The Paris Review

Full disclosure: I didn't want to read this book. I'd requested it from the library on a whim after hearing Philip Gourevitch on Nancy Pearl's "Book Lust" podcast talking about his work selecting the "best of" author interviews from The Paris Review for this collection series. The book came in along with a bunch of other interlibrary loans, and as the due date approached, I picked it up. I hadn't read many of the featured authors, and those that I had were not really to my taste. So I show more started reading it with the plan that after the requisite 50 pages, I would be able to return it to the library and thus whittle down my stack.

Then I read the first interview, featuring Dorothy Parker. She was a hoot! I've never read any of her stories, but after so enjoying her sense of humor, I was ready to check out her complete short story collection from my library. Still not entirely convinced to keep reading, I approached the next interviews with some trepidation: Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. Both men had such intriguing things to say about their writing. Alright, so I probably won't read any Hemingway besides The Old Man and the Sea which I read for school, but it was awfully encouraging to see him poking a little bit of fun at the folks who saw a symbol in everything. Now in the full thrall of these interviews, I started taking my time, reading two or three interviews a day, spacing it out so I didn't get my authors confused or crowd out a particularly satisfying one with the next.

Two in particular stand out to me: those featuring Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Gottlieb. Vonnegut's impressed me because it helped me to understand his writing a bit more. I read Slaughterhouse-Five last year, and didn't really like it. I could appreciate what he was doing, but had trouble following and making sense of the narrative, and I had the sneaking suspicion that the author was dangling the story in front of me with the taunt "I know something you don't know." As he talked about his experience in World War 2 during this interview, especially the bombing of Dresden, I started to realize that much of this was what he knew from the war and began to wonder if part of the challenge with the form of the story was that he didn't really know how to make sense of it either. Though it didn't change my personal opinion of the book, it gave me a bit more insight into what went into it. The second stand out was the discussion with Robert Gottlieb. Rather than a traditional interview, it was more like the transcript of a documentary in which not only he himself but several of the writers whom he had edited talked about working with him in the editing process. This method gave me a very fleshed out, holistic impression of him as an editor and reader, and I really enjoyed the fresh approach.

So from reluctantly picking it up with the plan of abandoning it, I've transformed in the reading to not wanting to return it to the library. My wishlist has grown by three books, because I'm certain I'll want to read the other compilations in this series as well. show less

This fourth volume in the series surprised me in a good way. While V. S. Naipul gabs the title for being the most arrogant and - in a bad way - preposterous, this is very much mitigated and made up for by people such as [a:Haruki Murakami|3354|Haruki Murakami|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1266423525p2/3354.jpg], [a:David Grossman|34031|David Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1258357322p2/34031.jpg], [a:P. G. Wodehouse|4343879|P. G. show more Wodehouse|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg], [a:Philip Roth|463|Philip Roth|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1266157273p2/463.jpg] and [a:E. B. White|3523560|E B White|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg].

Most of the authors came across as hard-working and continually writing and re-writing, talking of the shitty first draft. [a:Marilynne Robinson|7491|Marilynne Robinson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1256021025p2/7491.jpg] and Murakami don't seem to have this problem at all, instead writing as though the drafts were in their head. In Robinson's case, however, this might very well be because of her belief in god.

Murakami came across as gentle and flowing in his descriptions, while [a:Philip Roth|463|Philip Roth|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1266157273p2/463.jpg] brought aggressive earnest to the table. While [a:Maya Angelou|3503|Maya Angelou|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1282621669p2/3503.jpg] spoke of her childhood, muteness and the importance of having somebody to write for, Wodehouse was (at 91,5 years old at the time of his interview) happy-go-lucky and seemingly carefree, not worrying much.

Grossman's words on Kafka were insightful, and [a:John Ashbery|86801|John Ashbery|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192549028p2/86801.jpg] was a real poet in real-time, as his interview, providing insight into his authorship as well on his former, drunken self, was really good.

[a:Orhan Pamuk|1728|Orhan Pamuk|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1260534069p2/1728.jpg] was interviewed well, and gave quite a few insights both into his novel and about his authorship as a Turk.

All in all, maybe the best volume in the series, spanning more half a decade in the making, containing both interviews with Americans and others, from the past to the present, with authors stylistic and those more stream-of-consciousness.

Brilliant way to end it (not entirely, I hope). show less

This anthology is the first selection of interviews from Paris Review. The quality varies, as does the focus of each interview. Some of them are very much “writers on writing” — the interview with venerable old E. M. Forster, for example, provides some interesting insights into structure and character development. An interview with Georges Simenon, who seems bent on demystifying the work of the writer in the best Trollope tradition, was an illuminating juxtaposition. The interview with show more Boris Pasternak, on the other hand, is more like a fan letter. I grew bored as well with Ginsberg’s logorrhea. I am open to the possibility of mystical experience, but the Blake experience Ginsberg loved to talk at length about (the account given here appears nearly word for word in at least two other portraits) sounds more to me like an episode of mental illness. I enjoyed most of the interviews, though, particular those with Pound, Eliot, and Frost. Each of the fifteen writers (unfortunately all male) has a persona on display. In that context, it seemed normal for Hemingway to play Hemingway. In fact, he didn’t even seem as much a poseur as did Faulkner (an interview I enjoyed nevertheless). Most writers refrained from passing judgment on contemporaries. All the more striking, then, how many mentioned Faulkner, and how widely divergent the opinions were. It’s been a long time since I read The Sound and the Fury and a couple of his stories. I’m going to have another go at him and make up my own mind. show less

I tell my students they need to get their characters up a creek and then take away the paddle, add some rapids and a hurricane or two. In other words, for fiction to work, people have to have problems.

And here's a fine collection of them. There are 17 stories here, originally published in the Paris Review between 1974 and 2004.

All the stories are good, some, are excellent. One of the superb ones is Annie Proulx's The Wamsutter Wolf. Here Buddy, a young man wandering aimlessly through show more life moves into a trailer park next to a drunken pack of misfits led by the bully who tortured him in school. The stories are dark for the most part, and none more so than Malinda McCollum's The Fifth Wall, and its junkie mother.

One of the surprises for me was Elizabeth Gilbert's The Famous Torn and Restored Lit Cigarette Trick. Clever, nearly farcical, the ending is nonetheless deeply touching - an indication of her talent.

My favorite was Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, which drew me in as few short stories ever have and left me feeling as though I'd read an entire novel in under sixty pages. The longest story in the collection, and perhaps more rightly called a novella, it was stunningly crafted, beautifully imagined and profoundly moving.

The last story, by Charlie Smith, is perhaps the weakest. The characters take a river trip. They have a paddle, but they also have some deep psychoses, a gun and some very dark fantasies. It felt a wee bit contrived and self-conscious.

Other stories are by Charles Baxter, Joanna Scott, Mary Robison, Rick Bass and Norman Rush. All are good. This is both a solid addition to any library, and a master class for writers. show less