That carpet in Denver. That was my request. I like sleeping there. And, that lady who accosted you about The Great Believers? Had to be my Mom. That's why it's taken me so long to finish this 13th draft. Mom avoidance. That's why I sleep in the Denver airport. She can't find me there.
Love da book, I am taking it with me to the Roaring Fork Valley, sleeping over in Denver, to get some good reading done on the carpet.
I am trying to imagine ANY circumstance where it would cross my mind to hunt someone down so I could tell them to their face that I hated their creative work. There is no reasonable circumstance I can think of, because WOW. Some people have no home training.
OMG, I owe you for the link to the Malcolm Gladwell takedown. I have been grinding my teeth every time someone recommends Outliers! You have helped me find my people. Also, to counter the cornering lady, The Great Believers is possibly my favorite book of the last decade. It's brilliant, and I'm still thinking about those characters.
The cocktail party ambush. What an illustration of how F'uped our current culture is. Unbelievable. As if you cared what she thought? How miserable that woman's life must be. God have mercy.
The Great Believers is one of my all-time favorite books. I give it to people, for crying out loud. A feel-good novel? Not hardly. Complex, thought-provoking, superbly developed characters are what makes it outstanding.
Ben Fountain did a great job interviewing you. Such thoughtful questions. Yesterday, I listened to The Shit About Writing podcast interview of you. Both interviews were so careful to not give any spoilers, which is of course what we'd expect. But have you ever had an interviewer give something away and you just wanted to smack them? I recall an interview of Anne Lamott some years ago where Michael Feldman of the old NPR show, "Whaddya Know?" gave away spoilers, and she just lit into him. I think I have that right.
I should have known because it was an article about my criminal past, but when GQ photographed me the picture they chose made me look so villainous. With a dark blue filter and everything. I suppose it was appropriate, but I hated that picture.
I finished the book and will add a sterling review to Amazon and Goodreads as soon as work allows me.
Yes, but what other airport boasts a giant blue demon horse that, literally, killed its maker? I love that demon horse. And the CO airport. But I agree about the carpet.
And just between you and me and your subMakkers, everyone loved the article but me. But it was the most read of 2018 and got us the 36-month option at Warner Bros. so I could only be grateful. (Even if that came to naught finally, for very opaque reasons.)
Although I'm preaching to the choir here, this is my review, (which you've read elsewhere, but I'd like to share with other subMakkers) And when I see you at the LA Bookfest I will tell you my favorite line. (Near the end, it might be a little spoiler alerty here.) What is not spoiler alerty, but I really would like to know, "is everything we know about Judy Garland wrong?" (I figure you did some research - it's such a brilliant tag line for Starlet Fever.)
"Those whose feared their expectations were raised impossibly high by Rebecca Makkai's "The Great Believers" need not have worried; "I Have Some Questions for You" is like that brother or sister of one of your best-looking friends you finally meet who turns out to be every bit as beautiful as their sibling. Makkai blends and bends genre with consummate skill – arguably one could call the book a “memory mystery.” Against the backdrop of a perfectly captured New England boarding school in the 90s, looping with the recent present, Makkai creates more indelible characters as they were and are than any novelist has a right to, all while penning some of the most trenchant observations yet written about the tyranny and power of social media (and podcasting) to do great and terrible things both. Through it all, Makkai never forgets to let her perfectly flawed narrator, Bodie Kane, be terrifically funny, with just the right amount of endearing but never cloying self-deprecation. The criminal justice system, the #metoo movement and the press get their days in literary court as well, all subject to Makkai’s rigorous but empathetic cross-examination. (I suspect there is quite a bidding war going on for a screen adaptation of the book, as we speak.) For all that, it is not a romp, but more of a fictional memoir about the nature of friendship and loss itself.
For audiobook readers, Julia Whelan is superb, and JD Jackson does one of the most effective single chapter cameos in memory."
That carpet in Denver. That was my request. I like sleeping there. And, that lady who accosted you about The Great Believers? Had to be my Mom. That's why it's taken me so long to finish this 13th draft. Mom avoidance. That's why I sleep in the Denver airport. She can't find me there.
Love da book, I am taking it with me to the Roaring Fork Valley, sleeping over in Denver, to get some good reading done on the carpet.
I am trying to imagine ANY circumstance where it would cross my mind to hunt someone down so I could tell them to their face that I hated their creative work. There is no reasonable circumstance I can think of, because WOW. Some people have no home training.
This was a fabulous read. You're so funny! (Definitely hate the airport carpets, and on behalf of humanity, sorry about that cocktail cornering.)
OMG, I owe you for the link to the Malcolm Gladwell takedown. I have been grinding my teeth every time someone recommends Outliers! You have helped me find my people. Also, to counter the cornering lady, The Great Believers is possibly my favorite book of the last decade. It's brilliant, and I'm still thinking about those characters.
The cocktail party ambush. What an illustration of how F'uped our current culture is. Unbelievable. As if you cared what she thought? How miserable that woman's life must be. God have mercy.
The Great Believers is one of my all-time favorite books. I give it to people, for crying out loud. A feel-good novel? Not hardly. Complex, thought-provoking, superbly developed characters are what makes it outstanding.
Ben Fountain did a great job interviewing you. Such thoughtful questions. Yesterday, I listened to The Shit About Writing podcast interview of you. Both interviews were so careful to not give any spoilers, which is of course what we'd expect. But have you ever had an interviewer give something away and you just wanted to smack them? I recall an interview of Anne Lamott some years ago where Michael Feldman of the old NPR show, "Whaddya Know?" gave away spoilers, and she just lit into him. I think I have that right.
I should have known because it was an article about my criminal past, but when GQ photographed me the picture they chose made me look so villainous. With a dark blue filter and everything. I suppose it was appropriate, but I hated that picture.
I finished the book and will add a sterling review to Amazon and Goodreads as soon as work allows me.
Yes, but what other airport boasts a giant blue demon horse that, literally, killed its maker? I love that demon horse. And the CO airport. But I agree about the carpet.
Your post made me smile, several times, and inspired me to join substack, including Poetic Outlaws. Rock (n roll) on!
Yes, to the shitty Denver airport (I'm from CO) and yes to everything Michael Hobbes creates. Congrats on all the big fun and success!
Hi from Denver. Our airport really is the worst.
I am haunted by the fox mural.
And just between you and me and your subMakkers, everyone loved the article but me. But it was the most read of 2018 and got us the 36-month option at Warner Bros. so I could only be grateful. (Even if that came to naught finally, for very opaque reasons.)
Although I'm preaching to the choir here, this is my review, (which you've read elsewhere, but I'd like to share with other subMakkers) And when I see you at the LA Bookfest I will tell you my favorite line. (Near the end, it might be a little spoiler alerty here.) What is not spoiler alerty, but I really would like to know, "is everything we know about Judy Garland wrong?" (I figure you did some research - it's such a brilliant tag line for Starlet Fever.)
"Those whose feared their expectations were raised impossibly high by Rebecca Makkai's "The Great Believers" need not have worried; "I Have Some Questions for You" is like that brother or sister of one of your best-looking friends you finally meet who turns out to be every bit as beautiful as their sibling. Makkai blends and bends genre with consummate skill – arguably one could call the book a “memory mystery.” Against the backdrop of a perfectly captured New England boarding school in the 90s, looping with the recent present, Makkai creates more indelible characters as they were and are than any novelist has a right to, all while penning some of the most trenchant observations yet written about the tyranny and power of social media (and podcasting) to do great and terrible things both. Through it all, Makkai never forgets to let her perfectly flawed narrator, Bodie Kane, be terrifically funny, with just the right amount of endearing but never cloying self-deprecation. The criminal justice system, the #metoo movement and the press get their days in literary court as well, all subject to Makkai’s rigorous but empathetic cross-examination. (I suspect there is quite a bidding war going on for a screen adaptation of the book, as we speak.) For all that, it is not a romp, but more of a fictional memoir about the nature of friendship and loss itself.
For audiobook readers, Julia Whelan is superb, and JD Jackson does one of the most effective single chapter cameos in memory."