The Manchester Literature Festival always has great authors and this
year was no exception, because on Tuesday my wife and I were fortunate to see
Jonathan Safran Foer in conversation with Jeannette Winterson.
Foer is sometimes unfairly maligned as being a pretentious writer
(just search the internet for the explosion of outrage regarding the publishing
of his emails with Natalie Portman), but however you feel about his writing, there
is no doubt that in person he is a great conversationalist: pin-sharp and very
eloquent. Yes, he obviously takes his writing very seriously and he has a clear
love of language, both written and spoken, but he’s also very self-aware and
has a keen sense of humour. For example, he started off by joking that his
friends and family always disappear whenever he has a new book out, as if
fearful of somehow upsetting him, and yet more than one friend had excitedly brought
up his impending date with Jeannette Winterson.
Special credit must be given to Jeanette Winterson, who was
enthusiastic and inquisitive in her questions. Thankfully there were no toe-curling
questions, such as when my wife and I went to the Festival’s Michael Chabon
event a couple of years and the interviewer brought up the fact that Chabon’s
wife had given Chabon a sexually transmitted disease, which was slightly
awkward for everyone… The focus of the talk was, of course, Foer’s most recent
book, Here I Am, but we got to hear
about all manner of topics, from Foer sudden adoption of a dog to his decision,
upon reaching the age of thirty, to start throwing birthday parties again,
magicians and all. I always think with these sort of events that there is risk
of there being too much emphasis on deciphering the author’s books, which is
rather unnecessary given that the books often speak for themselves. An event
like this proves that authors should just be allowed to talk, because inevitably
they will say something interesting and you will learn something new.
One of the most interesting things Foer said, in respect of his
teaching at NYU, was that he saw little point in trying to teach writing, because
there was really no secret to constructing sentences. Instead, he preferred to focus
on working out how to get his students to continue
to write. This resonated with me, because I’ve certainly found that the most
important thing is to write frequently, no matter how little.
The audience Q&A section was, as always with these sort of things,
a bit hit and miss, given that the audience members asking the questions are
inevitably star-struck and nervous, but Winterson stuck to her promise to be
thoroughly Northern and cut short anyone who started to ramble – even Foer
himself!
It was a very enjoyable event, and to top things off, my wife and I
walked away with no less than four signed books. Long live the Manchester
Literature Festival!
No comments:
Post a Comment