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As I mentioned, I’m going to be speaking at a school about The New You Project next week. In honor of the occasion, I interviewed Jonathan Baumbach about writing, in the style of Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, which I have always loved.
The New You Project: When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Did anyone memorably encourage or discourage you?
Jonathan Baumbach: 10…11…12. My father was a visual artist–we called them painters in those days–and I knew the most important thing in life was to do something creative. Since he owned the franchise on visual art–he also wrote poems–I started writing imaginatively at an early age. He was my major influence. By turns, he discouraged and encouraged me.
The New You Project: Who were some of the writers who inspired you when you were just starting out?
Jonathan Baumbach: I don’t remember anyone inspiring me (except Kafka and Dostoyevsky in my teens), but I remember reading at an inappropriate age, “Studs Lonigan” by James T. Farrell, a 3-volume novel about a tough Irish kid growing up on
the streets of Chicago. My father had a large ecclectic library and I remember sneaking illicit books like Boccacio’s “Decameron” and Balzac’s “Droll Tales,” which probably seem very tame by today’s standards.
The New You Project: Is there any book that you were forced to read in school that you were only able to fully appreciate many years later?
Jonathan Baumbach: I hated George Eliot’s “Silas Marner,” which was required in my Brooklyn high school, but I came around to liking George Eliot after (much later) reading “Middlemarch” and “The Mill on the Floss.” It’s always hard to like books that you’re compelled to read. The worst thing for the soul is to pretend to like something because older and wiser heads tell you you should.
The New You Project: If you could write the teenage version of yourself a letter, what three books would you tell him to read?
Jonathan Baumbach: The Trial by Franz Kafka, Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts by Donald Barthelme, Don Quixote by Cervantes, A Child Again by Robert Coover.
– LAUREN CERAND
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Literary Hot Spots
Readerville accords The New You Project its coveted “Blog of the Week” status!
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“Dzanc Books is proud to announce that it will publish a novel by Jonathan Baumbach in early 2011, entitled Dreams of Molly… Steve Gillis said, ‘We at Dzanc are very excited to publish this newest work from a true American original.’” More.
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A Machine for Buzzing
I just ordered Anna Karenina because I have been following one reader’s impassioned discussion of the book this week, e.g. “We readers live vicariously through Anna’s story because it is such an incredible, extravagant adventure, full of intricate and delicately realized gestures, words and emotions. It’s the extravagance that resonates with our own lives: how many breaths have you taken during which love—earthy, Earthly love—composed the entire meaning of your life?”
And then I decided to order B, per Jonathan Baumbach’s earlier recommendation, and Chez Charlotte and Emily because that was the one on his backlist that appealed to me personally. And Far From the Madding Crowd, too, because of this. That sounds like perfect pre-spring entertainment to me. What’s on your list?
P.S. If you’ve never seen/heard a Buddha Machine, they’re really great.
– LAUREN CERAND
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The Portland Review
Last night I received an email from a reader, Andrew Madigan, who wrote to say that he’s written a review of YOU or The Invention of Memory that has been accepted by The Portland Review. And he even sent the text to me to for a sneak peek and it is stunning! I have been looking for a literary journal to be devoted to this year, so the timing is perfect. I was especially charmed in a cursory look at TPR’s blog that the new editor takes full responsibility for the errors in the latest issue, his first (“In a humiliating, possibly ironic moment, one of our volunteer copy editors…is listed as ‘Corrrina,’ instead of Corrina”). I will subscribe for two years instead of the usual one because anyone that cool is going places. Don’t you think?
– LAUREN CERAND
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Two Good Ideas
1. Emily Bobrow, an editor at More Intelligent Life, which is published by The Economist, posted a short, provocative piece on T-Post, a new Swedish magazine printed on a t-shirt and delivered by mail every six weeks. This interests me on two levels: one, subscription-based models that deliver niche content directly to users are a fascinating application of the old becoming the new, and two, even as an alternative format, the concept still embodies the best of digital culture, namely, its highly networked social aspects. Other subscription-based products that intrigue me: Powell’s Indiespensable, Featherproof’s Paper Egg Books, One Story Magazine. Basically the idea is that consumers who recognize quality can request it directly from the source. What does it say about the role of tastemakers who have acted as the gatekeepers to cultural influence, traditionally retailers and the media?
2. Jonathan Yardley, a critic for The Washington Post, wrote a lengthy, moving column about Black Like Me and considers how it was an artifact of its moment yet retained a kind of value that resonates today. It was good but the thing that caught my eye and impressed me most was that it was published as part of “An occasional series in which The Post’s book critic reconsiders notable and/or neglected books from the past.” I think the Columbia Journalism Review has/had a similar feature. I am far more interested in hearing about a book that affected someone so much so that he or she is still considering it years later, as opposed to having one’s attention momentarily glued to the hot thing that is being advertised relentlessly or everyone thinks they should read/see/do/buy because it has a cute video. Barf.
Comparatively, I’ll hazard a guess that twenty years from now, we’ll still be talking about Marilyn Monroe; Paris Hilton, not so much.
– LAUREN CERAND
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Last Night at KGB
The reading was packed, and amazing! It was the first time I have ever heard Jonathan Baumbach read and it was pretty dazzling. Normally at readings I start to nod off if the topics aren’t salacious, but I would’ve happily listened to him read the entirety of YOU or The Invention of Memory. Maybe because it’s so salacious.
A highlight was meeting people who introduced themselves as having discovered the book via The New You Project. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, YOU or The Invention of Memory can also be found online at Amazon, BN.com, Vromans.com, Powells, and in person or by telephone from Bluestockings, The Bookstore and Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. Don’t tell me that it’s hard to find!
Next up, Jonathan reads once again, this time in Brooklyn on Wednesday evening. Consider it unmissable if you’re in town: Brooklyn College on Wednesday, February 18, at 6PM in the Barker Room (2315 Boylan Hall). FREE. Books will be for sale.
— LAUREN CERAND
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Valentine’s Day comes early as Vroman’s, “Publishers Weekly Bookseller Of The Year 2008″ as well as “Southern California’s Oldest & Largest Independent Bookstore,” recommends YOU or The Invention of Memory as one of “Two Great Books for Valentine’s Day… Sort of.” Patrick Brown says,
“I loved this book. As I read YOU, I found myself thinking of a French New Wave film. … Something more like a Godard film… the absurdity tossed into the quotidian, the humor (often biting) butting up against a hip, urbane sexuality. As a reader, it was an interesting experience to never know quite was coming next and yet still be desperate to find out.”
How can I post that and not include the dance sequence from Band of Outsiders?
P.S. Last call if you want a free copy of YOU– I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy so you’ve got ’til tomorrow, midnight (correspondence at laurencerand dot com).
– LAUREN CERAND
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Notes on The Class
A reader in Reykjavik writes:
“I was in the middle of reading You or The Invention of Memory when I went to see the French film The Class a few weeks ago. The movie is a fictional version of a teacher and class in an urban setting over the course of a school year.
It seemed to me that the teacher was a bit unnerved by his students, many of whom were from immigrant families, and his way to deal with it was trying to exert more control than was likely necessary. It came in the tone of his responses at times, in unnecessary remarks. In some ways the teacher was sympathetic, yet it seemed his insecurity had at times an aggressive edge that undermined his relations with his students.
To me this had a lot of echoes in You. Granted, the story is breaking up this way and that, and it’s hard to take the characters’ actions at face value. But betrayal is never far away, and the characters show a need for control that you figure will inevitably backfire. It’s as if fear of betrayal fuels the characters’ aggressiveness, like fear of losing control of a classroom. What would their memories be like if they tested each other less often?”
– LAUREN CERAND
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Upcoming
I am going to speak at a class on “very recent fiction” at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. on Monday, March 2 about The New You Project! I had a teacher, Ms. (Jennifer) Irwin, at Emerson, also in D.C., where I grew up, who taught a class on contemporary world fiction and we read Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Ben Okri’s The Famished Road and Kenzaburo Oe’s A Personal Matter and it transformed my perspective on everything. Prior to that I had gone to a large public school and it’s certainly not to my credit that I nearly dropped out. So thanks Ms. Irwin, wherever you are, for telling me what I needed to know. I’m happy to pay it forward.
Some of the letters I’ve received have been from former students of Jonathan Baumbach, and I love that. Recently the novelist and writing professor Tayari Jones wrote a piece about remembering your mentors.
– LAUREN CERAND
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