story, you need better connections. If some of it is irrelevant to the main story, get it out of the query.
We don't need to know your religion or the size of your family.
What kind of woman leaves her children in the care of their father when he's clearly not all there?
I don't think of kids, especially a five-year-old, struggling to be found. I'm not sure Maribeth would be aware she was lost. Looking for a normal home and family sounds more like it than struggling to be found.
It's going to be extremely difficult to find a publisher for a novel this short nowadays. Any chance you could squeeze in another eight or ten chapters?
Guess the Plot
Maureen Pope
1. A starry-eyed nun's chance encounter in the Vatican turns into much more when she gives birth nine months later to a baby girl.
2. In a world where the demons are all too real, the daughter of the Pope gains the power of Super Prayer.
3. As a child, there had been nothing she wanted more than to be Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, but at fifty, she had to face the bitter reality: she was just Maureen, Pope of Rome.
4. She was a cross-dresser, she was a nun. And now, thanks to the liberalized rules of the New Catholic Church, she's the Pope. And man, does she have some altar boys to get back at.
5. Born and orphaned in a taxi in Belfast in 1967, she was adopted and raised by the taxi's deaf driver. She joined the IRA at twelve. Now 26, she's one of the organization's most violent and vicious leaders. When she discovers she's become pregnant, she faces choices and soul-searching she never expected. She's . . . Maureen Pope.
6. She studied the classics when she was very young. Then when she was five her mother sent her to boarding school for ten years. Now she's back, and someone's gonna pay. For something. They call her . . . Maureen Pope.
Original Version
Dear Ms. Agentname,
Maureen is a privileged child from birth. Silent and observant, she spends her time reading and studying the classics with her father, Adam. [What do you mean, "silent"? Does she speak? Can she?] When Adam dies [How?] shortly before her sixth birthday, [She was five? I thought she was studying Oedepus Rex and The Aeneid. Now I find out by "classics" you meant The Cat in the Hat and Winnie-the-Pooh.] though, her quiet life suddenly changes. Her once-vibrant mother banishes her to a far-off school, where Maureen spends the majority of her childhood. Maureen returns home nearly ten years later to find her whole world changed, [How?] and soon discovers a sinister pattern of denial, not only of the dead, [Not only of the dead? The dead are in denial? Of what? If this is a zombie book, that's your biggest selling point. Trumpet it. Change the title to I Was a Zombie's Daughter.] but of the living, as well. [Who's denying what?] She must then struggle to lay her father's soul to rest and free his exiled memory.
Maureen Pope is a literary fiction piece. It is 64,000 words. I understand that you are particularly interested in literary fiction; I think that my novel is well-suited to your tastes and hope it fits your agency's needs. Thank you for considering my submission. I look forward to your response. [Too many blah sentences in this paragraph.]
Sincerely,
Notes
I don't understand "free his exiled memory."
Why isn't her father's soul at rest?
All we have here is that a girl's father dies, she goes away for ten years, and when she returns things have changed. Not enough to go on. I, as an unusually prescient editor, can deduce that Maureen's mother murdered Adam, and his spirit can't rest until Maureen kills her mother, marries her stepfather, and finishes reading the complete works of Euripides, but most agents and editors will want the specifics spelled out in the query. I've pointed out a few places where specifics can be easily added.
View Next 18 Posts
Just got my copy today! Can't wait for the train ride home. But not so sure about its jacket.
This sounds like exactly the type of book I love to read. I've been following all the recent uproar about FREEDOM, and loved Franzen’s video. Your summary of where this fits into our culture and how it is the opposite of gimmick, however, has convinced me that I must have this book. Your statement, "...from the early reviews this novel is everything that our Internet-manic, high concept craving, supposedly dumbed down culture is not..." is what did it for me. I will be purchasing a copy of FREEDOM today. Thanks for another fascinating Blog post!
Right now, I’m reading a couple of other books, including TINKERS by Paul Harding, the indie-published book that won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction this year. How cool that, after numerous rejections from the traditional publishing industry and sticking the TINKERS manuscript in a drawer for three years, Paul Harding finally submitted it to an indie press and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. And how cool for Franzen that he can go through traditional publishing channels and have access to all the hoopla and advertising and promotion that goes with that. If we want the publishing industry to take on intelligent books and pour money into those types of books, then we have to buy those types of books and make it worth their while. I think I might just buy several copies of FREEDOM if I like it, to give as gifts. :)
I know several authors who have received personal phone calls and emails from literary agents, praising the high quality of their work, but telling them they can’t offer them a contract because they don’t think they can sell their literary manuscripts in today’s market. Hopefully, Franzen’s book, FREEDOM, will change that and give more talented authors the opportunity to succeed.
Loved the Corrections, and am currently reading Oscar Wao (and loving every minute of it).
Too much hype does tend to taint the experience sometimes---makes me feel manipulated----but both of the above are/were certainly deserving of the high praise, especially from peers.
So yep, I look forward to reading Franzen's latest in hardback and adding it to my library.
Happy to read you're a Franzen fan, Nathan. In the best of all possible worlds, good books----high concept and "other" would share equal room on the shelves.
So, what would be the two-line "elevator" speech for this book?
Every time Jennifer Weiner opens her mouth, she says something that makes me like her even more. I have only read one or two of her books but they are smart, funny, and engaging. I rather enjoy characters who don't wallow in angst ALL the time and plot threads that don't require a magnifying glass.
Oh man Nathan-
Frankly I do a lot of escapist reading, when I'm not reading in the genre that I write in. This sounds like anything but escapist. I work in a soul sucking job, that's way too much like real life. This book sounds like a big dose of downer.
Plus, I'm not crazy about the idea that "to be considered a thinking person in America you have to read this". That kind of overt manipulation turns me off. If I want to tout my intellectual prowess, I'll read Ulysses.
I loved The Corrections, so I will be reading this book. Due to the crappy economy, I will probably read it at the bookstore, in spurts.
www.momnivoresdilemma.blogspot.com
The problem in the United States is that we hate intellectuals, immediately assuming they think they’re better than us. Unfortunately, even if they have horrible personalities, it’s the intellectuals that move a country forward. Newsweek recently ranked countries for the best place to live. The United States – once considered the best place to live – only placed #11, not even making the top ten. In Education, the United States only came in at #26. Link to online interactive version of the article: The World’s Best Countries.
I read the first few pages on Amazon and my reaction was: quite a lot of backstory here and LOTS of telling. Guess there are rules for newbies and not literary lions. I mean, guidelines. There, that's the out. Silly me, thinking there are actually rules about the craft of writing.
Besides, I live in the Twin Cities and when I meet people who live on Ramsey Hill, drive Volvos and read the New York Times, I cross the street.
The comments here are often as interesting as Nathan's posts.
Marilyn Peake, thanks for the positive thoughts on this subject.
Anon 1:46--I fear you are right and getting righter. There's anti-intellectual fervor going on in the US--fueled by sociopathic corporate/political pitchmen-- that's increasingly destructive. People who lie for a living thrive in an environment of nincompoops. I fear more nincompoopery to come.
"in its You Must Read This To Be a Thinking Person in America,"
That's absurd and elitist. Sorry.
You, Nathan, personally may not believe it, but only echoing the hype the book is getting; however, if that is the hype it's getting - it's absurd and elitist. But apparently so is Franzen, so that isn't hard to believe.
Freedom arrived at the library today. By the time I posted a reservation it was backed up to next summer.
Going on the title, promotional copy I've seen, and a general familiarity with Franzen's writing, I'd venture to say the high-concept premise is the complications of freedom in Western society. Now I've got to read it to test my theory.
I'm having Amazon send a sample to my Kindle. That's why the Kindle's so great. I'll report back if I like it.
In a couple weeks people will start donating copies of FREEDOM to my library's bookstore and I'll pick it up for $2. Should be a good read.
Regarding the book's hype, I'd bet there is a better book out at the moment being completely ignored. Time has a way of making publicity exercises like this look weird.
I thought this was very generous and kind. Franzen has recommended four books written by other authors: Bestselling author Jonathan Franzen picks 4 new novels that you shouldn’t miss....
Annie R Allen,
Hey!
I am NOT a nincompoop.
I just don't like reading lit fiction. I'm still THINK about things. Just not while I'm reading. I think about things when I'm NOT reading.
I do agree that our corporate culture is bordering on the sociopathic, though. That was well put.
mumble, mumble, not a nincompoop, Im' not, mumble, mumble
I'm sure I'll eventually get around to it, but I'll wait and pick it up at the library. The hype doesn't really bother me so much, as long as it has the literary substance to back it up, which apparently it does.
Oh. I'm not sure you were talking to me.
I'm a bit defensive on this topic.
I just think that intelligence and taste in literature are not the same thing.
Let's not make is so personal. This is where literary sorts and commercial sorts really get into it.
Literary ficiton is one avenue to critical and exploratory thought.
But it is not the only avenue.
Okay, I've had my say. Thank you.
Probably not. I usually don't read novels that people are super ga-ga over (no Twilight, Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code, to name just a few).
Perhaps in two or three years. The again, still haven't read Harry Potter yet nor seen the movies.
Mira, I wasn't calling non-literature readers nincompoops!!! (I'm on team Jennifer Weiner myself.)
I was commenting on Anon 1:46's link showing the US is only #26 in the world in education.
After all the hype, I think I'm going to have to read it.
No. While I have no personal beef with Mr. Franzen, I detest the holier than thou, elitist attitude and narcissism that permeate his work. I've tried to read his books, but he bores me to tears.
No.
Im not interested in reading it for two reasons:
a) its not my genre (non-urban fantasy Fantasies).
b) Its being hyped. Hype turns me off--thats why I don't like the Superbowl, why I waited YEARS to see The Titanic and why I still to this day couldn't give two figs about Heath Ledger and The Dark Knight.
Any exhortation prefaced with an "OMG THIS IS SO EFFING AWESOME YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE/HEAR/READ/WEAR THIS!" is immediatly answered with an definite NO.
Nathan, I love reading your posts.
Please tell me what you mean by "High Concept," as you refer to it in this post.
Maybe it's my cynicism, but I tend to think of high concept as a good thing, and what you allude to I would find a bad thing.
p.shaw-
Are you referring to the post yesterday?
But basically, there's a difference between high concept and high concept shlock. High concept doesn't have to be a bad thing. But anyway I was just referring to a stereotype about culture.
Yes--it will be a while because of I have a lot on my plate that interferes with the attention a good book deserves. It took me awhile before I read The Corrections and though that was years ago, there are scenes and images I still remember. Alfred and Enid in particular resonated--I know many people like them. I became angry at the disconnect caused by Alfred's narcissism and Enid's retreat into the cruise fantasy and Christmas defined by the sad useless gifts she sends her grown children. So yes, I am very interested in reading Freedom.
As I am a college student devoted to the brick-heavy books assigned by my lovely professors who believe we have all the time in the world to work on only their classes, I must say I shall not be reading this book any time soon. :/ It shall be added to my list of Books to Read, though. :D
~TRA
http://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
My check goes in the No column. The 90's? It just doesn't sound interesting. I want a book to take me to another world, so to speak, not take me to one that I've already been to.
I'll definitely at least give it a look-see, but only after I finish all else that's on my plate. :]
Anne- I know- I'm sorry! I over-reacted.
You made a very good point.
Team Franzen
The Corrections had me with the fish in the pants chapter and the talking poop hallucinations. And that's not even talking about how great the book was.
For they corporate promoters of this product and the early reader apparatchik to succeed in creating a stir, they must honestly believe in the stories authenticity as a literary tale, and also have a heartfelt feeling that it serves as a timely arrival to the market; that it serves as a mirror of the just recent past's who, what, when, where, why, and hows; of a lot of people's generalized internal mulling, musing and generalized thinking on recent culture and family. I'll read it when it cools off to avoid an accidental Vulcan Mind Meld in the Reader-Sphere.
Franzen is a GREAT author, and the Time Cover, the Weiner dust up and Obama buying an ARC created a lot of buzz. I thought THE CORRECTIONS was brilliant, and I'm looking forward to reading FREEDOM. The excerpt in the New Yorker was so good. Franzen is a writer who marries deep feeling (real feeling, not touchy-feeling) to craft and the result is superb.
You betcha I'm reading FREEDOM. I finished THE CORRECTIONS last week and was wowed. I'm hoping FREEDOM's as slow a read (slow as in slow cooking, slow to savor every wonderfully constructed sentence) as TC.
Is FREEDOM (and Tinkers and Oscar Wao and While the Great World Spins) a sign of changing tastes, though? Who knows. Maybe the economy is finally leading people to reflect on what is important -- family, values, the simple things. We'll see. Peace...
I read The Corrections for my book club, so I'd read Freedom if it was selected for book club but probably not otherwise--although I do think he's a talented writer.
In effort to keep literary fiction alive and well, I most certainly will read it. Though I didn't like The Corrections that doesn't mean I don't like the author.
Hey Mira-
Wanted to chime in that I'm with you about smart people liking to read entertaining books, and not just lit fic. You should've seen my SAT scores! Not to mention my scary-smartypants grades. And I like my books as fun and trashynas they come.
Deconstructing society's commercialism? Class structure in a post-colonial world? Analysis of suburban isolation and loss of identity? All sound like great backstory for some horny vampires to battle sexy werewolf aliens!
But a book that's heavy on purpose, so as to " enlighten" and make people "think.". Eh, I'm not so into that.
I will eventually read it, if only to support intelligent fiction, but, like some others, I don't care for the juggernaut approach.
I also intend to check out the Jodi Picoult brouhaha.
Then again, I might forget both authors and read Ulysses.
It's funny, ironic and whatever, but I've only ever written genre fiction and (mostly) read it; but the few literary fiction novels I've read I've enjoyed as much or much more than the former. Genre tends to be too much same ol' same ol, while literary is refreshingly original and meaningful and not about something happening on a grand scale which becomes ironically boring - for me. I've hardly read anything for a few decades, though, so I'm not really qualified to judge; but that has been my impression. I go for genre because I like the fantastic and out-of-this-world, but it's not usually done well, while literary fiction about the every day world is mostly done well; it seems to me. It's the small moments in life - rather than the life-threatening escapade - that can be the most striking and memorable and what we're all more likely to experience. I hate that fantasy has become tied to sword and sorcery type things, because fantasy could lead the way in speculative fiction and be the front-runner in proposing different concepts, opinions and life-styles. Culture can't remain static. It must keep changing and evolving, so fantasy fiction is the ideal vehicle for introducing new concepts to inspire these changes. However this potential hasn't been mined to any great degree with the mostly repetitive and limited themes of the sword and sorcery focused stories.
I applaud Stephanie Meyer for introducing a new slant on the vampire genre. This is what all genre writers should be aiming for, I think.
In regards to Freedom, I'm not sure I will be reading it. I can't seem to get a handle on what it's about. I want to read stories I relate to and don't care how popular or brillant they might be.
Yeah, sure, I'll read it. I love literary fiction. It can join the books on the heaving to-be-read shelf!
I didn't know there was a "You Must Read This To Be a Thinking Person in America" list. Since I wish to be a thinking American, I WILL READ THIS BOOK! And I will NOT stop at page 14! I WILL READ THE WHOLE THING!
i'll be reading it. big franzen fan. i don't think his books are flawless, but the bits that work are pure joy. try reading some of his non-fiction too - 'the discomfort zone' has some mind-blowing passages. he's writing about real estate agents and peanuts cartoons and it's riveting. don't ask me how he does it.
he writes extensively about the place in contemporary culture (admittedly 1990s culture, when the essays were written, but much of it still relevant today) for the 'big' literary novel, the social novel. worth reading if you're interested in this particular debate.
I wasn't really aware of Franzen until this book came out. A part of me has no desire to read it simply because of having it shoved in my face so to speak. So many other books I want to read, so if I do read it, it shall be a while down the road.
Freedom is a treasure we're all engaged in. Franzen might have a different take on it. I'm in.
Yes. Definitely. I will read this and not because I'm being told to read it. I think it sounds interesting and I'd like to take a look at the "me generation" from a writer as profound as Franzen. I hope he doesn't disappoint me.
Just like my love of food (I have diverse tastes) my reading choices are also diverse. I can easily toss a Franzen into my mix. But first, I'm reading Jennifer Crusie's new stand alone, Maybe This Time. It's a nod to James' The Turn of the Screw. I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on it. today was the release day. Where oh where is UPS?
For the naysayers, in Jonathan Franzen's interview in Time, he mentions how he has to compete with the television, movies, the internet, all of it. He goes into how he tried to make sure every page kept turning, not so unlike the aspirations of the genre writers. He knows what he needs to do, and was humble but not apologetic for how he does it. It seems that all of us should be looking for more depth in him than what could be gleaned from internet blogs regarding his character. You may not like his book, but as aspiring writers as most of us are, I would hope for more thought on the topic. "Sounds boring" or "he's egotistical" are just too simple. I've been reading this blog for so long, and you are all better than that.
So, I aspire to writing as great, as concise. But I wouldn't expect everyone to like it. Nor would I expect to be loved by all. The flat characters are the ones that aren't real, in art or in life.
And just to be clear, I love literary fiction. And I love a great fun story. I ordered Paranormalcy (Kiersten White), and Freedom. The former because I follow her blog, her voice is fantastic, and I read the sample happily surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I look to different things from each one, but I read. And I love to read. There is room for everyone. Don't sell yourself short by reiterating opinions that were stale when they were initially concepted.
I am writing a story. A story that I hope you will read and enjoy. And I imagine most of you hope for the same thing. I aspire to write something that is as good as what I like to read. I don't read genre, but there are some genre writers I adore. I watch foreign films, and Desperate Housewives of NJ. And I'm sure there is plenty there to trash me for.
I wish both Jonathan Franzen and Kiersten White the best, because to be a writer and survive you have indeed succeeded. I have enough sense to know that I can learn something from both of them. And I do not believe that my writing is better or I grow stronger, by cutting down the efforts of others.
It certainly doesn't make my writing any better.
Write your story, do your best, and hope that people who should see more to the story, do.
I enjoyed THE CORRECTIONS but didn't love it, so I'll probably read FREEDOM eventually, but there are some other books I want to get to first.
For the naysayers, in Jonathan Franzen's interview in Time, he mentions how he has to compete with the television, movies, the internet, all of it. He goes into how he tried to make sure every page kept turning, not so unlike the aspirations of the genre writers. He knows what he needs to do, and was humble but not apologetic for how he does it. It seems that all of us should be looking for more depth in him than what could be gleaned from internet blogs regarding his character. You may not like his book, but as aspiring writers as most of us are, I would hope for more thought on the topic. "Sounds boring" or "he's egotistical" are just too simple. I've been reading this blog for so long, and you are all better than that.
So, I aspire to writing as great, as concise. But I wouldn't expect everyone to like it. Nor would I expect to be loved by all. The flat characters are the ones that aren't real, in art or in life.
And just to be clear, I love literary fiction. And I love a great fun story. I ordered Paranormalcy (Kiersten White), and Freedom. The former because I follow her blog, her voice is fantastic, and I read the sample happily surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I look to different things from each one, but I read. And I love to read. There is room for everyone. Don't sell yourself short by reiterating opinions that were stale when they were initially concepted.
I am writing a story. A story that I hope you will read and enjoy. And I imagine most of you hope for the same thing. I aspire to write something that is as good as what I like to read. I don't read genre, but there are some genre writers I adore. I watch foreign films, and Desperate Housewives of NJ. And I'm sure there is plenty there to trash me for.
I wish both Jonathan Franzen and Kiersten White the best, because to be a writer and survive you have indeed succeeded. I have enough sense to know that I can learn something from both of them. And I do not believe that my writing is better or I grow stronger, by cutting down the efforts of others.
It certainly doesn't make my writing any better.
Write your story, do your best, and hope that people who should see more to the story, do.
For the naysayers, in Jonathan Franzen's interview in Time, he mentions how he has to compete with the television, movies, the internet, all of it. He goes into how he tried to make sure every page kept turning, not so unlike the aspirations of the genre writers. He knows what he needs to do, and was humble but not apologetic for how he does it. It seems that all of us should be looking for more depth in him than what could be gleaned from internet blogs regarding his character. You may not like his book, but as aspiring writers as most of us are, I would hope for more thought on the topic. "Sounds boring" or "he's egotistical" are just too simple. I've been reading this blog for so long, and you are all better than that.
(Part two..aspiring to brevity?)
So, I aspire to writing as great, as concise. But I wouldn't expect everyone to like it. Nor would I expect to be loved by all. The flat characters are the ones that aren't real, in art or in life.
And just to be clear, I love literary fiction. And I love a great fun story. I ordered Paranormalcy (Kiersten White), and Freedom. The former because I follow her blog, her voice is fantastic, and I read the sample happily surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I look to different things from each one, but I read. And I love to read. There is room for everyone. Don't sell yourself short by reiterating opinions that were stale when they were initially concepted.
I am writing a story. A story that I hope you will read and enjoy. And I imagine most of you hope for the same thing. I aspire to write something that is as good as what I like to read. I don't read genre, but there are some genre writers I adore. I watch foreign films, and Desperate Housewives of NJ. And I'm sure there is plenty there to trash me for.
I wish both Jonathan Franzen and Kiersten White the best, because to be a writer and survive you have indeed succeeded. I have enough sense to know that I can learn something from both of them. And I do not believe that my writing is better or I grow stronger, by cutting down the efforts of others.
It certainly doesn't make my writing any better.
Write your story, do your best, and hope that people who should see more to the story, do.
Probably because I read The Corrections in grad school, I have a bad taste in my mouth for his work so I'll pass.
I'm definitely looking forward to reading it. I loved The Corrections. Franzen doesn't come off that well in the press, but the guy can write. Any serious writer needs to read his work.
Lyra said:
"Sounds boring" or "he's egotistical" are just too simple. I've been reading this blog for so long, and you are all better than that.
I agree. Thanks, Lyra! And I'd like to add something for everyone who's ever complained that the publishing houses don't publish enough intelligent books or the movie industry doesn't make enough intelligent movies. Movie studios base their decisions on whether or not to make a certain type of movie or hire a certain director again based on box office sales on opening weekends. Publishing houses base their decisions on whether or not to try publishing a certain kind of book again based on Amazon rank, number of weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, and other such indicators of sales figures for certain types of books. If people don’t buy intelligent books because they can’t stand what advertisers do for those books, then the publishing houses will publish more dumbed-down books for which people love the advertising practically as much as the books. (And reading library or used copies doesn’t add anything at all to the sales figures for a book, so if you can afford it, it's helpful to buy a new copy of the book to add to its sales figures. It's a matter of voting with your dollar.)
Sounds awful. And the fact that the publishing industry seems to be pushing it is definitely not a good sign.
Not something for me. Not saying it's a bad book, but doesn't appeal to me.
However, having worked in a publishing warehouse, I'd love to see the skids and skids of hardcovers racing out there a few weeks ago to all the eager bookstores...
... and in 30 days skids and skids of returns coming back to restock the shelves with said book.
Sometimes the hype just doesn't overcome what the public really ends up buying.
;)
I don't know, generally if somebody says YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK, then I become a sheep. But I also got burned this summer by "The Passage" so....
Yea, I'm going to read it.
On another note, if Picoult and Weiner don't stop calling it chick lit themselves, then nothing will ever change.
I'll order this one from the library and try to get through it like I tried to get through The Corrections. I did buy The Corrections. It was peer pressure. That year it was the book of choice here in NY and the best people carried it around to show everyone they were reading it.
I grown up a lot since then and I don't care what they see me reading anymore :)
Though I won't pay for it, I will give it a chance.
the hype has passed me by, might have something to do with not being US based. the cover, however, is stunning! love it.
I thought the prose in The Corrections was admirable, but I disliked all the characters and found the book very grim. Life's too short to read another grim book with dislikeable characters (which even some of the glowing reviews for Freedom are noting). So, no, I won't read it.
Meh, the subject doesn't really interest me. Maybe someday, if my book club chooses it as a "to read" (which they probably will, since they always like to read the books that are hyped about :P)
I read the first few pages and thought it was dreadful and dull. No thanks.
Gosh, yes! Loved The Corrections and can't wait to love Freedom too.
i am reading Freedom. downloaded it to my Sony last night at 10.30 pm when all the bookstores were closed.
Frazen is overrated. The Corrections was a boring book. Sure, the guy can write but he doesn't grab me at all. Borges said never to read a book just because a critic told you to do so. Read it because you enjoy it.
Franzen is overrated. The Corrections was a boring book. Sure, the guy can write but he doesn't grab me at all. Borges said never to read a book just because a critic told you to do so. Read it because you enjoy it.
Thanks, just looking to plug into your vernacular and viewpoint. Schlock for me needs the air quotes around "high."
Calling it the Picoult/Weiner "spat" is sexist.
Nathan,
I too read the article on Franzen in Time and became interested in reading Freedom.
Last night I downloaded a trial of Freedom (the first 86 pages) to my ipad (less than three seconds, amazing).
The point of this is that as I began reading his new book a realized that I really liked his writing style. My next thought was not that I should download the whole ebook but rather that I wanted to buy the hardcover.
There's something so much more tangible about the physical book that helps me connect with the author.
I bought the digital version of Freedom on 8/30 and it downloaded to my iPhone on 8/31. I would NEVER have bought the hardback, by the way.
I have started reading and well, so far I'm not impressed at all. In fact, I'm offended and angry to yet another Big Important Book by a white male who utterly fails to say anything true about how women experience the world. I'm hoping my opinion will change as I continue reading.
That is a GORGEOUS cover.
Daisy Harris - thanks. You do sound like a smarty! :) And I clicked your link - your books look HOT. ;)
Nathan, I re-read your post, and having gotten over my assorted insecurities, I want to say that I liked your observation about the current culture. The internet is making the world a much smaller place. On this site alone, I've talked to people from halfway across the world on a regular, and casual, basis. And I think you're right that it's causing both lots of small niche groups to form, but also a much bigger group to form, so that the BIG news gets much, much BIGGER. What that means is yet to be seen, but it's very INTERESTING.
One of the surest signs that a book is not worth reading is that the publishing industry tries to make an event out of its release.
It's analogous to the release of a Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Everyone knows it's awful so the men with deep pockets throw money at it until people try it out of curiosity just to see what all the (falsely-generated) buzz is about. Then it's deemed a success and the bland author/filmmaker gets a chance to make another piece of mediocre work. It's a sickening cycle.
There are exceptions, of course, but Franzen falls pretty squarely in the Michael Bay zone.
I only read books I like. I don't care if other people like it or think I'm not a thinking person because I don't like it.
I finally read Twilight, but only because my daughter made me. It was okay. She liked it and I'm happy for her. We both think Robert Pattinson was much cuter as Cedric Diggory though.
Fulton,
Comparing Franzen to Michael Bay is laughably ridiculous. I feel genuinely embarrassed for you. Next time, do 1-2 seconds of research before you post something so assinine.
Also, please explain how getting good reviews is one of the "surest signs a book is not worth reading."
Congrats though - yours is perhaps the most idiotic post I've ever read on this site.
hank-
Disagreement is fine, but personal attacks such as that don't have a place around these parts.
Nope, I'm allergic to pop-lit-fic Oprah-approved nonsense. Last one I tried was The Road, and I'm still trying to reacquire a good mood.
Scott, I hate Cormac McCarthy too but Franzen is excellent.
So for ONCE the publishing industry hypes a bona fide literary novel and everyone disses it because it's too hyped? That's a joke!
I will read it because he's a great writer and I loved all three of his other novels. Very few writers make me anxiously await their next work -- Franzen is one of them.
I say THANK GOD finally someone worthy of the hype is receiving it.
OK. I've been discussing this issue with myself since reading it on your blog earlier today.
I'm glad to see you've already got another post up...I'll tackle angst next...
I might read FREEDOM. I guess I probably ought to, especially since you recommend Franzen.
But I gotta say--and I'm not gonna talk smack about any writer, especially one I haven't read--the excerpts from the "hype" reviews you gave us don't really inspire me.
Perhaps most reviewers, or it is hoped a large number of readers, came "of age" during the '90s. For those of us who did during the '70s, for instance, a reprise of dysfunctional family life during a period of near full-employment, economic excesses, and a general sense that life, for the most part, was better for many than it had ever been before--even or especially for returning Gulf War Veterans, who received the parades and welcome and thanks for their service after essentially a year compared to, say, those who spent two years with shorter life-expectancy in the jungles of Vietnam fighting a war they weren't even all that keen on, it seems like an attempt at writing a microcosm of the "history" lived by most readers, or potential readers.
And this: "the unresolved tensions, the messiness of emotion, of love and longing, that possesses even the most willfully ordinary of lives." (LA Times).
So. We're to read about willfully ordinary lives? Well, I did wonder years ago why all characters in novels (of a certain period) were all prep-school or Harvard or Princeton kids (The Last Convertible, an excellent read).
And then along came William Kennedy and "Ironweed."
Like I said, I probably will read it. Especially if someone else buys it for me and puts it in front of me.
I have no doubt Franzen is every bit as good as you say he is, since you say he is and I haven't, to date, read anything he's written.
But I looked at some of David Eggers stuff in the past, and have mentioned several times my problems with The Shipping News, and again I'm left with curiousity: why all the hype? If someone's writing is so breathtaking, can't someone just say: "here's another Joyce book," or "no one captures the contemporary scene with as gorgeous prose as..."
I mean, is the subject of the novel what makes it good? Or is it that the writer, being so good, makes the subject of the novel interesting to everyone?
And if you can't read it--like with Joyce, or Shakespeare, for some people--is that why people say it's great?
Ernest Hemingway wrote some great stuff. His themes are often buried below the surface of what the novel appears to be tackling, to be revealed only on re-reading or contemplation.
But he is eminently readable. He is "easy to get," at least on the surface.
Much as I appreciate Joyce, and for that matter Pound and cummings and Stein's manipulation of language as part of their art, I don't appreciate people manipulating language just to do it, especially if by such manipulation, I can't get anything out of reading it.
So. I look forward to finding a new literary voice. And if it's Franzen, I'll be happy for him.
And us.
But I'll be one of the first to not sell Jodi or any others, whose books haven't been touted as so "literary," short.
I recently opened The Corrections and immediately noted that Franzen opened with weather, a supposed no no. Of course anything can be done by some writers. As it is with the everything-must- be- in- a- scene meme. Not so in literary fiction, which if your leaf through the pages is a dense narrative, both external and internal with scant snippets of recalled dialogue, if that. What his books do is show a snapshot of the culture at a point in history, and of course, showcase the author's political views. You best not try that in a genre novel.
Ever read Jane Smiley's Ten Days in the Hills? What a fun read, or listen in my case, especially if you happen to have Hollywood experience and live down here. The book is comic, literary, a personal political platform, and just crazy fun. Like the Franzen novels, it's a cultural snapshot at a historical point in time. I'm going with Jane on the fun though. He doesn't strike me as fun.
I strongly doubt I'll read it. Whenever I see this much hype for a book I run screaming from it. Not literally, of course, though I'm sure I'd amuse my husband and terrify the other browsers at B&N or Borders if I did that. I remember skimming through Franzen's last book and thinking, "This guy's lame."
That opinion hasn't changed much.
Terin,
Franzen may write literary fiction, but his prose is pretty straightforward - none of Joyce's linguistic gymnastics to be found. He's also less willfully obscure than Hemingway. So I wouldn't let some of the stigmas of so-called "lit fiction" preclude you from reading Freedom.
Not to say you're guaranteed to love it, but just so you're aware that Franzen is in fact very "readable".
I will definitely read it. But I'll get it from the library.
Hank: thanks.
I'll give him a try.
In the words of the Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo ad of the 90s:
Yes! Yes! Yes!
I've come to a point in my life where I value kindness over talent and intellect. Some people may believe it's okay for those qualities to be mutually exclusive in a writer, but I don't. I don't think this makes me anti-intellectual. I work hard for what little money I earn and I'm not parting with it to spend time with a writer who has—so far, at least—shown he has a one-star personality. There are plenty of other writers—Cormac McCarthy comes to mind—with whom I can spend time and from whom I can learn.