November, Two

I finished only two books in November, but I swear that I was reading my eyeballs out. Early that month, I finally received my copy of Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol. 2. Like Vol 1, it's gargantuan, although a slightly slimmer version (1000-ish) of the hefty (1400+) predecessor. Also, it's not the sort of book you can just whip through. At least, I can't. After so many years of reading her words heavily edited by others, I finally get to see what Plath says, unedited. Even if she's going on about rugs and such, I will read it because it's her own damn voice at last.

Here are the two books I did manage to finish in November:

1. The Camerons - Robert Crichton. 1972 novel about turn-of-the-20th-century Scottish coal miners. Like family sagas? Fish-out-of-water stories? Social justice? Strong women characters? Men in kilts? This one's for you. Very well researched and crafted and robustly told story.

2. The Nix - Nathan Hill. This sprawling masterpiece from 2016 has everything. I'm surprised that it didn't get a nod for the Pulitzer. There's a dizzying array of topics: ghosts, video games, 1968 Chicago riots -- among other things -- that the novel could conceivably sink under its own weight. But it doesn't! Everything is gorgeously woven together. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Ari Fliakos, is more than equal to the challenge and the madness of all these characters and their obsessions. He was a brilliant, inspired choice to perform Nathan Hill's prose.

Finding My Feet

I have been in the United States for two weeks and fourteen hours. There's still a bit of an unreal quality to being here. I feel happy, but unsettled. The days pass in a whirl. My watch is still set on Korean time. Last night, as I went to sleep, I mentally walked from my old apartment to the Beomnaegol subway stop then back the other way. I tested myself to see if I had forgotten any landmarks. So far, so good. This morning at breakfast, I was talking to my mother and referred to Busan as "home". Ooops.

Read Life has definitely taken a back seat to Real Life. At the present, I'm still bashing my way through A Game of Thrones. My inner Bonnethead and Nerd Girl are both enthralled with Pioneer Girl.  All those footnotes! Squeeeeee! I'm also reading a memoir by Ingeborg Day called Ghost Waltz in which she explores the elephant in the room as she was growing up: Her father was a Nazi police officer. It's well-written, haunting, disturbing. I've only finished one book since I arrived back: Unworthy by Anneli Rufus. It's part memoir, part self-help about the self-loathing that lurks in so many of us. What led me to read it was research. I'm working on my next novel and that is my main character's chief characteristic, so I needed to understand that more clearly.

And what of the Bybeeary? It's sitting in several boxes in the living room, half-unpacked. All the boxes arrived safely.

My mom is telling everyone we meet that I wrote a book. Last night, she was strong-arming a relative into buying a copy of Even if the Sky Falls Down:

Mom: Have you got Susan's book on your Kindle yet?

Relative: Book?

Mom: Yeah, she wrote a book. You can read it on your Kindle or on the computer.

Relative: What kind of book is it?

Mom: It's about Korea.

Relative: Is it about your experiences there?

Me: Uh, it's a novel. Mom, quit pressuring Carol!

Mom: Tell her the title.

Me: Even if the Sky Falls Down. I can't believe you're strong-arming people.

Relative: What, are there copies piled up in your garage, Judy?

Mom: It's not a real book. It's on the computer. [A close friend] read the whole thing, and she said it's good enough to be a movie.

Me: I don't....she's really nice.

Relative:  Yes, she is. Even if the Sky Falls Down?  Okay, I'll look for it.

I don't know whether to laugh, cry, cringe or hire my mom as my publicist.

Even If the Sky Falls Down Book Giveaway WINNER

Sorry I'm late posting this. The winner of my e-book giveaway is Kayla Stratton.

Congratulations, Kayla! A copy of Even If the Sky Falls Down will be sent to you soon.

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway or left a nice comment about having already purchased the book. That means so much to me; you can't imagine.

Even If the Sky Falls Down

I'm excited to announce that my novel Even If the Sky Falls Down is finally complete and available at Amazon.com.

Thanks to everyone who left comments of support and encouragment on this blog during the writing and editing process.
 

Why Did I Ever?

Day 6:
Why did I ever NaNoWriMo?  An orangutan fingerpainting the kitchen baseboards with grape jam could accomplish so much more.  It's supposed to be write, write, write... and I'm all, edit, edit, edit, write, edit...

This peculiar sort of misery is even more interesting than the novel itself.

Here's my theme song:

On the bright side, turns out that nothing can stop me from reading.  My newest literary obsession is Patrick Hamilton.  I was so impressed with Hangover Square that I went right to The Slaves of Solitude.  I want to read Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, but it's not out on Kindle.  What a great title.  In fact, with a title like that, who needs the accompanying book?

Some Things to Squeee! About

I had a double attack of squeee! yesterday.  Since it was book-related, I'll share here:

1. The Kindle version of Meg Wolitzer's first novel, Sleepwalking (1983), will be available on Tuesday, March 25.  It's about three classmates at Swarthmore who are known as "the death girls" because they dress in black and always read and try to emulate their favorite dead female poets.  One of them is a Sylvia Plath fan, and one of them worships Anne Sexton.  The protagonist of Sleepwalking, Claire, is obsessed with a (fictional) poet named Lucy Asher, and she takes it pretty far.  The novel has a couple of weak points, but that doesn't diminish my love for it one iota.  I'm looking forward to reading it again, probably during the Readathon.

2. Therese Raquin (1867), the novel that turned me into a true Zola fan, is now a movie!  It's called In Secret (crap title, no?) and came out last fall in limited release.  Now it seems to be working its way overseas, and I've absolutely got to see it.  As I said in a post last year, this novel is like a cool mash-up of Edgar Allen Poe and James M. Cain.  The movie seems promising:  It's got the Olsen twins' younger sister Elizabeth as the title character, Draco Malfoy as her infantile cousin/husband, Llewyn Davis as her lover, and Jessica Lange playing her overbearing aunt/mother-in-law.  Lange as a casting choice is especially cool because she was Cora in the 1981 version of The Postman Always Rings Twice.

 I can't wait!