the radiation of writerly confidence
I pay so little attention to the book reviews (and the books reviewed) in the NYT these days that I can't be sure if Janet Maslin is simply playing an elaborate joke on her readers in today's review.
This review, of Ron Currie Jr.'s second novel, praises Currie's exuberant style and natural talent: Currie is a "startlingly talented writer" who possesses, Maslin claims, "a daring yet polished style," "whose book [pays] no heed to ordinary narrative conventions," who uses "fresh, joltingly funny imagery," and, "[a]bove all, [whose novel] radiates writerly confidence."
As citation of Currie's "tenderly mordant voice of his own," Maslin's review offers us, among others, these sentences from the book:
Now, Maslin does offer the caution that "Currie is not a traditionally trained writer"—leaving aside the question of how a writer is "traditionally" trained, though we understand her implication about MFA writing programs. Training matters nothing to me, but prose style certainly does, and the first sentence I've quoted above startles me only in that it uses four clichés: "not the ideal place to go," "lost your mind," "curl up in the bottom of a bottle," "having your insides ripped repeatedly from your body." These first-draft, shorthand descriptions are beyond exhausted and trite, and I fail to see how someone who reads as many novels a year as Maslin does can see anything redeeming in them, however much they may transgress the sorts of descriptions that too often emerge from the great leveller of the MFA fiction workshop.
The other two sentences suggest the real market for this novel; even Maslin can't help but note that the book "parallels historical events with perilous Forrest Gumpish quirkiness."
Should you care to read more, the NYT provides another excerpt of the novel here.
This review, of Ron Currie Jr.'s second novel, praises Currie's exuberant style and natural talent: Currie is a "startlingly talented writer" who possesses, Maslin claims, "a daring yet polished style," "whose book [pays] no heed to ordinary narrative conventions," who uses "fresh, joltingly funny imagery," and, "[a]bove all, [whose novel] radiates writerly confidence."
As citation of Currie's "tenderly mordant voice of his own," Maslin's review offers us, among others, these sentences from the book:
"Chicago is not the ideal place to go when you've recently lost your mind and plan to curl up in the bottom of a bottle and wait for the feeling of having your insides ripped repeatedly from your body to subside."
"You could not be more shocked if Amy suddenly sloughed off her human disguise and revealed herself to be a six-limbed insectoid extraterrestrial."
"[Y]our life is so blue it looks like a James Cameron movie."
Now, Maslin does offer the caution that "Currie is not a traditionally trained writer"—leaving aside the question of how a writer is "traditionally" trained, though we understand her implication about MFA writing programs. Training matters nothing to me, but prose style certainly does, and the first sentence I've quoted above startles me only in that it uses four clichés: "not the ideal place to go," "lost your mind," "curl up in the bottom of a bottle," "having your insides ripped repeatedly from your body." These first-draft, shorthand descriptions are beyond exhausted and trite, and I fail to see how someone who reads as many novels a year as Maslin does can see anything redeeming in them, however much they may transgress the sorts of descriptions that too often emerge from the great leveller of the MFA fiction workshop.
The other two sentences suggest the real market for this novel; even Maslin can't help but note that the book "parallels historical events with perilous Forrest Gumpish quirkiness."
Should you care to read more, the NYT provides another excerpt of the novel here.
Labels: description, literary fiction, narration, reviews, writing
posted by Josh at 12:51 PM
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