The Misremembered Man Book Club Questions Fixed
The Misremembered Man Book Club Questions >>> https://urllie.com/2sZVCy
Since this is a craft newsletter, I spend a lot of time talking about writing processes. Every author has their own process\u2014and often a different process for every book\u2014and I always find it illuminating to hear about them. (Here are some entries on Zadie Smith, C\u00E9sar Aira, and myself.) But as interesting as process and craft questions are to writers, it\u2019s something that often gets ignored in book coverage. I think the most common complaint I hear privately from other authors is \u201CNo one asks me about craft!\u201D So I\u2019ve decided to be the change and reach out to authors whose books I loved with questions about processes and craft.
Stay social. People who aren't socially engaged with family and friends are at higher risk for memory problems than people who have strong social ties. Quality face-to-face social interaction can greatly reduce stress and is powerful medicine for the brain, so schedule time with friends, join a book club, or visit the local senior center. And be sure to put your phone away and focus fully on the people you're with if you want the full brain benefit.
[Frank] So here we are with The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo. The Chosen and the Beautiful. Right away, I love the title. You know, I think Kristy [assumed spelling], the producer, was asking me about like how I thought of this book. And I realized it -- well, I'll say it now -- that New York Public Library is joining as they do monthly with WNYC for their program that will entail Alice and Stewart from NPR interviewing Nghi Vo. And that's going to be in August, after this airs. So we'll link to it, though, the conversation afterwards. But I think that would -- that's what planted it in my mind. But this is the weird thing, that I saw The Chosen and the Beautiful, and then as I discovered more about it and read that it was a sort of riff or retelling of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but from the point of view of one of the characters named Jordan Baker, this -- I don't even know how to -- I don't know where I'm going with this, but it's true. And make of it what you will, that sort of clenched it for me. And that just like I have to read this book. Because of course like a lot of us, I read the Great Gatsby when I was 15 in 10th grade. A lot of it still stayed with me. I haven't fully reread it since, but it made such an impact on me that I wrote a paper in English class on the flapper, like '20s women, of which Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker are representative in some ways. And you know -- did you do this in your high school yearbook where in your entry in your high school yearbook you had your name, and then you had a quote, and then you maybe had a nickname, and then all of the clubs you were a part of? Like all -- your little high school rundown in your high school yearbook. Or was it just your name?
[Crystal] [laughing] I just realized something. Because I think I misremembered the original book in that it was Daisy that was the one that got killed. And I was like I don't recall this happening. But that -- okay, it's coming together now. It -- okay. Yes, yes. It was the mistress, right?
Join Kidder and Lopez for this virtual book club night at 6 p.m. Pacific on Jan. 26. Sign up on Eventbrite. Share your questions for them in advance in an email to bookclub@latimes.com. 2b1af7f3a8