August 11, 2009

"Young hipster dad." The reviewer's words, not mine. I'm just saying.


Why hello there.
Originally uploaded by Citizen Rob
Schuyler's Monster received a review on Thimblewicket, the literary blog of Cynthia Shearer, who teaches creative writing at the W.L. Adams Center for Writing and the Department of English at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. She's the author two novels, The Wonder Book of the Air (Pantheon/Vintage 1996), which won the 1996 prize for fiction from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, and The Celestial Jukebox (Shoemaker & Hoard/Avalon 2005). Her work has appeared in a number of publications and anthologies, and she was the recipient of a fiction fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2000.

So yeah. I was nervous about this review going into it.

Well, I'm pleased to report that the review was a good one, maybe one of the most positive I've received yet. Perhaps more important than the fact that she liked the book, however (and you won't hear me say that very often), was the fact that she clearly read it very carefully, and she understood what I was trying to do. Also, I can't lie to you, it was really nice to read a review that discussed my merits as a writer, rather than as a dad who writes. That might seem like a slight distinction to you, and perhaps it is when my own weird hybrid of insecurity and narcissism are taken out of the equation. It was still heartening, particularly after my recent crisis of writerly confidence.

And she referred to me as "a young hipster dad". Really, she could have trashed the book and I would have still enjoyed that part.

Schuyler's Monster should be shelved, and sold, and taught in universities, as literary memoir. Anyone wondering what it takes to be a writer should read this book. It tells the story of a remarkable child, yes indeed. But let the record show also that it is the dogged, if a little delayed, debut of a born writer with plenty of truth-telling ahead of him. What interrupts you also creates you.

Also read the interview I gave, Escape from Jimbobwe: Interview with Rob Rummel-Hudson. (There's more to the interview, about education, that will run at some point in the future.) I think I managed to avoid offering up too much incriminating dumbassery. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

12 comments:

OM said...

Wait. Hipster is now a good thing? Aren't hipsters the people who wear hats to bars and sit on stools with unlit pipes?

(Oh, and congratulations on another great review).

Jim Howard said...

There are so many positive things that have come from your writing, but one of the best IMHO is that you've shown that these days a good writer with modest means and no high profile friends or relatives can succeed.

After reading your writing for many years on your various blogs and web pages it is really great to see that you're now an overnight sensation!

Anonymous said...

I loved the literariness of the review, and the emphasis on your own hipster writerliness. Long overdue focus in a review, because it's the writing AND the content that keep me re-reading the book.

mekei said...

Dang Rob! That review has to make you feel good. Congrats and Go Frogs!

Elizabeth said...

Hooray!

Melissa Luxmoore said...

"What interrupts you also creates you"

I love this! It is now on my wall!
Congratulations Mr Bigshot Writer!

a pal said...

As someone who has no problem whatsoever in mocking your navel-gazing when it gets to be too much, I will happily say that considering the distinction between "writer" and "dad who writes" is wholly valid and non-mock-worthy.

Robert Hudson said...

Pondering the clear distinction between "young hipster" and "me" is also completely valid, I'm sad to say.

Maddy said...

Aha! I certainly appreciate the difference between the two, although I wasn't aware that you'd had any bad reviews.

Anyway, I've just finished reading it myself [yes, a bit late in the day I admit] and I can report that there are about a dozen words that I've marked [I'm a scribbler that defaces books] that I simply do not understand [and they're not in the dictionary either!]

Here's one of them =
Rubes..... although I can guess. Maybe I should try something other than the OED!
Cheers

amylia said...

Well deserved and long overdue.
So long overdue, in fact, that the "young hipster dad" to whom she refers is now an arachnaphobic old fart. I'm just sayin'!

Anonymous said...

It's your writing and your voice that interest me. Not to diss the awesome Schuyler, or her harrowing, compelling story, but there are many stories and fewer and fewer people who write at all well. Your own writing goes far beyond "well".

Anonymous said...

Your baaack!