Notes from Around the Web: Literary Links for Shabbat
Shabbat shalom!
Posts Tagged‘Quiet Americans’
Thursday’s Post-Publication Post
Last weekend, I attended my 20th college reunion. I brought promotional postcards with me (although I hadn’t had the foresight–or chutzpah–of a fellow classmate-author who’d somehow managed to get postcards of her book inserted into every attendee’s registration packet).
And friends old and new expressed genuine interest in my short-story collection, Quiet Americans. One friend whipped out his iPhone on the spot and immediately purchased a copy from Amazon.com. Another ordered a signed copy via my website almost as soon as she got home. Classmates who’d already read the book praised it to others. All of this meant so much to me.
I was also quite moved to learn from two other classmates, in separate exchanges, that they, too, are grandchildren of refugees from Nazi Europe. I wonder how many other such grandchildren may be among the 1600 of us in the Class of ’91. I may have to pose this question on the class Facebook page….
In other news: While I was away, my friend Anne Fernald posted thoughts about Quiet Americans on her blog (which has been part of my blogroll as long as I’ve had a blogroll). And she had lots of complimentary things to say. But she also shared some reservations, specifically about the way she perceived two of the stories dealing with “political” issues. I value honesty, so I appreciate all of Anne’s analysis–even the criticisms (not that I necessarily agree with them, of course…;-)).
And right after I returned from the reunion, Fiction Writers Review published a wonderfully generous (and, as always, gorgeously designed) feature. The teaser: “In conversation with Anne Stameshkin, debut author Erika Dreifus shares true stories that inspired her collection, Quiet Americans; wonders when it’s kosher for authors to write characters from backgrounds they don’t share; explores how reviewing books makes us better fiction writers; and recommends favorite novels and collections by 21st-century Jewish authors.” The interview: here.
Finally, this week brought us the beginning of June, and with it, the latest issue of Shelf Unbound. Click here to peruse the issue, which features a Q&A about Quiet Americans and an excerpt–a full story–from the book. (I’m not going to reveal which story. I’ll let you be surprised!)
Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: Self-Interview Re: The Jewish Book NETWORK & Meet the Author Programs
Q. Erika, what is the Jewish Book NETWORK?
A. Well, Erika, according to the Jewish Book Council’s website, “The Jewish Book NETWORK is a membership organization of close to 100 participating sites, JCCs, synagogues, Hillels, Jewish Federations and other related organizations that host Jewish book programs. Through this NETWORK, the Jewish Book Council is able to provide extensive resources to the program coordinators, including introduction to authors interested in touring Jewish book festivals, advice from experts on topics that affect a book program, and a chance to learn from the experiences of others in the field. “
Q. And what is “Meet the Author”?
A. Again, right from the source: “Each year the Jewish Book Council sponsors a conference for all Jewish Book NETWORK members and their lay leaders in conjunction with the annual BookExpo America. This conference begins the new season of book festival planning. In addition to workshops and networking among the NETWORK members, the annual conference includes a program called Meet the Author. Through this event, authors are invited to speak to the members of the Jewish Book NETWORK in the hopes of touring and visiting with the Jewish book programs that are represented.”
Q. So what does this have to do with you? Your book? (more…)
Notes from Around the Web: Literary Links for Shabbat
Shabbat shalom!
Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: What I’m Learning About Quiet Americans
A few months ago, debut novelist Ellen Meeropol (House Arrest) wrote about what she was learning about her own book from others, from those readers who had written pre-publication reviews and blurbs. “I didn’t expect to be surprised – and humbled – by readers’ insights into my characters and their story,” she wrote, detailing several examples of unanticipated illumination.
My story collection, Quiet Americans, received much less pre-pub attention than Elli’s wonderful novel did, but as reviews and comments have come in following the January release, I have been struck time and again by similar sentiments.
Earlier this month, for instance, I was wowed by two takes on the book. First, as part of his Short Story Month celebrations on the Emerging Writers Network, Dan Wickett devoted a detailed blog post to an analysis of the book’s title story: “The Quiet American, Or How to Be a Good Guest.” Dan focused on the use of second-person narration in this story and speculated as to why I might have chosen to employ it. His surmise made me think about this choice in an altogether new way.
Then, the Englewood Review of Books, a publication I learned about only when my publisher was contacted for a review copy, featured an extraordinarily comprehensive analysis of Quiet Americans by reviewer Rebecca Henderson. This review does so much. Not least impressive to me is the fact that the reviewer mentions every story in a substantive way.
But apart from the excellent summary and generous praise embedded in the review (I’m compared with Jhumpa Lahiri!), I found this exceptional observation, which I’d truly never considered:
In fact, five of the seven stories in Quiet Americans deal with pregnancy and birth, making this a major theme of the book. Dreifus uses the birth motif to show the undying connection between the generations of a family, the hope of new life in the face of sadness and death, and the frailty of human existence in a fallen world.
This observation impressed me as particularly interesting, because I’d certainly never set out to write a book whose “major theme” would be pregnancy and birth. It surprised me very much–pleasantly–to see that a reader engaged with the text on its own terms, and on hers, and discerned this thread on her own.
And that she showed me that it’s there.