The other day I found comments people had written about my books on a book review website. And I was struck by how often the comments with the worst syntax complained about the writing.
Jayne Anne Phillip’s Night Watch, winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction, was described by Dwight Garner in the New York Times Book Review (Sept. 25, 2023) as “sludgy, claustrophobic, and pretentious.”
Tomorrow I will be speaking about my memoir with Ann Bocock at the Sun Sentinel’s PRIME Expo. It is a day of talks and seminars for people over the age of 50, which is to say: my typical audience. Even though my book is a coming-of-age story, about a young man’s quest to become a travel writer, most of the people who come to hear me talk about it are Boomers like myself. Even when I attend readings by other, younger writers, the audience is usually made up of seniors. They are, to a large extent, keeping book readings, bookstores, the book business alive.
What if on Valentine’s Day, instead of flowers, people gave books with the word “love” in their subtitles?
Another lovely custom at Midtown Reader in Tallahassee: The downstairs bathroom is lined with wallpaper patterned with bookshelves filled with nameless books. Authors, after their readings, are given a pen and asked to write the title of their book, along with their name, on one of the blank spines. So now women getting up from the toilet can look to their right – and men standing at the toilet can look to their left – and see the words “Falling into Place: A Story of Love, Poland, and the Making of a Travel Writer.” Though I was tempted to write: "The Art of Sitting Brokenhearted."
While away, I did an event at the Midtown Reader in Tallahassee. A few days before the event, I received an email from the program coordinator informing me of the schedule – intro, conversation, Q&A – and of the flavors of the pies that would be available in the café: tollhouse, triple berry, and buttermilk.
Yesterday, I received another email from the coordinator, requesting my home address so she could send me a thank you card.