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Bookclub: "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh"
Presented by Jonathan Yardley
Washington Post Book World Editor
Tuesday, May 1, 2000; 2 p.m. EST
Welcome to the online meeting of The Washington Post Book Club, a monthly program presented by the editors and writers of Washington Post Book World. Post Book World editor Jonathan Yardley will be leading the discussion on this month's selection, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" by Michael Chabon.
Below is the transcript.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Jonathan Yardley: I am now ready to receive questions and comments about Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and/or other aspects of his books and career.
Arlington, VA:
doesn't it fundamentally undercut the credibility of the Pulitzer Prize winner's works that he claims to be straight? Not that he has to be gay to write almost exclusively about gay people but isn't that a fundamental rule of writing that you write what you know? If he's married, what does he know about it?
Jonathan Yardley: If Chabon says he's straight, so far as I'm concerned he's straight. In any event it doesn't matter. Fiction is an art of the imagination. William Styron didn't have to be African American in order to imagine himself into the mind and soul of Nat Turner, and Anne Tyler didn't have to be a man in order to imagine herself into the mind and soul of Macon Leary. Don't be so literal-minded.
Washington, DC:
Where can I find the link to the review of "Mysteries of Pittsburgh"?
Jonathan Yardley: You should be able to go to the Book Club homepage and follow the links to Readers' Guides.
crofton md:
Michael Chabon is a terrifiically good writer
Is his goal to write exclusivel about Pittsburh asFaulkner did with yoknawpatapha County? would you describe this as acoming
of age novel someone trying to find himself.?
Jonathan Yardley: No, as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay makes plain, Chabon is determined to move into larger territories on a grander scale.
Arlington, VA:
What do you think about the recurring mentions of the Cloud Factory--a symbol for something else?
Jonathan Yardley: Sure.
Baltimore, MD:
With so many young writers stuck in the swamp of post-modern, knee-jerk irony, I am thrilled by Michael Chabon. Do you think his success could signal a new generation of writers unafraid to write books of genuine feeling and emotion?
Jonathan Yardley: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Chabon is sui generis. No doubt others will try to imitate him, but the one certainty is that they will fall laughably short. He's breathing new life into American literary fiction, but he's doing it on his own.
Washington, D.C.:
I loved reading Kavealier Clay. I heard that his father is a typographer in New York.
When did Chabon start writing for D.C. comics?
Jonathan Yardley: I'm not sure his father was a typographer -- I've simply forgotten -- but he was indeed a New Yorker, and Chabon says that the stories he told about New York were essential raw material for Kavalier and Clay.
To the best of my knowledge Chabon has never written for comics.
Washington, D.C.:
How does a comic writer change to fiction writer? I mean, how does/did he change formats? Or does he incorporate them together?
Jonathan Yardley: Chabon was a reader, not a writer, of comics, so far as I know.
Vienna, Va.:
Jonathan! I went to your fabulous event last week and was amazed by the crowd of 500. Unfortunately, I was the one who was turned away.. Any more events in the future? any more with Chabon?
Jonathan Yardley: There will be an event with John Updike in June. Keep your eyes on Book World for further details.
Baltimore, Md.:
I couldn't make it to last week's event but was wondering what the format was with Chabon? Is he nice in person? Also, where did his writing or interest in comics begin? Where would you reference him in literature? I mean what kind of writer is he?
Jonathan Yardley: It would be hard to imagine a nicer person. He read comics devoutly as a boy, lost interest in them, and then redicovered them when he opened a box in which he found his boyhood collection. As a writer, he's his own man, belonging to no school except his own.
Virginia:
Jonathan,
It's amazing because Chabon is so young... was he writing about himself in Pittsburgh? (I thought he grew up in NY) His struggles seem to be so genuine in boy-boy, boy-man and becoming a man. And the attitude wasn't "boys will be boys".
Jonathan Yardley: One must always be careful about assuming that a writer who employs the first-person is writing about him- or herself. The Mysteries of Pittburgh is admittedly autobiographical in some respects, wholly imaginary in others. The question is always interesting in a gossippy way but unimportant in a literary way. What matters is the book itself, not its sources.
Somewhere, USA:
It was refreshing to find a young writer who didn't seem afraid of style. Most boys want to be like their fathers but it was nice to see how a nice young man has to declare his independence of an imposing father whohappens to be a gangster. and most mobsters are idealized
Jonathan Yardley: Yes, I agree, but don't forget that the father's influence on the son is deep and permanent.
College Park, Md.:
Just like sitting through an indie film. He should write a script for Sundance!
It in no way deserves comparison to "The Catcher in the Rye". But
I was left breathless by his ability to show us, with a little humor, the dark sides of us all, and Chabon makes us all feel a little less ashamed of our involvement in life.
Jonathan Yardley: Thanks. I'd say it in no way deserves comparisaon to "Catcher" because it's so much better.....
Jonathan Yardley: OK, that seems to be it. Thanks for your interest.
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