I returned to my primary, and first, love twice this week.
Credit the over-rated, over-hyped, over-long, and over-done Avengers: Endgame movie. Its over-abundant onslaught of k-pow, k‑bang, and k‑boom bored me to sleep.
I attended the film because of an ancient promise made to DH: for every movie I choose for a Mate Date, he selects our next one. I’ve seen every new James Bond movie since 1984. He’s slept through Amélie, Mamma Mía, and others.
The cinematic misadventure sent me to the bookstore. Not one, but two book readings. In less than a week. A first.
Monday delivered Delia Owens reading her When the Crawdads Sing. It’s topped the New York Times bestseller list since January.
I admired Owens’ lyrical writing and her treatise on loneliness and isolation. However, I grimaced at the formulaic and, ultimately, predictable plot.
Yes: both an unpopular and ornery stance.
When I read fiction, I seek some degree of escapism. This novel sent me, instead, to paroxysms of “no-young-girl-could-manage-this-way-this-long-no-way-ever.”
By attending Owens’ Houston reading, I hoped to observe and learn what a bestselling author’s reading offers. Surely, there’s elevated air for both readers and authors in the big leagues.
Held at a west Houston church—thanks to an expected large crowd—I snapped a single picture then heard a warning: no recordings of any kind, pictures included.
Why?
While reading from a prepared script, Owens explained her novel’s themes of isolation and loneliness. According to her website (www.deliaowens.com), both have been lifetime challenges. Owens offered that we all land in the swamp sometime in our lives but “we can all do more than we think we can.”
At week’s end, author Jennifer duBois asked at her reading for The Spectators, “what haunts you and why?” In her novel, duBois explores what we look at, and why. She uses the frame of 90’s reality shows (think Jerry Springer) amid fallout from the AIDS epidemic and the gay rights movement.
In a relaxed question & answer session after her reading, duBois referenced what she calls The Big Question, something she said must prompt a novel’s birth. And the Big Answer? duBois admitted that, invariably, multiple viewpoints arise. Perspectives from many voices.
Now, that, I thought Real Life.
I returned to my studio, pumped.
And, I’ve returned to my novel.
The Big Question seeks The Big Answer as I cross fingers that, soon enough, I’ll stand in my own story shoes. Publicly.