Nancy Pearl Talks Up UNDERSTORIES on NPR's Morning Edition
I was thrilled to hear Nancy Pearl select UNDERSTORIES as one of her "under-the-radar" picks for Summer Reading on NPR's Morning Edition last week. Dubbing it "elastic realism," she named it "probably [her] favorite short story collection in recent memory," and delved in greater detail into a couple of stories, "The Discipline of Shadows" and "The Gendarmes." She went on to discuss a couple of other books that sound compelling; I can distinctly recall wanting to read one, Reif Larsen's THE SELECTED WORKS OF TS SPIVET, when it was published in 2009, since I am, myself, a devotee of unconventional maps. Anyway, I’m so grateful that she placed my book in this company. Here’s a link to the story: http://www.npr.org/2014/06/23/3237070...
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Trish
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Jul 10, 2014 06:21PM
Nice! Thanks for the link.
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Thanks for checking it out, Trish! I'm pretty excited for the new Mitchell as well. Cloud Atlas took me a few running, faltering starts in the 19th century before it "took," so to speak, and I became a huge enthusiast. It's a book where an act resigning oneself to partial understandings along the way seems to be intrinsic to its pleasures and rewards.
Tim wrote: "Cloud Atlas took me a few running, faltering starts in the 19th century before it "took," so to speak, and I became a huge enthusiast. It's a book where an act resigning oneself to partial understandings along the way seems to be intrinsic to its pleasures and rewards...."Yes, I am interested to investigate some more interviews with him. I don't think I was aware that the novel was a kind of science fiction. One person called it genre-bending. That helps me with preparation for comprehension.
Trish wrote: Yes, I am interested to investigate some more interviews with him. I don't think I was aware that the novel was a kind of science fiction. One person called it genre-bending. That helps me with preparation for comprehension."It definitely runs the gamut from historical fiction to epistolary to potboiler to comic romp to science fiction. Part of the delight, it seems to me, is in watching oneself and how one's reading expectations and emphases remain steady or shift as one crosses from one genre/time period/storyline to another. The film, by contrast, mashes them up in a way that is a marvel of quasi-continuity, but I think surrenders some of the book's distinctiveness.
I'm glad for you that Understories sneaked in under the radar. Now that it has come under the scrutiny of Nancy Pearl, it has a chance to be better understood and less underappreciated by the discerning reader.
Richard wrote: "I'm glad for you that Understories sneaked in under the radar. Now that it has come under the scrutiny of Nancy Pearl, it has a chance to be better understood and less underappreciated by the disce..."Thanks, Richard! As I've understood your comment--and forgive me, I'm under a lot of stress, my underlip quivering--if I've underestimated you, or underserved you, or am underqualified to respond, even underread, to frame matters in the terms of this site (in Kundera, specifically), I can only hope you don't find me a complete (d)underhead. The undersigned, Tim
Tim wrote: "Richard wrote: "I'm glad for you that Understories sneaked in under the radar. Now that it has come under the scrutiny of Nancy Pearl, it has a chance to be better understood and less underapprecia..."I do not wish to understate my admiration for your flair in the word-play department. But you have underscored the fact that you are certainly no underachiever.
I do not wish to understate my admiration for your flair in the word-play department. But you have underscored the fact that you are certainly no underachiever. "Kind of you to say. At risk of overkill, (no. stop now!)...
Tim wrote: "I do not wish to understate my admiration for your flair in the word-play department. But you have underscored the fact that you are certainly no underachiever. "Kind of you to say. At risk of ov..."
Sir, you are too Timid.
Richard wrote: "Sir, you are too Timid.""Overdelicate," please.
