Two readings, a sushi dinner and a note about a cello

After a nap (on my futon; more on this later) in the afternoon, I drove back to school (I had a morning class - my gradership assignment, a Pacific Islands and Culture class) to attend a reading by Michael Byers, an MFA student here in 1994. He's since gone on to be a Stegner fellow at Standford University (very prestigious) and won the Sue Kaufman Prize for first fiction from the Academy of American Arts and Letters for his collection of stories, The Coast of Good Intentions. One of the more successful students to emerge from the MFA program, this fellow has also won a Whiting Foundation Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Prize. His stories have been selected for both The Best American Short Stories and the O'Henry Awards. Oh, and he also happens to be assistant professor for fiction in the University of Pittsburgh's MFA program.

He read from his debut novel, Long For This World, which features a doctor as its protagonist. His study of Hickman's disease, which makes children age quickly and die in their teens, produces important discoveries. I think Amazon has better blurbs so I'll just skip to how the reading went. He began by waxing lyrical about his Ann Arbor days, studying with Nick Delbanco and Eileen Pollack, and then began reading the second chapter, which is told from Ilse's perspective. She is the amusing, witty wife of Henry, the protagonist, and a Viennese doctor who specializes in bones. Michael breathed life into these characters as he read from the novel. It was by turns funny, sad and moving.

I had to purchase a copy and have him sign it. I was very pleased when he asked how my name is spelled (with one or two 'n's?). Six years ago, Ethan Hawke really ruined my name (zero 'n's and one 's' short), even after I had it written on a post-it note which was stuck on the page facing the one he was to sign on. Unless he was struck by my astonishing good looks (which I very much doubt, because I don't really have such looks), I do believe he just didn't put much effort in signing books.

I then had dinner with Boon, who never ceases to astonish me by the amount he reads (he's read more literary fiction than I have, I'm sure! And his field is Engineering, not English!), the number of video games he's played, and the list of movies he's seen and plans to see. We went to a sushi place that I've never been to. Interesting and a wide variety of sushi. I had some nice hot udon and a special sushi called erm, Michigan. A california roll wrapped with salmon and avocado. Not bad despite its moniker (we didn't manage to figure out how it earned its name).

Then we headed to Shaman Drum bookstore to catch Stuart Dybek, a Polish, Michigan-based writer, whose stories are set in Chicago. Another lively (very lively. He sang, he chanted the lines that the characters did. And the section he read was very musical) reader and a brilliant writer whose short story "Chopin In Winter" I admired very much when I was an undergraduate. He read from his new novel, actually a series of inter-connected short stories, titled I Sailed With Magellan. The store was packed and I refrained (after much thought) from buying another hardback just to get the author's autograph. I can and should live without such expensive treats.

A freezing drizzle and then some. I listened to Yo-Yo Ma's Obrigado Brazil, a delightful selection of South American music, as I drove home.

I love cello music, and Obrigado Brazil, together with his other album, Soul Of The Tango: The Music Of Astor Piazzolla, simply makes me want to dance across the floor of a dark little cafe in Buenos Aires, or sit in a corner watching dancers tango under dim lights and shifting shadows. However, I don't appreciate the cello that much when it's being played at eight in the morning daily (and also for two hours each afternoon), and in the room right behind where my bed is. I can't sleep in when I want to, and I can't take naps in the afternoon either (unless it's on my futon in the living room). I've written a note and delivered it this evening. I hope the cellist will take my advice and start at nine instead.

Posted by Monoceros at February 5, 2004 10:28 PM