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Book Club Announcement: The Novelist

By Will Willingham 2 Comments


Laura has about 30 days to write a novel before the calendar strikes September. And me? I have about 59 minutes to write an announcement about our next book club before the clock strikes twelve.

When I first read The Novelist ( I say first because I’ve read it more than once), I was struck by dichotomies–the way L.L. Barkat wove truth and fiction seamlessly, the way things that didn’t make sense made sense, the way both yes and no could be equally powerful, the way poetry insinuated itself into a work of fiction. It was, as the main character herself said, “more of a thing and less of a thing.”

I’ve been struck by those same things with each subsequent reading, but also with the artful and intricate layering of the story-truth so deeply embedded into the pages.

I am delighted to announce that our next Tweetspeak book club title is The Novelist. We’ll begin on Wednesday, November 28, for a three-week series based loosely on a set of discussion questions developed by readers.

The Novelist is a book that can be read in a sitting or two (maybe three, if you’re having trouble finding your tea basket). So we encourage you to read the entire novella before our first discussion, and consider the first group of questions on the discussion guide.

Now: get the book if you haven’t already, download the discussion guide, and brew your favorite tea. Then, meet us back here around the coffee table in the Tweetspeak living room on November 28. I’ll get us a nice fire going.

____________________

Download the discussion guide.

Read the first chapter online.

Buy The Novelist: a novella:

Novelist Cover 367

Photo by Flood G. Creative Commons license via Flickr. Post by LW Lindquist.

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Will Willingham
Will Willingham
Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.
Will Willingham
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Filed Under: Blog, book club, Fiction, poetry, The Novelist

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About Will Willingham

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.

Comments

  1. Maureen Doallas says

    October 31, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    Great selection! Will be looking forward to your posts.

    I want to know if Geoffrey’s for real. And how much poetry got written in those 28 hotel rooms.

    One of the things I like about “The Novelist” is how much room it gives the imagination. There’s a lot to be said (though I’m not necessarily going to be sayin’ it) for how much detail to provide and how much to withhold. And the play of truth against fiction and vice versa is so skillful in this book.

    Reply
    • L. L. Barkat says

      November 4, 2012 at 7:34 pm

      Have you ever met someone like Geoffrey, Maureen? I’m thinking he’s real in some sense, if you have 🙂

      I love that you say that about the imagination. I forgot to add a question about Imagination to the discussion questions, but it is actually a critical aspect of the book.

      Reply

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