My first and even second encounter with Michael Chabon were interesting from the point of view of insertion of Jewish topics into literary context. Sometimes I loved the humour too. But I was not necessarily entinced by the political stances therefore I rather skipped his last two or three releases. My reason is not necessarily because I do no accept other people may see things completely different than I do, but black and white views, sounding fancy and self-hate only because this is a certain public clapping the hands when hearing what they expect to, do literally bore me.
Bookends, a collection of essays about his formative literary experience, looked like an encouragement to reconnect, at least through works which do lack any international politics reference. He brings on a lot of love for the ´comic strip´ and basic science fiction books. Comics are a late love of mine, and I still struggle to accept science fiction, but his love for the genre is contagious.
The Pullitzer Prize winner do also share few advices for authors. Some details about how to organise and find your subject are useful, some sound a bit cynical - like, for instance, to avoid getting an advance for writing in order to avoid being the slave of a book that in the end you might not write. Of course, when you have enough money to afford taking non-working time for writing, it may work, otherwise, not necessarily.
The short articles and essays from Bookends do help understanding the literary roots of some of his writings, both in terms of ideas and bibliography. Most importantly for me, it helps me to reconsider science fiction as genre although I am sure it will take a bit more to really dedicate some to a book belonging to this category. Nevertheless, it´s worth thinking about it once in a while. As for other books by Chabon, I am now ready to continue the literary exploration.
Rating: 3 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment