NONFICTION
A writer’s life in words By Alison Hood I must confess: I have never read one of Graham Swift’s novels. But reading his first long work of nonfiction, Making an Elephant: Writing from Within, made me want to rush to my local library and gather up a stack of his fictional tales (especially his Booker Prize-winning novel, Last Orders). I had met the man, telling of his literary and day-to-day life, in his own fine and witty words; now I wanted to meet the novelist. Making an Elephant is a funny sort of book, in that it is not easily categorized. It contains interviews, memoir, a lecture on writing, various personal memories about Swift’s friendships and career, a small collection of poems and an elegant essay on the French writer Michel Montaigne. But this veritable curio cabinet of detailed reminiscences makes for an extraordinary autobiographical look into the literary and otherwise ordinary life of an accomplished, though wryly self-deprecating novelist—one who taught himself to write. The book’s title, taken from an essay about Swift’s father, is a wonderfully tender, poignant, yet cogent analysis of his father’s life and legacy. Hoping to please his straightarrow, responsible, handyman father, Swift endeavored to fashion a wooden silhouette of an elephant, which he then painted a realistic gray hue, even after his father fancifully encouraged him to paint it pink or yellow. “Grey it Making an was. . . . The strange reversal stays with me . . . that I should Elephant have been the realist, he the fantasist.” By Graham Swift Several other pieces in this literary collection shine Knopf brightly as well: Swift’s local history of the town in which $26.95, 416 pages he lives, combined with a catalog of his writing habits and ISBN 9780307270993 credo; a determinedly merry Christmas celebration spent with the beleaguered Salman Rushdie; meditative fishing forays with poet Ted Hughes; shopping for a guitar with author Kazuo Ishiguro; and my favorite, a moving tribute, called “Negronis with Alan,” to his former mentor and editor, Alan Ross. A pleasure to read, from first word to last, Making an Elephant is sure to move writers and readers alike to join the legions of Graham Swift fans. o
INTERNATIONAL FICTION
Stranger in a strange land
JULY 2009 BOOKPAGE = www.bookpage.com
By Lauren Bufferd Americans have become acquainted with best-selling French author and director Philippe Claudel through his award-winning film I’ve Loved You So Long in which Kristin Scott Thomas plays a woman re-entering society after serving time in prison. Claudel’s superb new novel Brodeck also features a protagonist who is thrust back into the world after a horrific experience. Brodeck takes place in an unnamed European village in the aftermath of a terrible, but unspecified, war. Brodeck, who earns his living writing reports for a government bureau, has returned to the village after two years in a concentration camp. A stranger arrives in the village where his odd manner and habits draw suspicion. After he exhibits his drawings of the village, he dies in a mysterious accident. Brodeck is told to write an authorized account of the stranger’s death, essentially a whitewash of the incident, which provokes Brodeck into secretly writing a description of his own troubled past. Brodeck’s first line is an assertion of his innocence in the Brodeck stranger’s death. But as he tries to unravel the mystery, his By Philippe Claudel own life story pushes to the foreground. Though Brodeck Nan A. Talese/Doubleday has grown up in the village, he arrived there as a fremder (a $26, 336 pages stranger) and, during the war, he was interned in a camp ISBN 9780385527248 where his life depended on almost a complete negation of his humanity. With his return to the community, he worries that his survival only reminds the villagers of their collective guilt, and their fear of the stranger proves to Brodeck that, again, they will sacrifice one they think is not their own. Brodeck has a fairy-tale quality, but it is of the Brothers Grimm variety, filled with dark woods, wandering strangers and mysterious feasts. The village is peopled with rural archetypes, but their actions—some cruel, some kind—have a disturbing specificity. Although there are occasional mentions of modern machines, the lack of a precise time or location adds to the air of the unfamiliar. Like other explorers of the 20thcentury experience—Elie Wiesel, J.M. Coetzee, Franz Kafka—Claudel is a novelist of ideas and abstractions, but he weaves a powerful spell with this engrossing tale. o 22 Lauren Bufferd writes from Nashville.
Book clubs New paperbacks for reading groups Requiem, Mass. By John Dufresne This novel-about-a-novel is a smartly crafted narrative that deconstructs the writing process. John, the book’s central character, has composed a work of fiction that fails to live up to the standards of his girlfriend, Annick. She thinks it lacks life, so John undertakes an overhaul of the manuscript, ending up with a memoir about his childhood in Requiem, Massachusetts. Back then, John was known as Johnny, and—along with Audrey, his sister—he grew up mostly in the care of Frances, their crazy but loving mother. Frances, who took baths in gas- Norton oline, believed her real children were kidnapped and that John $13.95, 336 pages ISBN 9780393334869 and Audrey were aliens. Their father, Rainey, a truck driver, was on the road more often than not and seemed to be hiding something from the family. The narrative juxtaposes the past and the present, comparing John’s unorthodox upbringing with his modern life, as he composes the memoir, hangs out with friends and interviews for various teaching jobs. The shifts in time and place set up a fascinating contrast that illuminates the practice of writing and the slippery nature of memory. Dufresne manipulates complex, varied narrative strands with the skill of a master storyteller. This is a multilayered novel that’s sure to appeal to fans of literary fiction. A reading group guide is included in the book.
The Little Book By Selden Edwards Edwards’ debut novel is a whimsical story of time travel that blends fiction and fact. Magically carried into the past, Stan “Wheeler” Burden—47-year-old rock star, history buff and heir to a prestigious Boston banking family—moves from 1980s San Francisco to 1890s Vienna, without a clue as to how the uprooting occurs. Wheeler sets out to make the best of it, outfitting himself in fashionable clothes and making equally fashionable friends—a group of intellectu- Plume als that includes none other than Sigmund Freud. Freud, $15, 416 pages who listens to Wheeler’s strange stories about the future, is ISBN 9780452295513 convinced that his new friend suffers from mental delusions and takes on the role of guardian and mentor. While stranded in this strange new world, Wheeler falls in love with a beautiful American woman and learns some incredible facts about his own peculiar family. Edwards, a retired high school English teacher and headmaster who spent more than 30 years working on the novel, fills this ingenious tale with cleverly staged incidents involving famous figures—Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler and Gustav Mahler all have roles. Fast-paced and full of wonderful dialogue, with a true hero at the helm, the novel spans nine decades, covering plenty of territory along the way. In the end, the answer to the book’s central puzzle—how Wheeler managed to travel through time—proves the most amazing story of all. A reading group guide is available at us.penguingroup.com.
The Road Home By Rose Tremain Tremain’s latest book is a powerful novel about immigration and its attendant complexities. Lev, a widower from Eastern Europe, comes to London in search of a job that will allow him to support the daughter and mother who wait for him back home. Lev—who speaks scant English and has precious little money—is anxious and skeptical about the move and soon suffers from culture shock. He doesn’t quite know what to make of Western Europe’s speed and openness—its sexy advertisements and poorly cooked food—or its inhospitable Back Bay attitude toward transplants like himself. But things take a turn $14.99, 432 pages for the better when he’s hired as a kitchen worker in a fancy ISBN 9780316002622 restaurant. He also befriends a lonely Irishman named Christy, who drinks too much and has his own past to mourn. Christy gives Lev a room in his house—a place that feels like home—and Lev does his best to assimilate, becoming romantically involved with a young coworker named Sophie and learning to tolerate the tyrant ways of Gregory, his boss. Intelligent, observant and open-minded, Lev is a likable central character, and his attempts to combat the homesickness that inevitably plagues him make for a poignant narrative. Winner of the prestigious Orange Prize, this is a timely, moving novel—a beautifully written account of the immigrant experience. A reading group guide is included in the book. o —JULIE HALE