I just read Louise Erdrich's gripping novel, Shadow Tag, about an out-of-control marriage that reads like a literary thriller - which it really is. You can't put it down. I always tell my students that fiction is fiction, period. If it's called a novel you don't start wondering what was true, what was made up, but I of course was wondering. I even Googled the articles that came out after the death of Erdrich's husband, Michael Dorris.
Erdrich and Dorris were the star literary couple over a decade ago. They were both incredibly talented and good looking, they edited each other, wrote books together, and had a houseful of children; they had what appeared to be the perfect life. And then Dorris committed suicide in a motel room, and it came out that they had separated months before, and there were alligations of abuse. So yes, I looked for clues in her novel, and in the end realized that she had made art out of tragedy.
I also went back to Dorris's fiction and read his collection of short stories, Working Men. His range and storytelling was breath taking. He could write from the point of view of women as well as men, gay and straight, blue collar, middle class, funny, serious. He was a master of the short story.
Whatever their true stories were, their fiction transcends the sad ending of their life together and is worth reading.
I have been looking for a good fictional book to read this summer and I thank you for the tempting review! Sounds like my kind of book.
Posted by: Nancy Grillo | June 28, 2012 at 09:43 AM
This is a fascinating post. I will have to take a look at Erdrich's work, I haven't yet read her books. It is fascinating to wonder about fiction and where it comes from in terms of the author's "real" life.
Posted by: Valorie Grace Hallinan | June 28, 2012 at 06:58 PM
I can still remember being mesmerized by "Love Medicine" so many years ago -- I will definitely check this new novel out. Did you know that they had adopted a son who had very severe Fetal Alcohol Syndrome? Dorris wrote a book about him that was amazing --
Posted by: Elizabeth | July 02, 2012 at 09:53 PM
Yes. [This is an example of saiyng a lot with less. Well, not this part. This part is practically unnecessary, apart from the limited appeal it might bring to those hoping for something approximating "humor" in my response to your original comment. And did you see what I did there? I put "humor" in quotes. Not because it needs them, but because doing so affords me the opportunity to illustrate just how annoying it can be when you put "quotes" around words. It's "almost" as annoying as abusing adverbs. See? I did it "again." Wait, what was your comment?]
Posted by: Wender | July 28, 2012 at 04:57 PM
Wow You know those pieces of wrtniig that grab you from the first phrase and don't let go, twisting up your emotions and taking you on a ride?This is one of those. It took my breath away, brought me to tears It's amazing, thank you.
Posted by: Elita | July 28, 2012 at 08:18 PM
Hi Jackie, An agent is there to sell manuscripts to puhrisbels. If you've already published your manuscript, then there's not a lot an agent can do. It should really be the publisher's job to promote your work to retailers but of course very few self-pub companies do a meaningful job on that front. Really, if you want to succeed, you need to do as follows. (A) write a wonderful book. (B) get a literary agent to take you on. (C) Let the agent sell your stuff to puhrisbels. If you have a problem with step (B), that's almost certainly because you haven't yet done a good enough job on Step (A) in which case, you should send us over your manuscript and get advice directly on how to improve your work. We'd be happy to help.
Posted by: Pika | July 30, 2012 at 08:46 PM