AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--February 2021---ETHAN CANIN

Ethan Canin has been seen as a literary wonder since his first collection of short stories was published in 1987. He has said that when the book was accepted, he was in such a daze he nearly wandered out into NYC traffic. At the time, he was a medical student, having previously given up on an engineering program to “become a writer”. After suffering a reality check during a two year stint in the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, during which he found himself almost totally blocked, he decided to give himself a back-up-- a career in medicine. Ironically, while studying at Harvard, he began churning out short fiction, and ended up with yet another collection in Houghton Mifflin’s pipeline. He finished med school in 1991, and practiced medicine until 1998, when he finally made the difficult decision to be a writer and not a doctor. He also accepted a position teaching at Iowa, where he is still on the Writer’s Workshop faculty. It hasn’t turn out badly; so far, he has five novels and two short story collections to his credit, and his stories have been the basis of four movies, Emperor of the Air, The Year of Getting to Know Us, The Emperor’s Club, and Beautiful Ohio. Canin’s latest novel, A Doubter’s Almanac, has been called "intellectually complex", a "spellbinding novel about math", and "completely captivating". We shall see, as I intend to read that one for this challenge (and a challenge it will be, with math at its heart). If you’re new to Canin, as I am, maybe you’ll want to start elsewhere, but this is the one I’ve got, and having heard an excerpt from it, having heard him talk about it, I’m hooked. Canin is fun to listen to, as in the two NPR interviews linked to on his website. Oh, and he also remodels houses.

Interesting back story, which I knew nothing of. Thanks, Linda.

I am planning to read Emperor of the Air, a collection of short stories. I think I read one or two in school at some point, but I couldn't swear to it. We'll see if any of them seem familiar.

This is a writer I managed to totally miss somehow. I will be reading America America in Feb.

Intriguing dude! His name sounds like a book title.

CARRY ME ACROSS THE WATER rated 4 stars, despite rich man and other plot reservations.

A DOUBTER'S ALMANAC came up to only 3 stars for an uneven plot - the Mathematics was fascinating!

Ethan had one more novel filmed that I know of, his first one 'Blue River' which starred Sam Elliott & Susan Dey. When I looked for it I found it was a TV movie in 1995. I plan to read The Palace Thief later this month. I wanted to pair a Martha Gellhorn book with my Hemingway for January which I have not gotten to yet.

I hope everyone enjoys Ethan Canin. I'm looking forward to it.

>4 m.belljackson: Carry Me Across the Water was one of my favorite reads last year.

I started reading A DOUBTER'S ALMANAC. It's been on my TBR for quite a while. I only read a few chapters and looking forward to getting further into the book. I heard the beginning is a bit slow.

I've started 'The Palace Thief' book. It consists of four novellas, three of which were published in 1993 magazines - Granta, Esquire and The Paris review. (I like when books show the origin of story collections at the opening of the book.) My copy of the book was published in 1995. I've read the first story 'The Accountant' and I am impressed even though it is an odd (but well told) story. Very different from my normal reading. I was surprised that the settings of the story are near where I grew up. (among others a nod to Malvina Reynold's song about ticky tacky houses which I drove past a couple thousand times in my life probably. He even goes on to describe how the boxes were arranged!). The last sentence of the story pretty much summed up my impression of the man's life.

I've got A Doubter's Almanac from the library, will give it a go!

Karen O.

I started A Doubter's Almanac last night---so far, very good.

I started A Doubter's Almanac and enjoying it immensely.

The second novella included in The Palace Thief is titled 'Batorsag and Szerelem' and first appeared in the July 1993 issue of Granta Magazine. It was made into a 2006 film "Beautiful Ohio" based on a screenplay by the author in 2006. I'm at a bit of a loss to describe this but it is set starting in 1973 with Vietnam, the Paris Peace Accords, the whole Nixon and Agnew happenings etc as a background to a small Jewish family - two teenaged boys and their parents with the parents suddenly losing their religion and becoming Quakers (as protests to the Vietnam war). The story is told from the viewpoint of William whose brother Clive is a math genius and rather strange - Clive speaks a secret language that only his friend Elliot can speak back to him - spoiler - we and William learn much later that it is Hungarian. There is another secret here as well which we don't see until the end. Another slight spoiler: If one googles one will find that the title means something like Courage and Love. One does not know this within the story but knowing it illuminates it afterwards.

Very good story.

I've read the eponymous first story in Emperor of the Air. Ostensibly about an older man fighting with his neighbor about a tree, it is a well-observed rumination on aging and legacy. Looking forward to reading more...

I finished this earlier in the week but forgot to post here.



Emperor of the Air by Ethan Canin

I have nothing bad to say about this slim collection of short stories. They are well-written and mostly kept my attention. But beyond that, I have little to say. I often don't "get" short stories - I can enjoy them, sure, but I usually feel like I miss the larger point or subtle themes the writer has included. If forced to say what these were "about," I guess I'd go with family, legacy, and understanding oneself within the confines of both.

3.5 stars

I read the 4 short story collection in The Palace Thief. I enjoyed all of these. The best one is probably Batorsag and Szerelem. I also thought The Accountant a close second.

How did Ethan Canin get chosen? What was the process? I had not heard of this author. I also do not feel that I engage with short stories very well but I found these to be easy to engage. While they were not connected short stories, it felt like they had common themes about self awareness, family and choices; also math, history. I don't know if I am intrigued enough by these stories to want to read his novel, A Doubter's Almanac which sounds like it carries some of the same themes and character types.

>15 Kristelh: Kristel, the AAC has been going on for several years now, and the usual process, at least recently, has been to have a discussion thread where people made suggestions for authors they would like to read, and then the person moderating/directing the challenge picks a combination of authors and themes or subjects for the coming year, trying to take into account all the comments and suggestions, as well as their own personal favorites they'd like to introduce or encourage others to read. Ethan Canin has been on the "long list" for all the years I've been leading the challenge, and a few people mentioned him more than once, so he made the cut this year.

If you'd like to go back and see how those discussions went, here are links to the 2019, 2020 and 2021 planning threads. You'll find lists of all the authors and topics by year in this post from last year.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/314360#n7342447

https://www.librarything.com/topic/313645#n7000765

https://www.librarything.com/topic/297103

>15 Kristelh: I was one of the encouragers for Ethan Canin. I had read one of his short stories some years ago and was impressed by it. I subsequently looked for more of his short stories and a friend gifted me several of his books about a year ago. I became more enthusiastic after reading his novel Carry me across the water which was one of my favorite books last year. He writes differently than most authors I have read and I was pleased when he was selected for this year's AAC. The Palace Thief is my choice for this month's AAC but I have only read the first two stories (which you mentioned) and found them interesting. I picked up the DVD Beautiful Ohio at the library two days ago - the screenplay is by Canin and is adapted from Batorsag and Szerelem. I'm looking forward to watching it while the story is sorta fresh in my mind. The four stories in Palace Thief are almost too long to be called short stories, closer to novellas in length, but long enough to put some meat on the bones of things.

What is nice for the AAC choices even when I don't participate is to see the various reader reactions to books.

I held off posting this for a while, because I didn't want to discourage others, but I'll forget entirely if I don't put it here soon.

I do not like to do this with an AAC read, but after 190 pages, I set aside (permanently, I imagine) A Doubter's Almanac. I feel a point had already been made (one I had known was coming, from listening to the author talk about it in a NPR interview), and couldn't imagine what could engage me about this totally unsympathetic character for another 350+ pages. I simply don't care what he's going to do with the rest of his life. I've heard the character does change over the last half of the book, but it's just too late for me.

>18 laytonwoman3rd:

Agreed - my Doubter's mention above gave it 3 stars for the uneven plot, with A-plus for the Mathematics.

I'm a bit more than halfway through A Doubter's Almanac and enjoying the book so far. I can see how some people see the plot being uneven but to me, it feels that's the whole point. As the main character's life goes through its ups and downs, so does the plot. I'll report in this thread my final opinion about the book once I finish reading it.

This is my first year participating in this challenge and I did not participate in the selection discussions. This particular book was on my TBR list for some time so I would have gotten to it at some point anyway. I'm not a huge fan of short stories and not planning to read any short stories by this author.

The third story in The Palace Thief collection, City of Broken Dreams, left me sad. The story is about several things but revolves around a man betrayed by his wife and is trying to reconnect (unsuccessfully) with the world and to understand his son and his generation. Canin must have a real love of baseball since he likes to toss players and stats in, both this story and especially the first one 'The Accountant'.

It is hard to be excited by stories that leave one sad even if they are well put together.

America, America it is for me and I hope to fit it in before the month end.

I finished the Palace Thief yesterday. My additional comments:

Four stories of roughly 50 pages apiece. I've discussed the first two and a bit of the third above. The stories are well constructed and written but the subjects are primarily unlikeable people. The author also seems to have a fetish for baseball (like many Americans, but not me).

The third story in The Palace Thief collection, City of Broken Dreams, left me sad. Three years before the story opens the main character has been betrayed by his wife who places no fault on him. When their son reached 18 she revealed she had been having an affair with one of his coworkers for 2 years and she couldn't explain it better than that she was drawn to him. Her husband had been everything she wanted from a spouse. Until she fell for the other guy. Our guy has a bit of a meltdown and feels lost at 54 years of age. He is also losing his son he feels and tries hard to keep connected with him away at school but the son thinks very differently about the world. On a short visit home the son manages to teach his father some new life lessons and just perhaps put him on the road to a new life.

The fourth story 'The Palace Thief' was turned into a film, 'The Emperor's Club'. I remember liking the film nearly 20 years ago but in my memory now I think I have conflated it with 'Dead Poet's Society'. However watching a few youtube clips refreshed my memory a bit - I liked the movie at the time - Kevin Kline is so good. If you remember the film the story seems familiar, about a schoolteacher with a challenging student. This story is the best of the bunch here but like the others I didn't become very emotionally invested. The writing is very good.

I've decided there is something of a theme with these stories and it is about men who in late middle age look back on their life and are unhappy with it, or something was broken in it. That kind of thing is a bit of a downer.

I looked at the back cover of the book and the description and three blurbs, although overly enthusiastic as they tend to be, describe this collection very well (and much better than I can). From the description: 'Ethan Canin's stories capture people at crucial moments, as they struggle to understand the strange, surprising turns their lives have taken. Canin infuses the ordinary with drama and mystery; each story illuminates a secret life and speaks with the force of confession. Contemporary in voice, The Palace Thief promises to be a lasting fiction classic.'

Confessional - that was the word I mentally searched for to describe these stories.

Overall I was hoping for more from this. 3 1/2+ stars

>22 PaulCranswick: I hope you get to it, and share your reactions, Paul....even if it's not before the end of the month!

>23 RBeffa: Great commentary on all these stories, Ron. It does sound like I might have appreciated the short fiction more than I did what I read of the novel.

>20 annushka: I will look forward to hearing what you think of the novel overall once you've finished it. As I said, I hated to abandon it, but "time's wingèd chariot", and all that.

Here's another interesting article, where Canin discusses his writing process.

>25 laytonwoman3rd: thank you for that Linda.

I finished A Doubter's Almanac this morning. It took me a bit longer than anticipated to get through the book because I needed time to process what I was reading and dwell on it. So I paced myself and enjoyed every bit of the book. Ethan Canin is a masterful writer. I read the article about his writing style (shared a few posts above by Linda) and I can see that his investment in writing at the beginning of the career paid off. The book itself touches on a subject that is not often explored in literature. Gifted people who have extraordinary abilities don't fit in the typical mold of our society and often are misunderstood.

>27 annushka: I'm glad you enjoyed this novel, annushka. I quite probably would have appreciated it if I could have stuck with it, and I may have let myself down by giving up on it, but it started to feel like a chore, not a challenge. I'm very happy that it didn't strike you that way!

>25 laytonwoman3rd: Will take a look at that later Linda, thanks.

Will get to America, America next week.

>28 laytonwoman3rd: Don't feel like you let yourself down, Linda! I don't think it is expected for everyone to like all books. Just imagine what our TBR's would be if that was the case. There was something in the book that kept me going and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe because it reminded me of the Russian classic literature books which I grew up reading.

We'll be moving into March soon, so Here is the discussion thread for Roxane Gay. Feel free to keep posting in January and February threads whenever you have something to say about those reads.