I start classes at the New School in September and I had
to select my preference for workshop instructor. On the advice of a friend, New School alumni, and former creative writing instructor (all the same person) I read the book "The Liberty Campaign" by one of the New School teachers, Jonathan Dee. Well, it was excellent and I have signed up for his course, so hopefully I'll be taking it in a month.
It's a very introspection heavy novel, focusing on the thoughts of a soon-to-be-65 year-old marketing executive. He reconsiders his life when faced with his looming retirement, his son's waning career as a professional baseball player, and the discovery that his long time neighbor may or may not be a former Brazilian torturer in hiding. Though the last item in that list might seem a little shocking it actually gets about the same page count as the other two topics, which is highly appropriate. The very fact that in the suburbs people can sit around and inactively contemplate the fact that a neighbor might have once hung people by their toenails is one of the revelations the narrator sits around and inactively contemplates. The book asks and doesn't quite answer questions about our ability to know evil and judge others and about the things that make someone's life successful.
Reading the book I ran into the problem of "knowing too much" about the author. The funny thing is I don't know anything about the author, really (though I hope to learn from him soon) aside from the fact that he teaches from the New School and that he isn't what you'd consider a household name yet. And just knowing that I'm reading a relatively unknown author who might be teaching me puts a different spin on my reaction to the book. Though I really enjoyed, I couldn't help looking at everything with a critical eye. Somehow it seemed a little less polished or perfect than books by more famous authors (and by "more famous authors" I mean GOOD more famous authors, of the kind that I have reviewed in previous book track entries). But I'm not sure if this is simply because I know that Dee is "less accomplished" or, rather, less universally acclaimed. If Jonathan Dee were a household name who had written twenty books, all considered to be masterpieces, would I still notice any "roughness" in this novel? Well, in my defense, I did recently read Rushdie's first novel, "Grimus," and I thought it was pretty bad despite the fact that he is one of my favorite authors. I suppose since I expect to be studying with Jonathan Dee I had to look very closely at the writing itself as opposed to just reading the book, which may account for my more nit-picky feelings.
Maybe all books should be published without names so that we can be completely free to read without any potential author-based bias. Though somehow I feel that would be impractical for the reader. And since I want to be a famous author, it would also be impractical for me.
