wonder boys
"Dazzling, seemingly effortless writing." This quote is from a Sunday Telegraph review of Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon. I just finished reading it today and it's shot into my top ten best ever books chart, to keep company with Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay which I read a few years ago. I'd had Wonder Boys on my bookshelf for a while. It never seemed the right moment to pick it up, but you know how sometimes a book chooses you? It comes along when you're ready for it, need it even. That's what I feel happened with Wonder Boys.
I'm not one for writing book reviews. Trying to condense an entire plot into one paragraph seems rather discourteous somehow. But I will tell you that two of the main characters are a middle aged professor, and mid-career novelist, Grady Tripp and his young student and would-be author James Leer. Tripp has writer's block and no idea how to finish his 2,000 page, seven years in the writing novel Wonder Boys. James is struggling to pin down both his sexuality and his authorial voice, stealing ideas, identities and belongings from other people whenever he can along the way. It's a story about writing and not writing, editing, inspiration, creative ideas, stopping and starting, and fucking everything up and being given a second chance.
I think Chabon's use of language and his turns of phrase are indeed dazzling, as the review says, and yes his writing does seem effortless. I hate him. But I love him too for the two, so far, novels of his that I've read and adored. Books to jump into and get lost in. I've just come back from the library, having chosen my next read, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. It comes highly recommended by my good friend David, and he knows a good read when he finds one.
I'm not one for writing book reviews. Trying to condense an entire plot into one paragraph seems rather discourteous somehow. But I will tell you that two of the main characters are a middle aged professor, and mid-career novelist, Grady Tripp and his young student and would-be author James Leer. Tripp has writer's block and no idea how to finish his 2,000 page, seven years in the writing novel Wonder Boys. James is struggling to pin down both his sexuality and his authorial voice, stealing ideas, identities and belongings from other people whenever he can along the way. It's a story about writing and not writing, editing, inspiration, creative ideas, stopping and starting, and fucking everything up and being given a second chance.
I think Chabon's use of language and his turns of phrase are indeed dazzling, as the review says, and yes his writing does seem effortless. I hate him. But I love him too for the two, so far, novels of his that I've read and adored. Books to jump into and get lost in. I've just come back from the library, having chosen my next read, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. It comes highly recommended by my good friend David, and he knows a good read when he finds one.
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