first newspaper review for “the sound of building coffins”
I only know this because I have discovered the wonder of “google alerts.” It’s a good way to see if anyone is talking about you on the net without having to endure the private humiliation of pathetically googling yourself all the time.
Anyway, hot off the presses, here’s the first newspaper review for my novel The Sound of Building Coffins, as ( Read more... )
"...people who didn't deserve such suffering...well, you know. And that the one who did deserve it went so long without it."
Sadly, you can say that about so many things in real life. Not just New Orleans. I mean, look at the president that just left office -- talk about a real life Jim Jam Jump run amok. Will he ever get what he deserves? THAT's how life really goes.
Because I write in a mode of magic realism, I feel a responsibility to keep the realism part very real -- otherwise the magic bits feel too fluffy. There has to be a reasonable balance, even if it hurts. So; I hate to beat up on my characters as much as I hate to see so much suffering in real life -- the fiction pays tribute to the real in that way. But at least with fiction I can insert some magical elements that define some sense of order in the greater scheme of things. This kind of order is never as obvious in reality, at least it never has been for me.
Ideas of the afterlife are usually associated with types of faith, but faith is a very imaginative process -- so I think the Spiritworld of the novel is as valid as any other idea of the afterlife. I mean, who knows? And that's one of the wonders of literary fiction; that collaboration of imagination between the writer and the reader.
I know what you mean about dancing around spoilers with comments like these ;-) Hopefully one day there'll be enough interest in the book that we can justify setting up a discussion forum with a special spoiler-infested thread.
Along those lines, I'll PM you about 226, just to be safe :)
But I will say this: I didn't see page 226 coming either, and it probably broke my heart more than it did yours...
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Very true - thus my "I'm grouchy, but it's a good grouchy." It's not always pleasant to get smacked upside the head with Life. ;-)
I mean, look at the president that just left office -- talk about a real life Jim Jam Jump run amok. Will he ever get what he deserves? THAT's how life really goes.
Awww, now see? You've gone and insulted Jim Jam Jump!
Along those lines, I'll PM you about 226, just to be safe :)
Or Email works: Starshadw at aol dot com
Oh, and I loved the twist at the end. In fact, that's what clinched it for me in terms of "Now, when I recommend this, and people ask me what it is, what am I going to call it?" I decided that really, it's a surreal horror story. Not in the silly sense of the Hollywood garbage we see these days, but in the turn your head around sense of Lovecraft or Poe, where you keep finding yourself going "Wait, WHAT??"
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Funny about that whole "what do I call this" business. I really have no idea. In fact, when I was looking for an agent, I was so clueless as to how to describe it briefly (synopsis, query) that I wound up telling a tiny fib in the query process just to get agents to read it. The ruse worked, my dishonest query got the manuscript read, and the agent liked it so much she never even mentioned the original inconsistency.
If I had a gun to my head, I think I'd classify this as magic realism, or literary horror, or a mixture of the two. The word "literary" makes me uncomfortable, but so many other people are calling it that, I guess it's ok. It really just is what it is, whatever it is.
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