Do you network? Can you network? Every week I'm trying to keep you posted on my road to publishing my novel. Last night I went to a reading with Jhumpa Lahiri and Mavis Gallant at the Village Voice Bookstore in Paris. Lahiri is one of my favorite living authors, and both of them write extroadinary short stories. Only the addition of Alice Munro could have made it a better night. Lahiri was cool and poised as she explained that 87-year-old Gallant was one of her heroes and the person who inspired her to write the three linked stories in Unaccustomed Earth. She read a section of the first of those stories and Gallant read two beautiful and hilarious pieces that got the entire audience blushing. One of them involved an erotic escapade with the entire English army. It was a great night, and I had the opportunity to give Lahiri a few stuttering compliments.
But, I'm left wondering if there was anything I could do to make a better or bigger impression on Lahiri. After all, I love her writing, and I think we have the same literary goals of creating dramatic and character-based universal stories. Having Lahiri read my book, even if she thought it was bad, would be an incredible experience. And, if she liked it, maybe she would offer a blurb or an introduction to her agent, Eric Simonoff, who is one of my dream agents. (I'm waiting for more feedback on my novel and query before I submit to him.) And yet, I didn't mention any of this to Lahiri. And, maybe I shouldn't have. I'm sure she gets requests like that all the time and they probably drive her bananas. But, a charming person, a witty person, probably could have come up with something that opened doors without being offensive. We all know someone like this, right? The one that just happens to be jogging when she finds Cormac McCarthy's hat and ends up getting invited to hang out with him in his think tank? Or, the one who loves reading about dung beatles and discovers that Don Delillo also loves reading about dung beatles? I've never been good at networking. I avoid large gatherings and I tremble around people I admire. Yet, here I am with a novel, trying to figure out how I can get it published. So, can a shy person learn to network? And, is networking essential to getting that dream blurb or agent or editor? At least I got to see these two amazing writers in person.
Showing posts with label Jhumpa Lahiri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jhumpa Lahiri. Show all posts
Friday, February 20, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Review of Unaccustomed Earth By Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for her first collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies. After her successful debut novel, The Namesake, Lahiri has come out with a second collection called Unaccustomed Earth.
Unaccustomed Earth is a beautiful group of long short stories that once again focuses on interrelationships and the emotional dramas of domestic life. What I most admire about this work, and Lahiri's work in general, is that she has given herself (and earned) the right to explore a quiet and compelling avenue of writing that doesn't give in to the pressures set upon other writers to have a hook or a platform. Hook! Platform! Whenever I read about getting published or go to agent and publisher panels, everyone says we have to have a hook and a platform. But, Lahiri manages to make a name for herself by sticking to the classic techniques of writing stories about people and life and leaving it at that. This point is made much more clearly in the article, "The Confident Artist" by Boris Kachka in New York Books. Her hook is that she doesn't have a hook. Her platform is that she is who she is. I so admire Lahiri's willingness to write sincerely and explore her characters' lives in a very organic way that sometimes results in a dramatic climax and sometimes doesn't.
Because, actually, some of these stories that are filled with emotion end very quietly, almost boringly. Reading this work gives me the feeling of following peoples' lives to a place that is either interesting or not as interesting, just as life is sometimes interesting and not interesting. Lahiri once said that each short story was an experiment for her. She doesn't know how they're going to end. What's beautiful is that this collection seems to have both those stories that ended well and those that sort of receded, and this diversity gives more insight into Lahiri's writing than her previous work does. Readers can start to understand how she thinks and how she delves into her subject matter without forcing anything. Even in her last story, which ends in a way that most writers would tell you not to end a story, Lahiri manages to create a perfectly natural circumstance that doesn't feel artificial or overly dramatic. This book is exquisite, and I expect even greater things from her in the future.
Unaccustomed Earth is a beautiful group of long short stories that once again focuses on interrelationships and the emotional dramas of domestic life. What I most admire about this work, and Lahiri's work in general, is that she has given herself (and earned) the right to explore a quiet and compelling avenue of writing that doesn't give in to the pressures set upon other writers to have a hook or a platform. Hook! Platform! Whenever I read about getting published or go to agent and publisher panels, everyone says we have to have a hook and a platform. But, Lahiri manages to make a name for herself by sticking to the classic techniques of writing stories about people and life and leaving it at that. This point is made much more clearly in the article, "The Confident Artist" by Boris Kachka in New York Books. Her hook is that she doesn't have a hook. Her platform is that she is who she is. I so admire Lahiri's willingness to write sincerely and explore her characters' lives in a very organic way that sometimes results in a dramatic climax and sometimes doesn't.
Because, actually, some of these stories that are filled with emotion end very quietly, almost boringly. Reading this work gives me the feeling of following peoples' lives to a place that is either interesting or not as interesting, just as life is sometimes interesting and not interesting. Lahiri once said that each short story was an experiment for her. She doesn't know how they're going to end. What's beautiful is that this collection seems to have both those stories that ended well and those that sort of receded, and this diversity gives more insight into Lahiri's writing than her previous work does. Readers can start to understand how she thinks and how she delves into her subject matter without forcing anything. Even in her last story, which ends in a way that most writers would tell you not to end a story, Lahiri manages to create a perfectly natural circumstance that doesn't feel artificial or overly dramatic. This book is exquisite, and I expect even greater things from her in the future.
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