I was very excited to attend the
Brooklyn Book Festival on
Sunday, September 23 this year. As I walked past lines of people snaking around
buildings and then pressed through the crowds clutching tote bags, a woman on
an outdoor stage announced, “God must be literary, because he blessed us with
good weather.”
Higher powers aside, it was a gorgeous day to browse the nearly
200 booths of publishers, bookstores, magazines, reviews, and other literary
organizations from across the US and Canada. I stocked up on $10 books from
Europa editions, cracked up reading Jane Austen comics in a hardcover version of
Hark! A Vagrant!, and said hello to local publisher
Tin House,
whose current issue “
Portland – Brooklyn” gave me a little swell of local
pride.
 |
| Beautiful day in the plaza near Brooklyn Borough Hall |
The only downside was choosing just one forum to attend each
hour and then queuing up with crossed fingers that we’d make it in before the
cutoff. (It was really crowded!) These two were my favorites:
Characters on
Characters: I listened to Walter Mosley, Edwidge Danticat, and Dennis
Lehane discuss their characters with Harold Augenbraum of the National Book
Foundation. Highlights: Lehane said the best opening line is one such as “Joe
realized he was out of milk,” because your readers will keep following Joe
until he gets that milk. Mosley said he never does research, because a fiction
writer is “in the business of telling lies,” and Danticat said that she has to
leave a place before she can write about it, otherwise the reality gets in the
way of the place she’s creating. All of them objected to the idea of their
characters as “dark,” saying that exploring what people do in difficult
situations, and the complexity of human nature, is what they are really
interested in.
 |
| L to R: Augenbraum, Lehane, Danticat, & Mosley. (Sorry for the blur: we snuck in!) |
Enduring Unlikable
Women
The title alone was intriguing, but the lineup of Elissa
Schappell, Gilbert Hernandez (creator of Love
and Rockets) and Dana Spiotta lured me in. The discussion didn’t disappoint
and raised several points: What makes a character “unlikable?” How important is
it for the reader to “like” the protagonist? Do readers excuse bad boy
characters while vilifying complex women who defy the status quo? I could’ve
listened to these witty, challenging authors’ discussion for much longer.
In all, it was a fabulous day and I would highly recommend
attending. (Especially if it’s your birthday and you are a complete book nerd
and have a half-empty suitcase to fill with paperbacks.)
