Re: JCO: The Guardian Book Club - THE FALLS

I've just got back home. The event lasted just over an hour, with John Mullan leading the questions then taking them from the audience. I didn't get to ask one myself, partly because I didn't manage to finish The Falls beforehand. Then on the way home I thought of one I could have asked...always the way.

 

John Mullan runs all the monthly book clubs at The Guardian (always a novel available in UK paperback, not necessarily a recent one and presumably one where the author is available to be interviewed in the Guardian's newsroom). Inevitably he can't be fully comprehensive with all the authors he interviews, and he admitted as such - he'd taken "a sampling" of JCO's works with him on holiday, though he said he had read The Falls itself twice.

 

Needless to say, the subject of prolificacy came up but JCO answered that one with good grace. There was a moment when JCO seemed to be (politely) needling Mullan, when she seemed to be suggesting he'd accused her of "not being conscious" when she'd written the novel. (I don't think he had said that, actually.) See what you think when you listen to the podcast - it should be available at the Guardian site from tomorrow.

 

I didn't recognise anyone in the audiencel. (Was anyone else from Tone Clusters there?) The best question came from a woman who had clearly read quite a few JCO novels and asked how had her narrative voice changed over the years, using Garden of Earthly Delights as a comparison.

 

The event was sold out and there was a long queue to have books signed. Pretty encouraging, as ten years ago when I joined Tone Clusters JCO wasn't even being published in the UK. Copies of The Falls, The Gravedigger's Daughter and at least one other novel were on sale.

 

The final Book Club article this coming Saturday will be a write-up of the event plus questions raised by email.

 

Gary

----- Original Message -----

From: Eric Anderson

To: jco@usfca.edu

Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 6:48 PM

Subject: RE: JCO: The Guardian Book Club - THE FALLS

Hi Gary
 
Did you make it to the book club discussion for The Falls? Manage to ask a question?
 
Let us know how it went.
 
Best
eric

> From: gjcouzens@btinternet.com
> To: jco@usfca.edu
> Subject: JCO: The Guardian Book Club - THE FALLS
> Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 07:49:55 +0100
>
> The Guardian Book Club appears every Saturday in the Review section of the
> Guardian newspaper (UK). For four weeks, it covers a particular novel in the
> following way - for the first two, the resident critic (John Mullan)
> discusses particular aspects of the novel. In Week 3, the author provides a
> short article. In Week 4, Mullan discusses feedback from the readers, and
> the questions raised at a public event.
>
> Beginning next week (28 July), the Book Club will be discussing JCO's The
> Falls.
>
> The public event will take place at the Guardian Newsroom, 60 Farringdon
> Road, London EC1 on the evening of 13 August, 6.30pm onwards. Tickets are £8
> which includes a glass of wine, and can be booked by calling 020 7886 9281
> ( +44 20 7886 9281 from outside the UK) or by emailing
> book.club@guardian.co.uk
>
> The articles will be available online at www.guardian.co.uk, but I'll
> provide links to them here as they appear.
>
> Er, I'd better get on with reading The Falls then...
>
> Gary
>
>
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