Only one story to tell
Hello, friends!
I came across this quote, attributed to the playwright Arthur Miller, though I can't seem to track it back to its source:
I’m a writer, and everything I write is both a confession and a struggle to understand things about myself and this world in which I live. This is what everyone’s work should be...whether you dance or paint or sing. It is a confession, a baring of your soul, your faults, those things you simply cannot or will not understand or accept. You stumble forward, confused, and you share. If you’re lucky, you learn something.
I like this quote. It gets to the heart of why art exists, doesn't it? We create as a way to understand ourselves. It's why, time and again, our deepest emotions insert themselves into the things we make. We might not always understand why; we might not even notice. But they're often there, the scaffolding of every story or song or painting.
In one of Mason Currey's July newsletters, he quoted from a book review by Vivian Gornick:
Most writers of books have only one story to tell; it is the one wrapped around a piece of emotional wisdom the author has made his or her own. If the writers are any good at what they do, the story deepens with each book that is written. If they are less than good, the story will simply repeat itself at the same level at which it originally took shape. In time, the work of the better writer will come to feel enriched by the clear renewal of lived experience, while the work of the lesser one will come to seem ever more reduced. I hold this truth to be self-evident for the writers of fiction and nonfiction alike.
I like the way this insight resonates with the Arthur Miller quote. Miller felt that art was about working it out, about trying to understand; Gornick points out that a good writer will eventually understand, and display that understanding in their life and their work.
If you've read any of my books, you've probably noticed that, regardless of the plot or the setting, the stories often revolve around the relationship between parent and child. (I've noticed that, too.) It's a core building block for me, though I won't pretend that I know why quite yet. Give me a few more books, another decade or two. If I keep repeating myself, you'll know I still haven't unwound it quite yet.
On an unrelated note, I've read a few very good books lately, and wanted to share them with you.
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin: This is a marvelous book about two people whose friendship is forged over a video game, and who spend the next thirty years building their own games together. I loved this book so much. And I'm envious of Zevin's vocabulary.
- Ghost Forest, Pik-Shuen Fung: A gorgeous and haunting little novel about a Chinese family who moves to Canada in the late 1990s. The father remains behind in Hong Kong, and a cultural, emotional rift opens between them. Often hilarious, occasionally sad, always lovely.
- Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri: A novel about a nameless widow, living in a nameless city, told through the many spaces she passes through and occupies. Every vignette is brief and spare; no words are wasted here. Before this I hadn't read Lahiri's work in many years; I have some catching up to do now!
- The Banker's Wife, Cristina Alger, and Local Gone Missing, Fiona Barton: As the pandemic rolls on, I find myself turning for months at a time to comfort novels, which often means mysteries like these. Alger's story of international financial fraud and intrigue, and Barton's reliable small-town missing person story, scratched the itch very well indeed. Exceptional mysteries by exceptional writers.
An update, too, on my own work:
- I've recently finished writing the first draft of The Dark Age, and am already knee-deep in revisions. There's still lots to do here, but I'm excited by how it's all coming together.
- I previously mentioned that I'd ghostwritten a book; I didn't anticipate this would be a project I'd be permitted to share, but as it happens, my name will be on this book after all. It's a very different book from my usual sort of thing, but I had a lot of fun writing it. Look for an announcement and cover reveal later this month!
With that, I've got some editing to get back to!
✏️Until next time,
Jg
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