Blog - www.richardjespers.com

Egan's 'Candy House' Is Sweet

9/30/2022

A WRITER'S WIT
Actually, I love trying to figure out why certain books become hits while others, which may be just as good, have trouble finding an audience.
Jay Asher
Author of Thirteen Reasons Why
Born September 30, 1975

J. Asher

My Book World

Egan, Jennifer. The Candy House: A Novel. New York: Scribner, 2022.

This nonlinear novel, similar to Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, is at once fascinating and thrilling, yet challenging to grasp—for me, anyway. As with a roller coaster ride, one must climb aboard and suffer whatever curves come your way. Her title seems to be derived from the following:

Nothing is free! Only children expect otherwise, even as myths and fairy tales warn us: Rumpelstiltskin, King Midas, Hansel and Gretel. Never trust a candy house (125).

The narrative, which begins in 2010, ventures freely into the mid-2020s and back, centers around children born in the 1980s. One Bix Bouton—akin to a real life Steve Jobs—develops a technology he dubs Own Your Unconscious which, to borrow text from the dust jacket, “allows you to access every memory you’ve ever had, and to share your own in exchange for access to the memories of others.” Like Facebook, from a slightly earlier period, OYU seduces a large portion of the world’s population into its powers. Always be careful what you wish for, Egan’s title seems to caution us, because you might not like what you ultimately wind up with. This idea of knowing all of your thoughts is just like sighting a candy house. You won’t always be able to trust what you find inside.

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Heidi Hayes Jacob
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Peter Ackroyd
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Thor Heyerdahl
FRI: My Book World | Ann Patchett's The Dutch House

A Writer's Wit: Elizabeth Gaskell

9/29/2022

A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly.
Elizabeth Gaskell
Author of Wives and Daughters
Born September 29, 1810

E. Gaskell

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Heidi Hayes Jacob
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Peter Ackroyd
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Thor Heyerdahl
FRI: My Book World | Ann Patchett's The Dutch House

A Writer's Wit: Elmer Rice

9/28/2022

If nature had intended our skeletons to be visible it would have put them on the outside of our bodies.
Elmer Rice
Playwright of The Adding Machine
Born September 28, 1892

E. Rice

Coming Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Gaskell
FRI: My Book World |Jennifer Egan's The Candy House

A Writer's Wit: Myrtle Reed

9/27/2022

Penetrate deeply in the secret existence of anyone about you, even of the man or woman whom you count happiest, and you will come upon things they spend all their efforts to hide. Fair as the exterior may be, if you go in, you will find bare places, heaps of rubbish that can never be taken away, cold hearths, desolate altars, and windows veiled with cobwebs.
Myrtle Reed
Author of Lavender and Old Lace
Born September 27, 1874

M. Reed

Coming Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Elmer Rice
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Gaskell
FRI: My Book World | Jennifer Egan's The Candy House

Sedaris: Always a Carnival

9/23/2022

A WRITER'S WIT
Propaganda is that branch of lying which often deceives your friends without ever deceiving your enemies.
Walter Lippmann
Author of America Tomorrow: Creating the Great Society
Born September 23, 1889

W. Lippmann

My Book World

Sedaris, David. A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020). New York: Little, 2021.

Much like Sedaris’s first journal, this one contains a mixture of “Dear Diary” items along with jokes people tell him, along with long anecdotes about people he knows, along with a certain political polemic (which I love), and more, like overheard conversations in public places. If I were teaching creative writing, I would lift portions of both of Sedaris’s diaries to demonstrate how writers can mine their own diaries for topics or scenarios for other works.

In the early part of his first diary, Sedaris is a poor writer. In this one, he is somewhat more solvent and becoming more so all the time. Now, the man is so busy with readings and lectures, he’s always on a plane, and the airport world alone must offer up some of his richest observations. His dated entries from all around the world show a man who is interested in people, what makes them tick, what makes them say the things they do. Not that he always understands, but he is curious enough to record some of the ridiculous, confounding, or even wise things they say to him. Overheard conversations. How his day has gone, if he’s at home in one of two or three dwellings he owns in England or France. How the day has gone for his husband, Hugh. Jokes. Yes, plenty of jokes people take pride in telling him at one of his readings as he is signing books.

“A guy finds a genie who grants him three wishes, adding that everything the man gets, his wife will get double. ‘Great,’ the guy says, and he wishes for a big house. Then he wishes for a car. Finally, he says, ‘Okay, now I want you to beat me half to death” (211).

“It’s night, and a cop stops a car a couple of priests are riding in. ‘I’m looking for two child molesters,’ he says.
The priests think for a moment. ‘We’ll do it!’ they say” (445).

Sedaris’s title is derived from this tidbit dated March 23, 2013, London: Frank and Scott went to an Indian restaurant the other night and took a picture of the menu, which offered what is called “a carnival of snackery” (289). Indeed, that’s what this book is, and the delightful thing is it doesn’t cost you one calorie to consume!

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Myrtle Reed
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Elmer Rice
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Gaskell
FRI: My Book World | Jennifer Egan's The Candy House

A Writer's Wit: David Riesman

9/22/2022

The idea that men [sic] are created free and equal is both true and misleading: men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in seeking to become like each other.
David Riesman
Author of The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character
Born September 22, 1909

D. Riesman

Coming Next:
TOMORROW: My Book World | David Sedaris's A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020)
TUES: AWW | Myrtle Reed
WEDS: AWW | Elmer Rice
THURS: AWW |Elizabeth Gaskell

A Writer's Wit: Janet Burroway

9/21/2022

Most writing is done between the mind and the hand, not between the hand and the page.
Janet Burroway
Author of Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition: A Guide to Narrative Craft
Born September 21, 1936

J. Burroway

Coming Next:
THURS: AWW | David Riesman
FRI: My Book World | David Sedaris's A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020)

A Writer's Wit: Elise Broach

9/20/2022

Mysteries always have the potential for interesting connections between the elements. I'm also most interested in the relationship between the characters. As in Masterpiece, I'm trying to create characters who not only are solving a mystery but are solving the riddle of their own personal relationships.
Elise Broach
Author of The Miniature World of Marvin and James
Born September 20, 1963

Coming Next:
WEDS: AWW | Janet Burroway
THURS: AWW | David Riesman
FRI: My Book World | David Sedaris's A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020)

E. Broach

Announcing Staycation

9/6/2022

Since the beginning of the Covid Crisis, as I prefer to call it, Ken and I have not traveled much. It's difficult to "vacation" in your usual surroundings because chores still have to be done. So for the next two weeks we will be daytripping to various sites in our own area: Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway, Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge, and assorted other venues such small town museums and rural cemeteries for photography ops. At least these are what we propose to do. At any rate, I will post again beginning Tuesday, September 20. See you then!

'Homesickness' Yields Great Stories

9/2/2022

A WRITER'S WIT
A “good” family, it seems, is one that used to be better.
Cleveland Amory
Author of The Best Cat Ever
Born September 2, 1917

C. Amory

My Book World

Barrett, Colin. Homesickness: Stories. New York: Grove, 2022.

This collection contains ten phenomenal stories, mostly set in Ireland. From one about a man who shoots someone in self-defense to a forty-pager about a professional soccer (futbol) player deciding what to do with his life once his career is over, these stories are vibrant with life. What do I mean? They reveal real people in real situations, often ending quietly, with barely a whimper—like most events in our own lives. Yet we recall such situations over and over again with great delight.

Coming Next:
9/20 TUES: AWW | Elise Broach
9/21 WEDS: AWW | Janet Burroway
9/22 THURS: AWW | David Riesman
9/23 FRI: My Book World | David Sedaris's A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020)

A Writer's Wit: Jesse Kellerman

9/1/2022

It's much easier to identify and fix problems in language and timing when you hear the words being read.
Jesse Kellerman
Author of The Golem of Paris
Born September 1, 1978

J. Kellerman

Coming Next:
9/20 TUES: AWW | Elise Broach
9/21 WEDS: AWW | Janet Burroway
9/22 THURS: AWW | David Riesman
9/23 FRI: My Book World | David Sedaris's A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020)