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Peter’s Year In Books

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Peter Rock

Goodreads Author

Born

in Salt Lake City, Utah, The United States

Website

http://peterrockproject.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories, Young Adult

Member Since

March 2007

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Peter Rock was born and raised in Salt Lake City. His most recent novel, Passersthrough, involves a murder house, a fax machine, communications between the living and the dead, and a mountain lake that moves from place to place. He is also the author of the novels The Night Swimmers, SPELLS, Klickitat, The Shelter Cycle, My Abandonment, The Bewildered, The Ambidextrist, Carnival Wolves and This Is the Place, as well as a story collection, The Unsettling. Rock attended Deep Springs College, received a BA in English from Yale University, and held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. He has taught fiction at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Deep Springs College, and in the MFA program at San Francisco State University. His ...more

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Peter Rock I found myself in a very uncanny moment, and I reacted to it.

This is actually a scene that is accounted for in the novel: Five or six years ago in Wi…moreI found myself in a very uncanny moment, and I reacted to it.

This is actually a scene that is accounted for in the novel: Five or six years ago in Wisconsin, I was looking for something, both daughters in tow, and we went into the Red Cabin, an old 10 x 15 foot shack where I used to sleep. Once inside, I found myself surrounded by the artifacts of my life, twenty years before. An old bicycle, pieces of windsurfers, a Montana license plate from a favorite truck, but especially remnants of my attempts to be a writer. The old desk where I tried to write stories and, on the walls, personal but discouraging rejections from C. Michael Curtis at The Atlantic and Lois Rosenthal at Story, quotations from Camus (“It is only in order to shine sooner that that the author refuses to rewrite. Despicable. Begin again.”) and Hemingway, a photocopy of a picture of a handless blind boy reading Braille with his lips.

It was a pathetic tableau, an atmosphere of self-serious loneliness still lingering. I was fascinated and embarrassed at the same time. Also bewildered. I mean, there was no good evidence in those artifacts that my pursuits were anything but pretentious and delusional, that they might lead anywhere. And yet here I was, all this time later, having published books, being a kind of professor and—more surprisingly—having a family, these excellent daughters. It was uncomfortable to feel connected to that person, difficult to understand there being a continuity between him and me. I was standing there just staring at these pieces of my past in disbelief while my girls were shouting impatiently at me to do what they wanted me to do.

In my writing, I’ve come to understand “inspiration” as a reaction to something outside of me, something that I don’t understand but that fascinates me. (I tell my students, “If there’s something that you don’t know much about but that seems to be calling you, it’s because there’s something inside of you that is resonating with it—it’s your job to explore this connection.”) This goes back to my days as a museum security guard, where I passed time trying to make up stories for all the art works in my care. And then reacting, in books I’ve written, to a newspaper story of a father and daughter living in the wilderness, or the history and beliefs of an apocalyptic church in Montana.

This time the mysteries I was reacting to were once inside me, very close to me. So the questions of “What happened?” and “Why?” and “What was wrong with me?” all rose up. And I decided to look into that time, and the pieces of it that were available to me, and to see what possibilities would present themselves, and what I would do.

Because really the goal in all of this is to have something come out of me—in words—that I don’t expect, that surprises me.

I try not to start out with ideas or intentions.
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Peter Rock’s books

Average rating: 3.48 · 10,983 ratings · 1,881 reviews · 37 distinct works • Similar authors

	My Abandonment 3.57 avg rating — 8,225 ratings — published 2009 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Klickitat 3.11 avg rating — 733 ratings — published 2016 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Night Swimmers 3.36 avg rating — 639 ratings — published 2019 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Shelter Cycle 3.04 avg rating — 487 ratings — published 2013 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Passersthrough 3.04 avg rating — 437 ratings — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Bewildered 3.34 avg rating — 103 ratings — published 2005 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Unsettling 3.73 avg rating — 73 ratings — published 2006 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Is the Place 3.41 avg rating — 69 ratings — published 1997 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ambidextrist: A Novel 3.28 avg rating — 60 ratings — published 2002 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Carnival Wolves 3.76 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 1998	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Peter Rock…

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Peter Rock's Blog

More about Diane Williams

Friends! A brief respite from my half-assed self-promotion; when I was writing a review of VICKY SWANKY IS A BEAUTY by Diane Williams, I remembered this tiny essay I wrote about a sentence of hers that has long bedeviled me:

http://www.tinhouse.com/blog/9325/the... Read more of this blog post »

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Published on June 05, 2013 19:57

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Peter’s Recent Updates

Peter Rock is now friends with George Charles
14 hours, 19 min ago · like
Peter Rock rated a book it was amazing Jungle House by Julianne Pachico	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Whoa. Such control and such control. "The locks of the doors unclicked as Mother relaxed, but nobody apart from Lena noticed. ...more
May 17, 2026 03:26PM · like · see review
Peter Rock rated a book it was amazing On the Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Speed it up, translators! "Maybe that is why I write. Maybe it's my way of being alone. Maybe the page is my door out of the disarray. A means of finding a way through all the thoughts and voices that blur together. To sit alone with paper and a pen a ...more
May 14, 2026 11:18AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of On the Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — On the Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Peter Rock rated a book it was amazing One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
"It is destiny for facts to be fiercely contested." ...more
May 01, 2026 08:00PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Peter Rock rated a book it was amazing The Seventh Day by Yu Hua	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
“I’m not afraid of dying,” he said to me evenly. “I’m not afraid of that at all. What I’m afraid of is not being able to see you.” So many skeletons! Best opening chapter ever.
Apr 26, 2026 07:51PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Seventh Day by Yu Hua. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Seventh Day by Yu Hua <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Peter Rock rated a book it was amazing All the Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Truth in advertising! "This morning, Cole, you decided to focus on your run. But you seem to be sidetracked, or anyway are focused on this tree you are leaning on, breathing and crying on it." ...more
Apr 26, 2026 09:12AM · like · see review
Peter Rock rated a book it was amazing Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design by Walter Murch	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Genius. “If we had the ability to visualize the emotions and thoughts of an audience under the sway of a well-made film, they would probably resemble the beautiful arcing loops that we see with large flocks of birds of schools of fish.” “Those successf ...more
Apr 25, 2026 10:18AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Suddenly Something Clicked by Walter Murch. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Suddenly Something Clicked by Walter Murch <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Peter Rock rated a book it was amazing All the Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Truth in advertising! "This morning, Cole, you decided to focus on your run. But you seem to be sidetracked, or anyway are focused on this tree you are leaning on, breathing and crying on it." ...more
Feb 06, 2026 04:03PM · like · see review
Peter Rock rated a book it was amazing On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
So many the cliffhangers, the variations . . . "We discuss the zone of indecisiveness, the field of hesitation, the margin of vagueness. Objects need to become accustomed to us, to be persuaded." ...more
Feb 01, 2026 04:16PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Peter Rock rated a book it was amazing Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I was sure I could hear the tick's scream as it retracted its hundred sharp legs and shriveled into a ball, dropping grey on to the sand. The dog lay motionless, its head on its paws. It understood we were only trying to help. ...more
Jan 30, 2026 03:59PM · 1 like · like · see review

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Quotes by Peter Rock (?)

“It is important to always remember that at any time you think of it there are people being kept in buildings when they want to go outside.”
― Peter Rock, My Abandonment

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“Every problem I have comes from believing something to be true that is not true.”
― Peter Rock, My Abandonment

tags: problem-solving, problems

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“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. He will pass an invisible boundary. Don't forget this. Don't forget that thinking can get in the way. Forget the forgetting. We seek to forget ourselves, to be surprised and to do something without knowing how or why. The way of life is wonderful. It is by abandonment.”
― Peter Rock, My Abandonment

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