It’s Good To be Got

Really, really thrilled with what Scott Pack had to say about Not So Perfect today.

I am an admirer of his. I very much like what he’s doing at The Friday Project (Harper Collins); he publishes my good friend and phenomenal talent, Caroline Smailes; his blog’s brilliant, and through said blog he’s introduced me to some utterly corking books, including Dear Everybody by Michael Kimball, The Littlest Hitler by Ryan Boudinot and Thirteen, by Sebastian Beaumont. And, like me, he’s a Sarah Salway fan.

Yes. He knows his onions. And seems to have similar tastes to me. So I was very much hoping he’d like my book.

And he did. Thank god.

As well as saying that Not So Perfect is ‘a bit special’, he said I was reminded of Rhodes and Hempel while reading these stories, which are easily their equal, as well as occasional glimpses of Murakami, but I mostly kept thinking back to Sarah Salway. Salway is probably the best short story writer in the UK at the moment and she had better watch out because Perring is (albeit very politely, I am sure) on her tail.‘ 

which is just thrilling. I’m a huge Amy Hempel fan and I love Sarah Salway’s work. And to be mentioned in the same sentence as Murakami (who I really, really need to read, don’t I?) and Dan Rhodes is a real honour. And wholly unexpected.

Thank you, Scott.

(Full review here.)

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I’m also over at fellow short story writer and good friend, Tania Hershman’s blog today, playing word association (which was loads of fun) and answering a question, possibly quite grumpily. I am very happy to hear her cat’s on the mend. Fingers crossed that continues.

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It’s also day 5 of RobAroundBooks’ Flash Clash. I’m against Etgar Keret’s Uterus today, among others.

That’s it for now, I think.

Oh, other than to say that Not So Perfect’s published tomorrow. Yikes.

How Much Of Us There Was

How Much of Us There Was by Michael Kimball, broke my heart. There’s not much else to say about it. It is, as I expected, utterly brilliant and incredibly affecting.

An elderly man wakes up one morning to find his wife having a seizure and then slipping into a coma. What follows is the story of the man’s wife’s death. It’s honest and moving and real and it’s written in such a sensitive and tender way that it’s almost impossible not to have your heart broken by it.

I wanted to describe How Much Of Us There Was as someone coming to terms with losing their partner, but that, I think would be wrong, because, like the man in the book, I don’t think many people are able to come to terms with such a tragic event.

An incredible book and one which I was delighted to discover was just as good as Dear Everybody.

It also made me think of my late grandparents, and made me happy that I’ve dedicated my book to them.

Read it. You will thank me for it.

And you can see me interview Michael here.

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And in other news…

If I’ve not heard from Rhoda or Katherine (come on folks, you’ve won!!!) by 5pm I shall pick two more winners of R.N. Morris’ a Razor Wrapped in Silk out of the tin.

I Will Smash You

I received my copy of I Will Smash You a couple of days ago and I’ve watched it twice already. It is wonderful and extraordinary. And there’s something about it that’s resonated in me, something that’s truly affecting.

So why? What is it?

Well, it’s 50 minute short film by the ever brilliant Michael Kimball and Luca Dipierro. Twenty people tell a story about an object from their lives and then they smash it up.A girl destroys an effigy of her mean teacher, a woman smashes up her car because it’s cursed. A man’s procrastination is crushed under a block of cement. Someone else destroys an office environment.

It’s a strange film, extraordinary, funny, entertaining and hugely affecting. The one thing that stood out for me was how much anger or frustration people (not just in the film) seem to carry around with them. And it’s startling to see this, and you really do, once they begin to smash up the objects associated with whatever anger or frustration they’ve been carrying around inside them – it’s right there, in front of you, on the screen. Those involved seem to have such a release. It seems to be therapy of sorts and one that seems to work.

I think the most interesting and affecting of all the smashings is this guy, who wants to destroy his grandfather’s favourite hymn.

There’s more info and trailers and things here. Have a look. Buy a copy. I’d recommend it highly; curious, sad, angry, strange and funny – it’s brilliant. And certainly one of the most original films you’re likely to see. I loved it.

I’m musing now on what object I’d most like to smash. There may be more than one.

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And, as an aside, I interviewed Michael about his utterly brilliant novel, Dear Everybody here.

And I started another of his novels, How Much of Us There Was, yesterday and it’s shaping up to be just as good.

Michael Kimball Interview


Every now and again I read a book that knocks my socks off. It is not something that happens very often, which is probably a good thing because it means when I do find one like that it’s rather special. Slaughterhouse 5 knocked my socks off. Aimee Bender’s short story collections knocked my socks off. So did Etgar Keret’s. Caroline Smailes’ Black Boxes knocked my socks off. So did Frankenstein. To name but a few (have a look through the blog for others – most have been labelled The Incredibles).

The most recent socks-knocker-offer was Dear Everybody by Michael Kimball. It’s right up there with the best I’ve read. Ever. It’s clever, sensitive, heart breaking, moving, funny and many, many other wonderful things. I can’t say enough nice things about it. Honestly (like you can’t tell!) I loved it. (Scott Pack reviews it far better than I ever could here. He says: “If you go out and buy this on the back of my review then you won’t be disappointed, and if you are then you need to give yourself a slap.” And I think he’s right.

I was thrilled to be able to tell Michael Kimball how much I loved it. And thrilled also to be able to ask him some questions.

And here are the results:

 

So, let’s begin. Could you tell us a little about Dear Everybody and a little about where it came from?

Dear Everybody started with one short letter, a man apologizing to a woman for standing her up on a date; the man is wondering if they had gone out that night, if maybe his whole life would have been different, better. At first, I didn’t know then who was speaking or that it was a suicide letter, but I did have a strong voice and a skewed way of thinking. That one letter led to a rush of about 100 letters—Jonathon, the main character, apologizing to nearly everybody he has ever known—and the novel opened up from there. Most of the novel is Jonathon’s letters, but it also includes newspaper articles, psychological evaluations, weather reports, a missing person flyer, a eulogy, a last will and testament, and many other fragments, which taken together tell the story of the short life of Jonathon Bender, weatherman.


How much, structurally, was planned?

I didn’t plan the novel, structurally or otherwise. The beginning of it was a surprise to me, one of those happy surprises that sometimes happens during a good bout of writing. And the structure came out of an episode when I printed out all the pieces of the novel, basically one piece to a page, and laid them out in my dining room–all over the dining table, the chairs, any flat surface. I started putting things in a kind of order that way and the chronological structure came out of that.

 

How does Dear Everybody compare to your other books?

Because of the structure, Dear Everybody is different than my first two novels, but there are some similarities. An obvious similarity is that all three novels use multiple narrators—3 in The Way the Family Got Away, 3 in How Much of Us There Was, and a couple of dozen in Dear Everybody.

 

What ingredients are essential in a piece of fiction for it to be great?

It starts with a great sense of language and a particular perspective that somehow creates an original voice. The story, whatever happens, it all comes after that.

 

Has writing the book changed your opinions on mental illness and suicide?

I had a certain sympathy for those suffering from mental illness and/or those who have to deal with suicide, in whatever form, but as much sympathy as I had, I now have more.

 

Tell us about you. Who is Michael Kimball? Does he write letters?

That’s a difficult question. I’m still a writer first, both the novels and the life stories, but I’ve been working with film a lot lately. I don’t write so many letters anymore, but I used to write a lot of them. In fact, it was after I stopped writing letters so much that Dear Everybody came into being.

 

Could you tell us about 60 Writers/60 Places, and postcard life stories?

The postcard life stories (click here to view) — I call it a collaborative art project. I interview people and then write their life stories (on a postcard). I have written postcard life stories for people from the UK, Canada, South Africa, Portugal, Russia, Finland, Uganda, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Greece, China, Italy, and a man who claims to be an alien. Besides people, I have written postcard life stories for two cats, two dogs, an apple, a fictional character, and a literary magazine. One of the things that I have learned is that there are life stories everywhere.


60 WRITERS / 60 PLACES is a film about writers and their writing occupying untraditional spaces, everyday life, everywhere. It begins with the idea of the tableaux vivant, a living picture where the camera never moves, but the writers read a short excerpt of their work instead of silently holding their poses. Blake Butler reads on the subway, Deb Olin Unferth in a Laundromat, Jamie Gaughran – Perez in a beauty salon, Tita Chico in a dressing room, Tao Lin next to a hot dog cart, and Jessica Anya Blau at a swimming pool. The writer and the writing go on no matter what is going on around them.

 

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve been given?

Cut anything that you don’t absolutely need. That thought continues to guide me.

 

What’s next for you?
I’m finishing a new novel – Friday, Saturday, Sunday – and will keep writing postcard life stories. This fall, there will be a few screenings of
I Will Smash You — a film I made with Luca Dipierro. And Luca and I are almost done shooting 60 Writers/60 Places — and plan to have that ready to screen in the spring.



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Michael Kimball’s third novel, DEAR EVERYBODY, is just out in the US, UK, and Canada (http://michael-kimball.com/). The Believer calls it “a curatorial masterpiece.” Time Out New York calls the writing “stunning.” And the Los Angeles Times says the book is “funny and warm and sad and heartbreaking.” His first two novels are THE WAY THE FAMILY GOT AWAY (2000) and HOW MUCH OF US THERE WAS (2005), both of which have been translated (or are being translated) into many languages. He is also responsible for the ongoing art project—Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard)—and the documentary films, I WILL SMASH YOU (2009) and 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES (2010).