On the Eve of the Eve of the Brooklyn Book Festival

September 16, 2011 5 Comments

Decisions, decisions. Here’s where I tell you about my grand and epic plans to DO ALL THE THINGS at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday! (or not) Not surprisingly there are so many authors I want to see that there’s some overlap and I’ve had to make some tough decisions based on whether or not I’m able to see a particular author later on in the month/year. Please note that for each event, I’ve only named the authors I’m interested in seeing. See complete details at the website.*

10:00 AM: Laugh Your Head Off. Libba Bray.
Most likely the above event, it sounds way more fun and a good way to kick things off, but I won’t completely rule out this one: At the End of the Story [TIX REQ] w/ A.M. Homes and Nicole Krauss.

11:00 AM: Undecided/Nothing.

12:00 PM: Epic Confusion. Chuck Klosterman and Sam Lipsyte.
This one is sort of take it or leave it for me. Wish the Kate Beaton event could have been at this time.

1:00 PM: Writer as Illusionist. Steven Millhauser and Emma Straub.
I’m actually surprised to see Emma Straub on this panel… I don’t recall anything particularly fantastical in her short stories. This is during the time of the Kate Beaton even by the way. HEAVY, DRAMATIC SIGH

2:00 PM: Dangerous Laughter. Karen Russell, Elissa Schappell, Rob Spillman.
there’s an event going on with Esmeralda Santiago going on at this time that I think my mom would like to go to. Perhaps we will part ways at this time. I want her to enjoy herself too! Also I find it somewhat ironic that Dangerous Laughter is also the name of a Steven Millhauser collection, yet he’s not a part of this panel.

3:00 PM: Starring: the City
no authors listed because I’m actually more interested in the topic for this one

4:00 PM: Truth versus Memory [TIX REQ]. Myla Goldberg and Téa Obreht.

5:00 PM: Unholy Paths to Redemption. Jennifer Egan.
Though I got my copy of A Visit from the Goon Squad signed at the Brooklyn Book Festival last year I didn’t actually hear Ms Egan speak because I was in a panel about memoirs, moderated by Elizabeth Wurtzel (!!!!). So I guess it’d be nice to hear her speak this time around even though I’m still mad at Goon Squad..

In addition to the Festival itself, there are what they call “Book End Events,” which actually began yesterday. I’m hoping to go to tonight’s Brooklyn Indie Party! at Greenlight Bookstore. A Public Space, Archipelago Books, Black Balloon, BOMB Magazine, Electric Literature, Melville House, Tin House, Ugly Duckling Presse, and many others will be in attendance and there will be music, food, and drinks. After the Festival on Sunday, there is a Brooklyn Book Festival Closing Night Party at the Brooklyn Bowl which is nowhere near Borough Hall where the Festival is held! It’s actually near McCarren Park Pool where I attended my first Regina Spektor concert. I love how the public transportation directions on Google Maps involve going back into Manhattan to catch the L train.

*One thing I really don’t like about the Events Listing is that they’re only organized by location and not by time? Time would have helped in terms of deciding, I had to keep scrolling up and down. Not exactly ideal. I understand the usefulness of organizing by location (because some events are ticketed, and that is dependent on the location), but another viewing option would have been much appreciated.

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National Short Story Month

May 20, 2011 1 Comment

May is National Short Story Month and I, being the chump I am, don’t care. OH SNAP! OK, that’s entirely not true. I mean, I’m doing a POST about it, which is more than I did for April’s National Poetry Month (yeah, how ’bout no?) but I don’t think I can even sit here and give you a list of my favorite short stories because they tend to fade from my memory pretty quickly unfortunately. Sometimes I can vaguely remember the plots, but I can’t remember the titles…or the authors. You can see then how my cup runneth over for short stories yeah? But I figured, maybe I’d give you some short story collections I’d recommend because I tend to be able to remember how a collection made me feel better than any one story. So here they are in no particular order, with links to the ones I’ve reviewed in the past…

1) Steven Millhauser — Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories :: for fans of those who like magical realism or a bit of fantasy in their reality
2) Susan Minot — Lust and Other Stories :: stories of love and loss, each one hinges on a single moment that causes you to re-examine the situation
3) Angela Carter — The Bloody Chamber: and Other Stories :: retellings of classic fairy tales with a feminist slant
4) Ludmilla Petrushevskaya — There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales :: dark fairy tales, this was one of my favorite books last year
5) J.D. Salinger — Nine Stories :: do you like The Catcher in the Rye? No? Try this instead
6) Joyce Carol Oates — The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense :: sometimes bitches really do be trippin’? also I really love the cover, the close up of the not quite human looking face is sufficiently creepy

*cricket*

I would say both Ian McEwan collections (First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets) but I haven’t finished either. I’ve simply read enough short stories from each to add up to one collection. But I do love me some McEwan, and the stories I have read are great.

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Book Review: Dangerous Laughter

July 11, 2010 2 Comments

Title: Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories
Author: Steven Millhauser
Format: ebook
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday
Pub Date: Feb 2008
Read: July 2009
Purchased: via Kobo
Why: My first encounter with Steven Millhauser’s work was just back in May — a short story entitled “The White Glove,” from Tin House’s 44th issue. It seemed pretty interesting so I decided to check out more of his work.
Notes: This also may or may not have been around the time I was trying to win an iPad from Kobo and so I went and bought a bunch of short story collections, each of which counted as an entry. I didn’t win the iPad and ended up having to buy one with my own money. Quel horreur!
Review/Thoughts:
The thirteen stories collected in Dangerous Laughter are divided into three (actually four) parts and are not unlike that first story of his that I encountered. Millhauser seems to have a knack for finding magic in the mundane. Truthfully some of the short stories found here are completely lacking in any kind of narrative; quite a few read like highly interesting newspaper articles. But all of them are a little strange and more than a little interesting. I found myself glued to the page with each and every story, wondering, And then what…? even with the ones that didn’t have a traditional narrative structure. If that’s not compelling fiction, I don’t know what is. All of the stories, but particularly the non-traditional ones, seem to be answering the question What if? What if you could fit an entire house underneath a dome? What would the repercussions be? The problems? The solutions to those problems? (“The Dome”). What if fashion took a decidedly different course and went back to an era where being covered up were the norm? How far could this idea be taken? (“A Change in Fashion”). Since every moment that passes becomes part of history, what if we redefined what history meant? (“Here at the Historical Society”). What if the Tower of Babel were a success? What would it mean to be a success? What would the consequences of that success be? (“The Tower”). What if laughter became a game of sorts? (“Dangerous Laughter”). Millhauser examines these possibilities and more in his stories.

My personal favorites from the collection were “The Room in the Attic” and “Cat and Mouse,” the latter of which literally reads like an in depth Tom and Jerry short, juxtaposing gags alongside psychological insight into the characters’ minds. But each of the thirteen stories is its own little brilliant gem, teeming with wit, insight, and precision, and I look forward to exploring more of what Millhauser has to offer in his other works.

final verdict: 10/10

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