MUSIC - JUNE
PRODUCTIVITY INTERLUDE
In my last post I covered the first two weeks of my three week residency at the Michael King Writers Centre. I'd finished the second draft of the novel manuscript by this point (my #1 priority for the residency) and was turning my attention to short stories.
In this final week I wrote one entirely new story (well, I had tried to write the first page a couple of times over the last two years, but never quite got the takeoff right), 'Kia Kaha, Ōtepoti', and finished two more stories for which I'd written somewhere between 25% and 75% ('Processional' and 'Robinson in the Roof Space'). I did try to write another story that I'd been contemplating for at least four years, but it was too similar to the themes in the novel I'd just been working on and it just felt flat.
I also edited all the "completed" stories I'd pencilled in for my second story collection, AND a handful I'd discounted, two of which I like again, so the final cut and order of the collection looks a little different to what I thought before my productivity burst in Auckland.
When I got back to Dunedin, I handed two manuscripts to my wife to read. I also let my kids read some ('Kia Kaha, Ōtepoti' is set in our current house). After a few small tweaks, I submitted the MS to the Drue Heinz Literature Prize in the spirit of buying a lotto ticket. The more likely path to publication for collection #2 is a package deal with the novel MS. I still need to work through some comments on that MS and get some Police insider knowledge.
In my final week in Devonport I also submitted an abstract for a symposium: 'Reading Janet Frame (for) Today', which was subsequently accepted, so now I need to flesh out the talk I'll give on 30 August.
In non-residency-related productivity, in July I wrote a review of David Coventry's third novel, Performance for Landfall Review Online, which doesn't appear online just yet.
BOOKS
Down with the System: A memoir (of sorts) by Serj Tankian (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2024) - achieved two things: raised my awareness of the Armenian genocide more than any SOAD album; made me go back and listen to Serj's solo stuff and Scars on Broadway.
Living in the Maniototo by Janet Frame (novel, physical book, NZ, 1979)
Performance by David Coventry (novel, physical book, NZ, 2024)
Wellness by Nathan Hill (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) - Wonderful. Part of me feels I shouldn't have loved it so much as it's lineage back through Jonathan Franzen is pretty clear (even without Oprah's seal of approval for 'Wellness'), but it deals with things I'm interested in (and made me interested in things I wasn't previously) and feels big without being overblown or tryhard. Need to go back and read The Nix now.
Butter by Asako Yuzuki (novel, audiobook, Japan, 2024) - not as dark or subversive as I was expecting.
The High Sierra by Kim Stanley Robinson (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2022) - long.
You Are Here by David Nicholls (novel, audiobook, UK, 2024) - peppy.
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens (novel, audiobook, UK, 1837) - long and peppy.
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (novel, audiobook, US, 2024) I loved There There. This new book felt more conventional. The historical stuff about generals and labour camps felt like work, for both the writer and the reader, and thus less urgent.
Why is Sex Fun? by Jared Diamond (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 1997) - I fear you will misinterpret my chief complaint that this book had a bad, misleading title.
Assembly by Natasha Brown (novel, audiobook, UK, 2021) - really good. Surprised I'd never heard of it before (or more likely, the buzz never really lodged in my memory). Think the TV show Industry x Sheila Heti autofiction x bell hooks.
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (novel, audiobook, France, 2021) - brief and repetitive, like battle, perhaps.
Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez (novel, audiobook, US/Argentina, 2020) - I read this because my daughter (11) is into books (and movies) with romancy themes now, but this YA was really good on football and South American gender norms.
Every Man for Himself and God Against All by Werner Herzog (non-fiction, audiobook, Germany/US, 2022) - it's nice to walk around with Werner in your earbuds. Just waiting for the app that can narrate your life in real time with famous (AI) voices, which will be simultaneously cool & horrific.
The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) - told in quite distinct parts, all of which were good, but don't quite come together (in my head at least) as a complete, balanced, whole.
BOOK STATS
So far this year I've read 56 books, on pace for 99.4 by the end of the year...
Checking in on my semi-random reading targets for 2024 now we've passed the halfway point of the year:
- At least ten single-author poetry collections: 5/10
- At least one book from every continent: 6/6 (No Antarctica...)
- At least four books in translation: 5/4
- At least four books by Australians: 2/4
- At least five different genres of novel: I'm comfortably at 5 (romance, mystery/crime, fantasy, gothic, lit-fic), and could break those mystery/crime and lit-fic ones up more if I was desperate. Plus YA, if you count that as a genre, rather than an age-band. I really don't know how to classify my Asian bookstore fiction... popular fiction? Pop psychology masking as fiction? Maybe it's just a genre to itself. I hate this target anyway. What was I thinking? Let us speak no more of it!
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