There are twenty three interviews collected in The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers and I personally have only read books by seven of the authors contained herein, whether interviewed or interviewee. That being said I still got a lot out of this disappointingly short compilation edited by Believer mainstay Vendela Vida.
For those not in the know, The Believer is, according to their website, "a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often very long. There are interviews that are also very long. (They) focus on writers and books (they) like. (They) will give people and books the benefit of the doubt. The working title of this magazine was The Optimist." They are also "A tiny division of McSweeney's which is also tiny," McSweeney's being the publishing house/youth writing school founded by Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Since its inception, it has consistently published the off-beat and brilliant, the literary and the artistic and the artistically literary, and The Believer magazine has presented the interviews contained herein as well as shorts and other works by numerous contributing authors.
For those not in the know, The Believer is, according to their website, "a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often very long. There are interviews that are also very long. (They) focus on writers and books (they) like. (They) will give people and books the benefit of the doubt. The working title of this magazine was The Optimist." They are also "A tiny division of McSweeney's which is also tiny," McSweeney's being the publishing house/youth writing school founded by Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Since its inception, it has consistently published the off-beat and brilliant, the literary and the artistic and the artistically literary, and The Believer magazine has presented the interviews contained herein as well as shorts and other works by numerous contributing authors.
To me, McSweeney's and The Believer represent the forefront of the new wave of literature's elite. Their willingness to represent and back up new works by risky authors has lead to a simultaneous reputation as a groundbreaking house and as, well, kind of weird. This collection of interviews represents parts of those aspects though the authors being interviewed are hardly under the radar. What makes some of these interviews more fun than they should be is the occasionally awkward setting. Adam Thirlwell's interview with Tom Stoppard for instance takes place during a cricket match so their dialogue is often broken up with "nice shot" or "I did aspire to be a wicket-keeper," etc, a nice break from what one usually thinks of as the rather dry format of an interview.
There are a few gems in here, the above mentioned included. I found Ben Marcus' interview with George Saunders to be very enlightening, and Marcus seemed to really get at something in Saunders' personality that seemed fresh while also reinforcing what I had already liked about his writing.
There are a few gems in here, the above mentioned included. I found Ben Marcus' interview with George Saunders to be very enlightening, and Marcus seemed to really get at something in Saunders' personality that seemed fresh while also reinforcing what I had already liked about his writing.
Cornelia Nixon's interview with Marilynne Robinson is also a highlight, revealing both authors to be more than the sum of their media reputations and and proving that Robinson could very well be one of the greatest philosophers of our age.
There are a couple of duds as well. I was disappointed in Zadie Smith's interview with Ian McEwan. Despite the fact that she was conducting the interview, she felt compelled to talk more about herself than Mr. McEwan, and neither of them were shy about proclaiming themselves and their art as better than all others, as if such a thing were quantifiable, and patting each other on the back for doing so. Sean Wilsey's interview with Haruki Murakami fell flat of expectation too. Not only was it exceedingly brief, just about the only thing that it revealed about Murakami was that it seems pointless to interview him. He even seems to find himself boring and his responses are evasive at best despite Wilsey's attempts to connect cultural trends in Japan with Murakami's writing in a futile hunt to get at what drives a seemingly interesting personality to write.
There are a couple of duds as well. I was disappointed in Zadie Smith's interview with Ian McEwan. Despite the fact that she was conducting the interview, she felt compelled to talk more about herself than Mr. McEwan, and neither of them were shy about proclaiming themselves and their art as better than all others, as if such a thing were quantifiable, and patting each other on the back for doing so. Sean Wilsey's interview with Haruki Murakami fell flat of expectation too. Not only was it exceedingly brief, just about the only thing that it revealed about Murakami was that it seems pointless to interview him. He even seems to find himself boring and his responses are evasive at best despite Wilsey's attempts to connect cultural trends in Japan with Murakami's writing in a futile hunt to get at what drives a seemingly interesting personality to write.
In the end I found it tough to get through the entirety of The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers. What made one interview refreshing made another one dull. The interviews are collected in alphabetical order instead of being put together in a thematic string, so I found I had little motivation to proceed linearly, instead skipping ahead to writers I was more familiar with or who I was interested in hearing more from. However, the best interviews are inspiring and fascinating and what I consider to be the major stumbles others will surely think the high watermarks.
The collection ultimately succeeds in this manner as a representative smattering of the world of contemporary literature in which one person's trash is another's treasure. It certainly continues in the McSweeney's tradition of off-beat styling and hopefully another volume will be soon to follow.
The collection ultimately succeeds in this manner as a representative smattering of the world of contemporary literature in which one person's trash is another's treasure. It certainly continues in the McSweeney's tradition of off-beat styling and hopefully another volume will be soon to follow.
