THE NEXT BIG THING

So, I got tagged by my man Frank Wheeler Jr., author of the excellent novel "The Wowzer", in this psuedo-chain-letter thing called "The Next Big Thing", in which authors (purportedly) answer questions about whatever it is that they are working on.

Despite my reservations about including references to unpublished (hell, unfinished, unreviewed, unedited, etc.) work as "the next big thing" (let alone "a" next big thing, or hell, even "next" or "big"), out of respect for Mr. Wheeler and his inspirational story of stalwartly moving forward, word for word, sentence after sentence, toward an eventual completed manuscript (which, it shall be noted, became the excellent novel "The Wowzer" - seriously, go buy it now), I shall comply with my duty as Tag-ee and disclose the following in accordance with said duty:

1. What is the working title of you current/next project? I love my title so much I have never revealed it to anyone other than my wife, and one of my good friends, both of whom I trust to not steal it.  Seriously, I google the title from time to time to make sure no one else has discovered it.  It's probably the only thing about the project that I absolutely love and would refuse to trash upon the promise of eventual publication.  "Main characters? Trash 'em! Plot? Changed! How about a different title? Screw off - I don't need your awesome publishing contract anyway."

2. Where did the idea come from? The main arc of the overall story was revealed to me upon the discovery - in a German cafe - of a postcard depicting an event in 1950s-era America.  In fact, the title comes from the postcard, which has since been misplaced as a bookmark in one of the thousand or so books I own.

3. What genre does your book fall under? Does unfinished count? If allowed an ultimate conceit - I'd say "literary mystery" (and yes, I already know how douchey that appears).  OK - the non-douchey answer - crime fiction, most likely.

4. Which actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Oh man, this is like asking a tone-deaf 9-year-old learning to play the recorder if he'd like to play guitar for Motley Crue on the Girls Girls Girls tour of 1988.  At this point, probably just actors whose work I admire and presumably would be allowed on set for a day to annoy the shit out of - Viggo Mortenson, Ben Foster, Vincent Cassel, and Richard Jenkins.  For the main character - who is a redhead - I don't think I'll settle for anyone less talented or gorgeous than Kate Mara or Jessica Chastain.  

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? A novel partially about a woman summoned to a mysterious office to accompany a rather charming yet unsavory character around America as they tour prisons for purchase as investments for what appears to be a very powerful mafia-like organization headed (apparently) by a successful Furrier in City-City, USA, a generic municipality located in the hot and humid southeastern United States, and the erstwhile turf of Shark Hands Teddy, a man tortured by his criminal past and hell bent on redemption at any cost.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Self publishing seems to me to be the one of the few things folks will do that doesn't seem like a horrible idea at all yet is likely just that and obviously so.  Folks who aren't doctors don't self-operate, and it's a really bad idea for non-attorneys to represent themselves in a criminal trial.  I don't see why publishing a novel should be any different.  That's not to say I haven't read a few books recently that were self-published (I think) that were very, very good.  

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft? The first draft has taken over 7 years to complete.  It's still not done.  Mostly because it's easier to continue to work on something than just finish the fucking thing and put it out into the world, warts and all.  I don't think I've ever typed the words "The End" on any version of it.

8. Which other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I wouldn't dare compare my work-in-progress to something someone has already put out, mostly because I'm superstitious about eventual publication and this seems the best way to jinx myself.  Instead, I'll proffer that I greatly admire the following authors - Don Delillo, Willa Cather, George V. Higgins, Dennis Lehane, Paul Auster, Tana French, Frederic Nietzsche, John Williams (author of Augustus and Butcher's Crossing), Stephen Wright (Going Native, Meditations in Green, The Amalgamation Polka), Cormac McCarthy, Clarice Lispector, George Pelecanos, and my latest discovery/obsession - Jim Nisbet.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book? I have a lot to say about a great many things.  Some of it is dumb.  Some of it isn't.  Some of it is ponderous, skanky, irreverent, philosophical, categorical, and probably likely very, very lame.  Putting those thoughts into the mouths of characters and narrators, and examining situations in which those thoughts would manifest themselves in interesting ways seems to me to be best way of examining them from different perspectives in printed material without the author being committed to an institution if found anywhere else other than a bookstore under the category "Fiction".

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?  The mafia, a Furrier in a hot and humid city, a tough, gorgeous redheaded heroine, prisons, and a character who got his nickname because he may or may not have beat a shark to death on the beach after being bitten by said shark while lounging in the water with purple floaties keeping him abrest of the waves?  Seriously - you aren't interested?


Since I don't really know a lot of folks to tag, I'll instead plug the work of my fellow tag-ees, Chris Holm and Brian Quertermous  as well my tagger - Frank Wheeler Jr.

My Reading List 2012 Part 1

So, here's a partial list of what I've read so far this year (I'll update the rest tomrrow):


Feast Day of Fools - James Lee Burke (FICTION)

The Angel Esmeralda - Don Delillo (FICTION - SHORT STORIES)

A Drop of the Hard Stuff - Lawrence Block (FICTION)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carre (FICTION)

The Cut - George Pelecanos (FICTION)

Bangkok 8 - John Burdett (FICTION)

Raylan - Elmore Leonard (FICTION)

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy (FICTION)

The World America Made - Robert Kagan (NON-FICTION)

Bloodmoney - David Ignatius (FICTION)

Sleeping Dogs - Thomas Perry (FICTION)

Drive - James Sallis (FICTION)

Poison Flower - Thomas Perry (FICTION)

The Nearest Exit - Olen Steinhauer (FICTION)

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (FICTION){HAD to see what the fuss was about}

Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (FICTION)

The Ranger - Ace Atkins (FICTION)

The Kings of Cool - Don Winslow (FICTION)

Cogan’s Trade - George V. Higgins (FICTION)

The Friends of Eddie Coyle - George V. Higgins (FICTION)

A Hologram for the King - Dave Eggers (FICTION)

The Lost Ones - Ace Atkins (FICTION)

Beautiful Ruins - Jess Walter (FICTION)

Dare Me - Megan Abbott (FICTION)

Miami Purity - Vicki Hendricks (FICTION)

The Dog Stars - Peter Heller (FICTION)

The Professionals - Owen Laukkanen (FICTION)

Man Hunt: The 10-Year Search for Bin Laden - Peter Bergen (NON-FICTION)

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler (FICTION)

Double Indemnity - James M. Cain (FICTION)

The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain (FICTION)

The Killer Inside Me - Jim Thompson (FICTION)

The Passage of Power -The Years of LBJ - Robert A. Caro (NON-FICTION)

This Is How You Lose Her - Junot Diaz (FICTION - SHORT STORIES)

White Noise – Don Delillo (FICTION)

The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway (FICTION)

The Irony of American History – Rheinhold Neihbur (NON-FICTION; essay)

Nine Stories – J.D. Salinger (FICTION)

The Lemur – Benjamin Black (John Banville) (FICTION)

Liar’s Poker – Michael Lewis (NON-FICTION)

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (FICTION)

Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut (FICTION)

The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway (FICTION)

The Duel – Anton Chekhov (FICTION)

Detective Story – Imre Kertesz (FICTION)

Notes from Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky (FICTION)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – A. Solzhenitsyn (FICTION)

The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton (FICTION)

A Long Overdue "Leavings from the Banquet Table"

A long overdue "leavings" is in store shortly (consisting, as always, with links, both literary and otherwise, that I believe merit a further click from my [cough, cough] legion of readers here at The Book Viking).

In the interim, enjoy this post about J.D. Salinger. I'm reminded of a line from Don Delillo's Cosmopolis - "Talent is more erotic when it's wasted."

Happy New Year!

So, 2012 is finally here. A long overdue (as in "is he REALLY still doing that project thing") post on the Knopf Project is in store. The project as a whole is a failure, but a success. Viking will explain shortly.

With projects in mind (and failed ones at that), Viking thought it best to start the new year right - more posting, more tweeting, more blogging. As Whitney Cummings said recently - "if you don't post twice a week or more, you're not a blogger."

So, Viking may have some design changes in mind to increase readability, and some other surprises in store. With that, Viking has decided to publish his list of reading resolutions for the New Year. Off to the list!

Viking will finally finish, in January:

1. Master and Margarita (have read it before, but a long time ago). Currently stuck on p. 234 (you mean you stopped in the MIDDLE OF A CHAPTER!?!?!)

2. Lolita - know what it's all about; tried to read many times. Currently stuck on p.73

3. Madame Bovary - have read other translations before; Currently stuck on p. 61 of Lydia Davis' new translation.

4. Catch 22 - no excuse here. Currently stuck on p. 246 of the modern library edition after a valiant, sprinting (if I do say so myself) effort back in August.


Other than these more modest reading goals, I think the main resolution has to be to purchase fewer books based on good reviews and read more books that I already own, which, perhaps, includes other books purchased on the strength of good reviews alone, but whose allure tarnished as the days passed.

What are your reading goals? What are your New Year's Resolutions?

ABOUT THAT KNOPF PROJECT

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to upbraid oneself for failing to keep pace with one’s self-imposed and otherwise unnecessary reading project, a decent and proper reader-cum-blogger is required to bring forth those reasons which heretofore have prevented him from keeping said pace and declare those reasons before the world.

Which means, well, that I’m behind. Behind on the Knopf Project, that is, having failed thus far in my quest to read and critique or write about books I’ve read (intelligently, one hopes) on this blog.

How did it happen? To tell the truth, this is how:

BECAUSE KNOPF PUBLISHES TOO MANY GOD-DAMN BOOKS FOR ME TO KEEP PACE WITH.

OK, the vent is over. To be sure, this isn’t Knopf’s fault. They’re out to (1) publish well-written, well-argued, and well-constructed books so (2) people like me buy them (hopefully) and read them (hopefully, but ultimately not “really” their concern). To be further sure, it’s my fault. I created the Knopf Project. I gave myself an unreasonable, and perhaps even unobtainable, goal. I cried “piffle!” to the suggestion from a helpful Knopfmensch when she suggested that it IS an awful lot to be reading.

“Hey, no problemo - I practically read like Johnny 5! Input! More input! INPUT INPUT INPUT! WOO-WOO-WOO!!” was the cry heard inside my noggin.

And to be uber-uber sure, I regret that I don’t regret it one bit.

So, since I’m fairly sure I at least have the attention of maybe a few of you (who is reading this blog from Alaska?), I thought it only fair to provide an update on my progress. And since I never “really” defined the terms of my reading schedule, I’ve decided that it means I’m reading every (and hopefully blogging about) every book published by Knopf from September to December, paperbacks, cookbooks, collected journals and diaries, or collections of essays, and at least one or two titles that I’ll simply have to veto for personal reasons (i.e. “A 1,000 page biography of Spencer Tracy is just obscene!” [however, I’ve not given up on that book just yet]). I’m not promising that they’ll all be reviewed by December. And I reserve the right to bitch and moan further and maybe even boycott my own damn project for a week or so. Well then, without further adieu:


BOOKS READ:

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Ghost on the Throne by James Romm

Hemingway’s Boat by Paul Hendrickson

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (reviewed here)

What Work Is by Philip Levine (to be fair, “technically” re-published/ re-printed by Knopf after Levine’s recent selection as the new “Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress”)


BOOKS IN PROGRESS:

The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje

Kindertotenwald by Franz Wright

Last Man in Tower by Aravind Adiga

Dark Market by Misha Glenny


BOOKS PURCHASED:

Political Evil by Alan Wolfe

South of the Sun by Lynne Cox

Ghosts by Daylight by Janine Di Giovanni

Sorry by Zoran Drvenkar

Luck and Circumstance by Michael Lindsay-Hogg

The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst


Detours Taken:

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (to be fair, this was a warm-up for the forthcoming 950+ page tome, 1Q84, due out in two weeks.)

Why Poetry Matters by David Orr

The Cut by George Pelecanos


So, with that, back to reading, crapheads. Look for reviews of “Ghost on the Throne” and “The Sense of An Ending” this week.