Wednesday 2 March 2016

A New Discovery

It’s always such a wonderful thing when you come across an author you’ve never heard of before and fall in love with their work. Finding someone new who just chimes with all that you love in a good book is such a joy.

Some great online writer friends of mine had been talking about a particular novel a while ago, but I was already into something else so I put the recommendation temporarily on hold. Then came a space and the recurring thought of: ‘oh, time for a book treat what shall I get?’ I got several things as it happens, and one of them was this book, one of the best I’ve ever read and one I can’t wait to read again. Okay, so what was it? Who’s the author?
It was this:


I had not heard of Anthony Doerr before, I missed his story that won the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Award in 2011, though I’ve read that too now. ... and what a story, absolutely sublime. More on that later. Back to the book. First published in 2014, it has two parallel narratives, one about a German boy, the other a French girl during the Second World War. It features radios, model buildings, humanity, barbarity, courage, fate and snails. It goes back and forth in time, gives detailed technical information, doesn’t make everything black and white, good or bad ... there’s lots of grey and happenstance. Everything is so seamlessly woven into the narrative and though it alternates between the two protagonists you never lose a sense of where you are in the story; that’s very clever but not remotely tricksy. The language is profound, fluent, glorious and takes you to a whole other level. I won’t write a conventional review here, because too much would be given away by all those little plot points and character profiles.

The journey through this work is an experience to be savoured and left for readers to discover in their in their own way and in their own time. If I tell you it won the Pulitzer maybe that’ll give you some idea of the heft of this book without revealing anything to spoil it. It’s absorbing, affecting and a real page-turner. Just go read it for yourself.

I’ve also been reading ‘Memory Wall’, Doerr’s anthology of novella and short stories. There’s some pretty good stuff here too! Tagged on at the end of the copy I have is that story, the one I mentioned earlier. It was a big win for Doerr, the prize money is £30,000 the largest for a single short story. His winning piece, ‘The Deep’, also touches on some of the themes in ‘All the Light..’ and juxtaposes the fragility of life with all its affirming exuberance, exemplified by the young, enquiring minds at the heart of it. It’s a fabulous story.

            
I shall be seeking out other work by this author. ‘All the Light ...’ took ten years to write and it’s probably his best to date. Earlier work doesn’t always reflect the same degree of accomplishment in an author, but here is someone who has ideas I’m interested in and an approach I empathise with. It will be fascinating to see how his work has developed over time and through experience ... I can’t wait. 

Wednesday 20 January 2016

It's That Time of Year Again!

It’s way over time to get this show on the road again with thoughts on writing, reading, arty stuff and any random thing that takes my fancy.

This season it's been like living in the Twilight Zone with such dim days and SO much rain, not at all Christmassy and horrendous for all those in flooded places. We've needed dry, sunny weather and a Winter that looks normal. The seasons seem to melt into each other now with fewer definable features, somehow carols with snow, ice and frost were beginning to sound oddly misplaced for a lot of us in December. Daffodils flowering, (whatever happened to the snowdrops?), t-shirt temperatures, year round hot cross buns – a particular pet hate – there’s a blurring of time as if someone’s taken a wet brush to it all and merged it together. It’s unsettling, we know this is not how it should be. There’s a deep disjunct and all we’ve ever read, or noticed with our own eyes over time, about how our landscapes shift during the year is being thrown into question. Our collective nature diary isn’t following it’s own history and I for one find this new direction worrying. But at least we've got some respite now with bright, crisp days... proper Winter... brrrrrr!


After the last bauble has been packed away, the remaining crumbs of mince pies digested and the mini-forest of pine needles hoovered up it’s time to get back to paper and pen – whether virtual or actual. A whole slew of lit. mags. across the globe are opening for submission and there’s a new one on the horizon too: The Forge Literary Magazine just launched on 4 Jan. Founded by volunteers of the international online writers’ forum Fiction Forge, of which I am lucky enough to be a member, it has a featured story by the fabulous JANICE GALLOWAY in the first issue, (it’s brilliant by the way), with work from some pretty exciting featured writers – NONA CASPERS – whose story is in issue 2, ROXANNE GAY – up now –, EMMA JANE UNSWORTH and ... KEVIN BARRY (!) – to come in future issues. You can read more about it all on the link above and in the article here ... where two of the editors, my writing companions, chat a bit about it. It’s very exciting and accepted writers actually get paid – hurrah!!! I’m looking forward to my stint as co-editor in the Summer. There’s also a great interview with founding editor JOHN HAGGERTY over at the excellent blog 'damyantiwrites'

We’re an eclectic lot at The Forge and you’ll find some sample stories, from a few of our writers, to give you just a taste of the sort of thing we’re into. So get cracking and send us your best, we’re ready and waiting!


SHORT STORY STARS – tales that shine and dazzle

JELLYFISH by Janice Galloway publ. Freight Books (2015)

Speaking of Janice Galloway I’ve been reading her latest short story anthology ‘JELLYFISH’ and it’s excellent. Full of strong characters and incisive, visceral writing that can take your breath away. There’s a certain fierceness here, an intensity rather than an aggressiveness, and a bold, fearless quality to the writing which I really admire. The title story is a wonderful evocation of the relationship between a mother and son caught on the cusp of change. The child is about to start school and has already begun that strain away from what binds him to his mother as a small boy. He’s taking his first tentative steps to join the ‘big boys’ and his mother’s reflections as he does are so sensitively captured in what I think is a truly moving and elegiac piece.  

The stories vary in length, some such as ‘jellyfish’ are longer, others like ‘that was then, this is now(1)’, nudge towards flash fiction but are no less powerful for that and I found this mix refreshing and well-balanced. It’s a great anthology and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.