by Scott W Clemens | Apr 2, 2019 | Author's Blog
Books, like food, come in all flavors and not everyone has the same taste. Likewise, a movie critic may not share your sensibilities, and a wine critic may have opposite tastes. So how do you choose what to read? These days we’re lucky, because instead of just one critic, or one best-seller list, we can read dozens of reviews by readers. As an indie writer, it’s easy to become discouraged. Your work doesn’t pass through traditional gatekeepers (agent and editor) who serve to weed out the chaff. So the only way to know if your book is kernel or chaff is to put it out in the marketplace and let readers vet or reject it. It’s easy to doubt yourself.
Then you come upon famously awarded books that are so bad that you can’t help but feel your book is better. At times like these, you realize that the critic who pronounced that book a work of genius, was either drunk or smoking some bad weed. What else could account for such drivel. I’ll give you three examples that I bring to mind whenever I doubt the value of my own work. The first is James Jones’s National Book Award winning From Here to Eternity, which wraps poor writing around the story of a loser who makes all the wrong choices and dies for nothing. Then there’s John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, a parody of Victorian hysteria and sexual repression, where the narrator occasionally steps into the picture and reminds you that it’s small make believe and nothing to be excited about. Not to be outdone by Katherine Anne Porter’s Ship of Fools which, though well-written, presents a cast of such despicable characters that you can’t help but hope the ship will sink and take all of them to the bottom so you can be rid of them for good.
As a reader, you always have the option of bailing out before the crash, but a lot of us keep reading with the misplaced optimism that a satisfying ending will save an otherwise hollow story.
by Scott W Clemens | Feb 8, 2019 | Author's Blog
I don’t think there is a writer in the world who doesn’t cringe at his or her own writing from time to time. It’s easy to get discouraged, which is why I’m heartened by positive reviews. They let me know that I’m on track and delivering what readers want. Even better are negative reviews of other books. They let me know that even well known writers, or well publicized writers don’t always hit the mark. Of course, knowing you’re no worse than some other schmuck is a poor substitute for praise, but we writers will take what we can get. Best of all are the monumental failures, books so bad that they make your worst book look like The Great American Novel.
That said, I’ve usually refrained from gloating over someone else’s poor reviews in public, which is why it was so unusual for me to post a scathing review on my Facebook feed last July. Here it is in total:
“The next time I question my writing, I’ll only have to look at Half Moon Bay again and be assured that writers far worse than I are still published by reputable publishers. Read it aloud and have a good laugh.
“I live just north of Half Moon Bay, so when I saw a new book called Half Moon Bay and set in my own backyard, I had to take a look. I’ve reviewed plenty of books, but I’ve never been tempted to spread the word about a really bad book — until now. Simply call it up on Amazon, click on the Look Inside feature, and read the sample chapter. Then read the reviews, and you’ll wonder how such incoherent, overwrought drivel received any stars at all. The author, Alice LaPlante, taught writing at Stanford, where she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. Stegner must be spinning in his grave. If you want something amusing to show your friends, you can have all 272 hardbound pages for $24.25 (the cover is kind of nice), or the Kindle edition for just $13.99. For the record, Scribner has foisted this gewgaw on the innocent public. I expect the editor (if there was one) has moved on to another line of work.”
I know I’m being mean spirited to call attention to it, but I couldn’t help it; it felt so good to know that I’m not the worst writer on the planet. The book had only been out a week or so at the time, so it was hard to know how the general public would receive it — anything is possible. As it transpired, I’m not alone. Six months after its release, fully 50% of reviewers have given it only one or two stars out of five.
That gave me pause to wonder how books are received by their intended audience. While poorly written books can become bestsellers (Love Story, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull are good examples), at the same time, some beautifully written books receive poor reviews because the subject matter is disturbing (My Absolute Darling), or because the storytelling is deficient (Less, and Infinite Jest, and Ulysses), or the public is not up to the literary challenge (The Sound and the Fury, or Lincoln in the Bardo come to mind). Yet it’s nice to know that a writer can still trust in his or her artistic vision, however quirky, and still find an audience. It gives me hope.
by Scott W Clemens | Dec 31, 2018 | Author's Blog
Ever since I was fifteen I’ve kept a log of the books I read (over 1,400 to date). The vast majority are fiction. I try to keep up with contemporary authors, and read an occasional classic from the nineteenth-century. I don’t restrict my reading to fine literature, and I touch most of the genres — mystery, thriller, romance, magical realism, science-fiction, fantasy, gothic novels, historical novels, horror, young adult fiction, dystopian fiction, and very rarely a graphic novel. I do not read about vampires (with the exception of Christopher Moore’s spoofs), or werewolves, simply because I have no interest.
These days I read hardbacks, paperbacks, and ebooks, while fully three quarters of my “reading” is through audiobooks.I always reread two or three novels a year. In 2018 I read 52 books, including three non-fiction, and five books that I had read previously. 18 were written by women. Three were translations. 14 of the 52, were by British authors, three were Canadian, one Irish, one Spanish, one Pakistani, and the rest American.
My favorites in the order in which I read them:
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, by Phaedre Paatrick
The Light of Day, by Eric Ambler
Allie and Bea, by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid
Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly
Feel free to pass on your own recommendations.
by Scott W Clemens | Oct 1, 2018 | Author's Blog
I just finished reading Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly. Powerfully imagined, beautifully written, it’s a timely reminder of how quickly civilization can fracture, how despots can warp the narrative to turn neighbor against neighbor, and the lasting trauma inflicted on the survivors. At the same time there is compassion and post-traumatic growth, giving a hopeful look to the future. It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel. The writing is vivid and assured.
by Scott W Clemens | Aug 2, 2018 | Author's Blog
Are you feeling lucky? Through August 30th I’ll be running a SWEEPSTAKES. The winner, chosen at random, will receive a Kindle Paperwhite eReader ($120 value) pre-loaded with two of my novels.
Why would I give away a Kindle? Because it will give me the opportunity to interact with people who show an interest in reading, and introduce them to my work.
To enter simply go to http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/25672a321/? and click on the button at the bottom of the page.
by Scott W Clemens | Jul 31, 2018 | Author's Blog
I’ve read 29 books so far this year, and just finished George Saunders’ Man Booker Prize Winner Lincoln in the Bardo. My personal view is that Lincoln in the Bardo isn’t so much a novel as a play in novel-like form. I expect to see it on Broadway in two or three years. It’s really a very short book. George Saunders is a short-story writer, and though this book is 368 pages, it could be formatted to half the number of pages. Imaginative, idiosyncratic, and bold in conception, it incorporates dozens of contemporary historical accounts to build a collage of Lincoln and his middle son Willie. The larger story is narrated by over a hundred inhabitants of the bardo (a sort of purgatory between life and rebirth), each with his or her own concerns and foibles. Saunders’ bardo is suitably creepy. I have only a few reservations. There seemed no purpose to the lack of punctuation, or to the purposeful misspelling of certain words. Also, two foul-mouthed characters seem out-of-character for the time period, while at the same time their foul dialogue is presented with decorously Victorian redaction, as in “The f___ing little s_____! I should kick his G_____n, f___ing nuts!” Despite these reservations, Lincoln in the Bardo is a brave, artistic work, a wild cross-breeding of Waiting for Godot with Our Town, at once full of angst, darkly humorous, and poignant.
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