Shop Talk: A Writer And His Colleagues And Their Work (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
This wasn't what I expected from the title—authors talking shop—so I ended up reading it not in full mind to appreciate what virtues it does offer. This probably cost the book a star, but I can only respond as I was on the day; in this regard, titles matter. I engrossed myself avidly in the nicely turned essay on Primo Levi which opens the book, but it mainly painted a picture I already knew. What I hadn't known is that Levi's signature book flopped on original publication, for being, I was left to guess, too dark too fresh too soon after the war. I only skimmed the final essay on Bellow as I'm presently reading Bellow for first time anyway, more or less the first time—having stumbled upon Hertzog in my father's bookcase when I was fourteen I thought the presence of mind of the narrator was first rate but I simply didn't identify enough with the character's sexual anguish to push beyond the first three chapters; I'm now giving Bellow a second clap of the starting gun after obtaining over the past year a twin barrage of the same reverent tenor—the same tenor as put forth by Roth here—from literary essays of the terrible twosome, Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens. So far, no news, really, from either end-cap chapter. (When I'm uncertain about a book, I often digest in order from pride of place.) Where I did take some meaning was a pair of complementary conversations with Milan Kundera and Ivan Klíma. Klíma paints a very direct and revealing picture of life in Prague under Soviet oppression and the compromises survival entails. Whatever question Roth poses in this dialogue, mainly concerning the life of writers enduring this corrosive regime, he receives a thoughtful and definite answer. The luminous passage in this conversation concerns the surreal facility with language that Václav Havel brings to his political office. I'll quote just one of the three examples I copied into my notes. When a German journalist asked whose company Havel had most preferred, the Dali Lama's, George Bush's, or Mikhail Gorbachev's—all three of whom he's recently met—he began, "Well, it wouldn't be wise to make a hierarchy of sympathy ..." It would be hard to place this astute and genial deflection into the mouth of any American president known to me since Abraham Lincoln; perhaps Michael Ignatieff would have had the verbal chops to equal this as a Canadian head of state, were he, small matter, electable. Kundera is more reflective on the abstract plane, and only in this piece—of the ones I read—does the book stray into the kind of shop talk I expected to find. There was a page or two on the relative importance of voice and theme over plot and character that would have made a grand book had these questions been persistently and thoroughly explored with each writerly companion; but no, what persistence there is in Roth's approach revolves around the Jewish question, which only interested me up to a point. Perhaps the book could have been better titled A Jewish Writer; his Brothers; Their Times, Tales, and Persecutions. Or perhaps not, as a commercial matter.
I'll be honest. I haven't read any of the works being discussed here, not even Roth's! Then if you asked why the heck I read this book? Here what I can tell you:First of all, when you eager to know about how a toaster works you have two options of: go straight plug in the power socket and make a toast which at most will be overheated or you can check the manual and learn how to make a medium toast. So personally, this book provides a guidance before I read their works. Yes not enough, but at least I'm getting there.Secondly, you'll get more insights that might help you to acknowledge the works they published under certain or should I say restricted circumstances, in this case some Jewish authors lived in various countries around the world.Thirdly, you're allowed to fall in love with the authors beyond their works. Before this book, I only aware of Milan Kundera and his works but now -thanks to interesting conversation with Ivan Klíma- I have new works to be added onto the wishlist. However, again being such an honest reader hehe, the interesting part of this book for me stopped once Roth had a conversation or exchanging letters with his colleagues. His engagement with Malamud dan Gaston simply confused me, and I guess rereading Saul Bellow's is beyond me.***Tidak ada cara lain, aku harus jujur dan mengaku. Dari semua karya sastra yang disebutkan di dalam buku ini, hingga detik ini, belum satupun aku baca. Tidak juga karya Philip Roth sendiri. Lantas jika kau bertanya untuk apa aku membacanya? Ini yang bisa aku katakan:Pertama, katakanlah kamu memenangkan atau membeli sebuah pemanggang roti maka akan ada dua cara yang awamnya dilakukan oleh seseorang yakni langsung menyalakannya dan memanggang roti yang biasanya berakhir gosong atau kamu bisa membaca manual sambil memanggang roti untuk mendapatkan kematangan yang sempurna. Jadi secara pribadi, buku ini menjadi semacam manual bagiku sebelum membaca karya-karya mereka. Memang sih ini saja tidak cukup tapi paling tidak ini adalah awal.Kedua, ada begitu banyak informasi lain yang bisa membantumu memahami karya-karya mereka mengingat keadaan dan situasi yang mereka alami sebagai penulis berdarah Yahudi dan hidup di berbagai negara.Ketiga, buku ini memungkinkanmu untuk mulai menyukai sang penulis walau belum membaca karya-karyanya. Jelas sebelum aku membaca buku ini, nama Ivan Klíma belum pernah aku dengar terutama jika dibandingkan dengan Milan Kundera, tapi berkat percakapan yang luas biasa menarik antara Roth dan Klíma aku bisa menambahkan karya-karyanya ke daftar panjang literature yang ingin kubaca.Sayangnya, bagiku daya tarik buku ini hanya sejauh percakapan atau korespondensi Roth dengan sejumlah koleganya. Entah apa pun yang dia maksudkan ketika berbicara mengenai Malamud dan Gaston, aku tidak bisa memahaminya. Dan di bab terakhir ketika Roth menawarkan kesempatan membaca ulang karya Saul Bellow, rasanya seperti masuk ke ranah asing yang begitu tidak ramah. Jadi tidak salah kan jika aku meninggalkannya begitu saja?!
What do You think about Shop Talk: A Writer And His Colleagues And Their Work (2002)?
Not really shop talk at all. Mostly interviews with writers whom Roth finds interesting, namely Primo Levi, Aharon Appelfeld, Ivan Klima, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Milan Kundera, and Edna O'Brien. The book contains a letter from Mary McCarthy that informally criticizes The Counterlife, and Roth's more formal, somewhat defensive rebuttal. It ends with a disappointing series of blurbs for Saul Bellow novels jammed together into an "essay." There is little "shop talk," as in, discussion of writing at all; most of the text is about being Jewish (though not about Judaism). I turned out to be the wrong audience for this collection, since I have never read Appelfeld, Klima, Singer, or O'Brien.
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A little charming books consisting a series of "dialogue" between Phillips Roth and several other writers. I decided not to read this cover to cover (will do when I have time), but to pick a dialogue randomly, starting of course from the one I had read, Primo Levi, and continued with the ones I had heard like Milan Kundera, Saul Bellow, etc. Levi talked about his being an author as well as a chemist. Kundera formulated the term novel and what it was to be a novelist very well to me. If I could only take one thing from the book, it would be that paragraph of his.Picked out some other writers unknown to me. The general theme in the book was about the identity struggle of the authors who happened to be Jewish, their dealing with the past and how those experiences manifest in their writing. The edition I had looked a bit differently from the covers available here. The title "Shop Talk" was clearly shown with a rather colourful background. Getting glances while reading in the subway, I couldn't help thinking of the possibility that the spectators would think I was reading a chick-lit :-)
—Irwan
