By the Book (37 page)

I will, however, offer a word of warning: It's seven hundred pages not counting footnotes, and it took me months to finish (I don't have an e-reader, and the print version is too big to comfortably carry on planes or even read in bed). My sister once texted me asking, “How far from the tree are you?” This would be a great book club pick and lead to really interesting conversations, but I'd recommend breaking it into three chunks to discuss at three meetings. Because of how the chapters are divided, this would be easy to do.

Any idea whether Laura Bush read your first-lady fictionalization,
American Wife
?

When asked in an interview, she said she hadn't, and I trust that this is true. People have said to me, “Of course she read it—she's an avid reader, and it's about her!” But I suspect that having been in the public eye for so long, and being part of a family that has received so much exposure, she's developed mechanisms for ignoring certain kinds of attention. If I were her, I definitely wouldn't read it, and if I did read it, I wouldn't like it, even though the character based on her is positive. I believe I had legitimate reasons for writing the book, but I understand why novels based on real people, especially living people, make some readers queasy.

Do you have a favorite childhood literary character or hero?

I've always strongly identified with Toad from
Frog and Toad
. Especially in the story in which he won't get out of the river because he doesn't want anyone to see him looking funny in his bathing suit—and thereby attracts the attention of the nearby lizards, dragonflies, field mouse, etc.—he's so completely the ridiculous instigator of his own problems.

Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel you were supposed to like, and didn't? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?

I find
The Little Engine That Could
almost unreadable—repetitive, wordy, heavy-handed—though I live with two children who don't share my opinion.

What do you plan to read next?

Months ago, I heard a writer named Attica Locke interviewed on NPR about her novel
The Cutting Season
—a murder mystery set on a former slave plantation turned tourist attraction. I was very intrigued.

Curtis Sittenfeld
is the author of the novels
Prep
,
The Man of My Dreams
,
Sisterland
, and
American Wife
.

 

Laugh-Out-Loud Funny

Without Feathers
, by Woody Allen, makes me giggle like a baby.
Holidays on Ice
, by David Sedaris.
How to Have a Life-Style
, by Quentin Crisp.

—
Lena Dunham

In Wells Tower's first collection of short stories, there is a description of a mouse emerging from behind a fridge eating a coupon which made me laugh for a good ten days.

—
Emma Thompson

The last book that made me laugh? K. J. Bishop's
The Etched City
. I'm a sucker for lines like “He had numerous stories of recent adventure and suffering—specifically, his adventures and other people's suffering, almost invariably connected—that he told with the air of an amiable ghoul.”

—
Junot Díaz

The Diaries of Auberon Waugh
. It's in my bathroom, and it's always good for a giggle.

—
J. K. Rowling

The series of Don Camillo stories, by the modern Italian author Giovanni Guareschi, collected in three volumes. The stories are set in a small Italian town and involve three protagonists: the local priest Don Camillo; the mayor Peppone; and the church's Christ statue, which Don Camillo consults regularly for advice and which answers. Don Camillo and Peppone clash constantly in words and occasionally with their fists. But the two of them are joined by a common sense of humanity. The Don Camillo stories range from gut-wrenchingly tragic to hilarious. Whenever I start the next story in Guareschi's collection, I never know in advance whether it will make me cry or laugh.

—
Jared Diamond

Spilt Milk
, by the Brazilian novelist Chico Buarque. A deathbed monologue about class, race, love, and political history has no right to be this funny.

—
Katherine Boo

I love humor and for this reason I've always enjoyed Mark Twain. He was without a doubt the funniest writer who ever picked up a pen.

—
John Grisham

St. Aubyn takes the prize. I don't think I would be able to define a work of literature as great if it didn't make me laugh at least a little.

—
Michael Chabon

Houellebecq and St. Aubyn are both making me laugh, but the St. Aubyn is more intentionally funny. And Christopher Hitchens's memoir,
Hitch-22
. There's a line in there that goes something like, “By that time, my looks had declined to such a degree that only women would go to bed with me.”

—
Jeffrey Eugenides

Jennifer Finney Boylan's endlessly witty
Stuck in the Middle with You
made me laugh out loud over and over again; it's about her experience as a transgender parent, who started off as her children's father and ended up as their “Maddy”—not quite a mom, but definitely no longer a dad.

—
Andrew Solomon

I've been reading a nonfiction cartoon called
Couch Fiction
, by a British psychoanalyst, Philippa Perry. The book is simply the best single volume on analysis I've ever read, and takes us through one man's analysis and his attempts to resolve a range of problems with his mother and his girlfriend. It's done with images and speech bubbles by Junko Graat; it's constantly charming and always deeply accurate and thought provoking.

—
Alain de Botton

James McBride

What are you reading at the moment?

You Are Not a Gadget
, by Jaron Lanier.

Are you a one-book-at-a-time person?

More or less. Though at times, I will gobble anything within range.

What's the best book you've read so far this year?

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
, by William Shirer. All 1,100 pages, and I wish there were more. Just finished it. I should've read it years ago.

If you had to name a favorite novelist, who would it be?

Toni Morrison. Morrison is like John Coltrane. She can play anything. She plays off the horn, like Coltrane did. She busts through the form. Coltrane's music demanded listening. Morrison's work is the same. It simply demands attention. There is no living author like her.

Care to call out your nominees for most overlooked or underappreciated writer?

That's a long list. At the top would have to be Paul Monette, author of
Becoming a Man
. He was a superbly gifted writer who died during the AIDS epidemic that deprived us of a generation of talent. I've often thought to myself, if they took the graphic sex scenes out of that book, it could be required reading in public schools. But maybe I'm dreaming. Anzia Yezierska,
Bread Givers
. Henry Roth,
Call It Sleep
; Carlo Levi,
Christ Stopped at Eboli
; and the British writer John Wyndham (
The Chrysalids
), whose deep imagination and challenge to religious zealotry should serve as a template for any young sci-fi writer.
The Chrysalids
is a children's book, by the way.

What kinds of stories are you drawn to?

Anything that involves David and Goliath.

Any you steer clear of?

Corny, unbelievable novels; political books; stories by super-duper mountain-climber types who spend thousands snowboarding or traversing high peaks and writing books about it while they could be digging water wells in Peru someplace, helping somebody. I usually just go to the part of those books where the guy dies. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. Probably not. I avoid pulp fiction. I dig spy novels. I read more history books than anything else. Leon Litwack's books on slavery are favorites, especially
Been in the Storm So Long
. I read a bit of Nietzsche when I travel. I'd like to see a book that tells us who those people are on bikes who wear those funny little uniforms and ride all over the road.

Which book has had the greatest impact on you?

Probably the Bible, because it was hammered over my head so much.

What book made you want to write?

Kurt Vonnegut's
Welcome to the Monkey House
.

In what ways does your music-playing influence or inform your writing?

Only in a structural sense. I'm not one of those who can listen to music and write. I need the door closed. Windows shut. Facing the wall. No birds tweeting, views of nature, and so forth. A clean office, devoid of funk, without open books and dirty coffee cups and papers strewn around, would drive me bananas. If anything, I prefer traffic and sirens. But in a structural sense, jazz demands that you negotiate the road ahead with certain restrictions—tempo, harmony, chords, and so on—and that's a good template for the working writer. You can't write just anything. Your story needs structure. Jazz sets out a kind of road map that you're supposed to follow, but there are limits. If you're playing a solo in the key of B flat and play, say, an F sharp or B natural, you better have a good reason for it—or be Charlie Parker. You can make it work, of course, but remember this: Even though you're driving the car, you may not know the exact route home. You'll get there somehow. If you trust the music, and stay within the parameters, within that framework, you'll get home. Same with writing. That's why I say writing is an act of faith. But my way may not be the best way.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?

That's tough, because I just moved and most of my books are in boxes. It took three guys several hours to move those books. I peeked inside one box, and here's what I found:
Encyclopedia of Disability
, entire volumes.
The Polish Jewry: History and Culture
(published by Interpress, various authors); part of the Marvel Comics Civil War series; and the first three volumes of the new black Spider-Man in hardback, and I'm waiting for the fourth to come out. A couple of hillbilly joke books in there too.

Do you ever read self-help? Anything you recommend?

My self-help books are generally restricted to cars. I started with John Muir's
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive
and now have the service manuals to most of the cars I've owned: 240 Volvo, Honda, Ford, etc. Jane Bryant Quinn's
Making the Most of Your Money
works for me, though she's not fond of cars. Several books on jazz arranging and technique, most notably Oliver Nelson's
Patterns for Improvisation
.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

I'm convinced that anyone who takes that job doesn't need advice from me on anything. It would only make their life worse. But if I had to force him to read something, it would be
My Way of Life
, a pocket-reader version (edited by Walter Farrell) of the
Summa Theologica
of St. Thomas. God's wisdom comes in handy when you're the leader of the free world. I got that as a gift from the late Lt. Gen. William J. McCaffrey. His son, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, was a leader of American forces in the Persian Gulf war. The father, Gen. William McCaffrey, was a commander in the all-black 92nd Division in Italy. He understood what it meant to send men into harm's way. I admired him greatly.

Did you identify with any literary characters growing up?

Not really. My mother was more interesting and mysterious than any literary character I'd ever come across.

Who were your literary heroes?

Toni Morrison (
The Bluest Eye
) got me out of bed, Richard Wright (
Black Boy
) got me to school on the bus, but Harper Lee (
To Kill a Mockingbird
) helped me sleep at night.

Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel you were supposed to like, and didn't?

I'm not good enough to say anybody is overrated. But I'll say this: When pop singers and Hollywood stars write children's books, it usually means there's a lot of good trees dying for nothing.

Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?

I put down
A Year of Days
, by Episcopal Bishop Edmond Lee Browning, every night without finishing it. I've been reading one page a day for three years. You're supposed to read only one page at a time. As for lousy books, there are plenty. But I'd rather see kids reading lousy books than obeying the television like drones.