~Post by Julie
Alex Shakar just left the building, and I’m staying at the store a little while longer tonight because I have to get down in words just how awesome that event was.
A couple of disclaimers up front: 1. In my career as a bookseller, I’ve attended hundreds of author events. They haven’t all inspired such immediate praise. I have seen the good, the bad, the woefully bad, and the in between. I am a skeptical, jaded events girl; I don’t charm easy. 2. I have not read any of Alex Shakar’s work yet (aside from a few snippets from Luminarium.)
Shakar kept his event simple. He read from Luminarium, his new novel, for twenty minutes, then took questions. He is hands down one of the best readers I’ve heard, probably the best reader I’ve listened to since Gary Shteyngart. His voice was clear and confident, and the inflection with which he read gave shape to the characters in a way that usually only happens for me by reading the page. He also made these entertaining hand gestures as he went along, shaping images in the air beside the podium in way that was unexpected and endearing.
Then there was the writing. It can be difficult for me to be engaged when an author reads aloud, even if he or she is a good reader. I’m generally focused on so many other elements (How many people are in the seats? Are there post-its nearby for the signing? Are those noisy kids on the stairs bothering anyone else or is it just me?) that I can sometimes forget (unfortunately) to pay attention. But Shakar’s writing held my ear from the first sentence. The image of the main character putting on a helmet and submitting to some kind of strange electromagnetic therapy was so vivid and the characters presented with such distinction and humor that it drew me right in. I am not only a jaded events girl but also a jaded reader. I do not succumb to flashy writing, or writing that tries too hard to make me laugh or that thinks it’s just so clever. Shakar’s first chapter did none of this; it simply was clever and did make me laugh. Miracle of miracles!
By the time he reached the second excerpt he read, when a bartender at a Jimmy Buffett restaurant tells the main character, “There is no suicide in Margaritaville….there’s only wasting away….” I knew I would buy the book.
During the Q&A I learned that Luminarium, which is set in the weeks leading up to the five year anniversary of the September 11th attacks and deals with the themes of spirituality and technology, took him ten years to write. In a business where authors become famous working on treadmills that see a new book churned out every year, it was encouraging to learn that this author before me had dedicated such time, care, reflection and introspection to his piece of art. I expect to appreciate reading it all the more knowing that this wasn’t something tossed off to meet a deadline.
It would not be prudent of me to recommend a book I have not yet read, so I will not jump up and say, “You must read this book!” But I will say, based on what I heard tonight and the reviews I’ve read (many have praised it – the New York Times; Washington Post; Chicago Tribune; Seattle Times) that what’s between the soft black covers of Luminarium has certainly piqued my interest, and that meeting the kind and intelligent Alex Shakar has put it on my list of Books To Be Read Very, Very Soon, If Not Now.
