I’ve read a lot of good books this year, but none as captivating as A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor. Towles. I’m in awe of Towles’ facility with language. It’s like watching a one-man stage show, where you lose yourself in a character at once more inventive and more fluent than anyone you’ve ever met, but wish you had. I didn’t want it to end. At first, I thought this was a throwback to Henry James, but A Gentleman in Moscow is so much more. It’s full of humor and heart and erudition. For those of us who scribble for a living, this is a humbling experience.
Most of us try to write the most succinct sentence, but a great author can achieve the sublime through embellishment. As highlighted by another reviewer, the following two sentences beautifully illustrate Towles’ power of observation, his deft use of language, his playfulness, and unhurried pace. Instead of writing “It was a long sentence,” Towles writes:
“Here, indeed, was a formidable sentence–one that was on intimate terms with a comma, and that held the period in healthy disregard.”
And while he could have written succinctly that “His troubles kept him awake,” Towles displays an effortless inventiveness by writing instead:
“But, alas, sleep did not come so easily to our weary friend. Like in a reel in which the dancers form two rows, so that one of their number can come skipping brightly down the aisle, a concern of the Count’s would present itself for his consideration, bow with a flourish, and then take its place at the end of the line so that the next concern could come dancing to the fore.”
I’ve read the hardcover and listened to the audio edition, and I’d like to give a shoutout to the narrator of the audio edition, Nicholas Guy Smith. His upper-crust English accent perfectly portrays this upper-crust Russian. Smith handles all of the characters’ accents (including an American) with aplomb.
My review of the audio edition of BearTown, by Fredrik Backman:
Ingmar Bergman Meets The Mighty Ducks
How depressing! I would have given up on this downer at the midpoint, but for the fact that I didn’t feel I could review it without actually listening all the way to the bitter end. I wanted to review it to give readers a warning. This is the story of a dirty little town populated by despicable people with parochial views. Of the more than twenty characters, I found only three that were somewhat sympathetic, and even then I found it hard to care what happened to them. Backman’s writing style is hampered here by his choice of the present tense, which makes it read more like a synopsis than a novel; you’ll find no description here. On the positive side, Backman details the entwining relationships in this stultifying small town. It’s only made bearable by the excellent narration of Marin Ireland.
After a couple of weeks, the reviews are starting to come in and I’m both pleased and surprised. I had expected The Seal Cove Theoretical Society to get mixed reviews. Character-driven novels appeal to a certain demographic while leaving others cold. However, so far the reviews on Amazon and Goodreads have been really positive. Maybe it’s a matter of the cover and blurb attracting the right kind of readers.
Like the characters, the novel is flawed, or at least it’s not perfect, but perfectionists never finish a project. There comes a point of diminishing returns, where the time spent polishing needs to be reserved for the next book, the next characters. I can see now where it might be improved, but there comes a time when you just have to let your babies out into the world for better or worse and hope for the best. I’m so pleased that strangers are getting to know and to like them.
The Seal Cove Theoretical Society launched today. I hear a faint fanfare, muted by distance, and drowned out the white noise of modern life (politics, COVID, and the avalanche of email). The SCTS (as I’ll refer to it here to save long repetition) was my attempt at an ensemble piece. I’m a great admirer of Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 SCOTLAND STREET series, which rotates through about a dozen characters like interweaving warp and weft. I had a devil of a time trying to make all of the character arcs resolve at the same time. It effectively stalled publication by a year. Of course, no story is really done. The author could keep on tweaking it into the grave, but at some point, you just have to cut the umbilical cord and say “The End.” The strange thing about this story is that this morning, the morning of the launch, I awoke with a conviction of how I could have made this a better book.
In retrospect, I would have cut the characters of Wexler and Rosalind, and I would have cut out the party. Doing that would have made it a novella, and would also have made it a somewhat predictable sweet Romance. Would that have been better or worse? Either way, I think it would have been more satisfying for the majority of readers.
This launch has been a bit of a disaster. This is the first book with which I’ve “Gone Wide,” which is to say I’ve gone to wide distribution instead of going exclusively with Amazon. Sales of my other titles have dwindled on Amazon, so I thought it best to try wide distribution and see what came of it. As it turns out, sales of my earlier books have picked up. But this launch of SCTS has fallen painfully on its face. If I were 30 I would be panicking. However, I’m of the ancient regime and really have nothing to lose. Win or lose, everyday above ground is a winner for me. I hope I don’t disappoint you, dear reader. I’m doing the best I can.
The Seal Cove Theoretical Society is set to launch in two weeks. I have no idea how, or even if, it will fly. It will depend on whether or not readers form an attachment to any of the characters. I have no feeling for how others may see them. Will readers be sympathetic? Will they want more plot? Will they miss the lack of a villain?
Instead of external villains, characters are kept from realizing their dreams by their own internal shortcomings and will have to change and grow if they’re to move on. Will that be enough to keep readers engaged? I have no idea. But I do believe that every book has an audience, and it’s left up to me to find it.
More than any other element, the cover design is paramount. It’s the first thing that potential readers see, and it will either turn them off, or inspire them to open to the first page.
For this book I turned to a professional artist. Years ago I bought my wife a print dress with a fabric design by Debbie Mumm. You’ve most likely seen some of her work, as her designs can be found on a variety of products, including fabric, greeting cards, and calendars. This particular design featured lighthouses. The Seal Cove Theoretial Society is set in a fictionalized version of Moss Beach, where I’ve lived for 40 years. Appropriately, at the end of my street is the Point Montara Lighthouse, which looks like this:
Debbie’s lighthouses are more whimsical or fanciful. If I did my job, the atmosphere of the book also conveys a sense of whimsy and fancy. The cover, then, will attract the right kind of reader.
The art I’ve employed for the cover is entitled The Celestial Ocean. The original painting is square, so it took some photoshopping to get it to fit an ebook cover, as well as a wrap-around paperback cover. Here is the result:
If you’re of like mind, you can buy it on pre-order at Amazon; Barnes & Noble; Kobo; Apple, etc.
A neighbor retired last year after a thirty-five year career teaching high school English. She’s an avid reader and knows the subject, so I suggested she write a novel.
“Oh, I could never do that,” she said.
“Why not?”
“It’s too difficult,” she said, eyes wide, then shook her head. “Well, you would know.”
The truth is I do, and I don’t. Taken as a whole, the task of embarking on a new novel is daunting. It’s monolithic, intimidating, an act of hubris to think you could do it. On the other hand, writing a scene is easy enough, and rather fun. And in the end, isn’t a novel just a series of interlocking scenes? Looked at that way, it’s not so imposing (as long as there is no deadline with consequences lurking in the future). If you just take it scene by scene, eventually you will come to a logical end. Anne Lamott wrote a book about it called Bird by Bird. You might want to check it out.
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