Reading Local Seattle

Reading at 7:30 p.m. 7/6 at Elliott Bay Books

In the second of several Seattle/Portland combos, the two cities continue their accidental cultural exchange program. Lidia Yuknavitch was the long-time editor of two girls (the press that transformed into Portland’s great Chiasmus Press) and author. Yukavitch reads tonight with Rebecca Brown, who is reading on the occasion of the release of her first collection of literary essays, American Romances.

Rebbecca. Brown has written about a dozen great books, such as The Terrible Girls and Annie Oakley’s Girl, and last year’s The Last Time I Saw You. City Lights has just published a collection of literary essays, American Romances. (An excerpt at the link.)

Any book by Brown is a cause to stop what you are doing and buy it. I found a single copy on the shelf at Third Place Books. Some great fiction writers or poets are even better essayists, such as George Orwell, Charles Bernstein, William Gass, Charles d’Ambrosio, and for my taste, David Foster Wallace. I’ve been a fan of Brown’s short reviews, essays, and the occasional odd essay found in books like The Clear Cut Future. I was really looking forward to a collection of nonfiction work. Even though Brown’s essays are great in this collection, they lack the open-ended and syntactically charged style that she brings to her short fiction. Here, she knows what she is telling you and leaves no room for questions; when she asks them they are rhetorical. After talking about the advances in American torture, the progress in technique, she asks, “Did I just call that progress?” Elsewhere to sum up a passage she writes, “Some things, no matter how far apart, occur again the same. They happen the same again and over again. The same except for different, and forever.” Can it be pointed out that repetition recurs until something breaks the pattern? Nonetheless my favorite teachers usually have all of the answers. Unlike George Orwell who is careful to present himself as fallible and even ignorant, William Gass isn’t afraid to make grand proclamations. Brown, too, doesn’t veer from telling you how it is.

Author: Matt Briggs

Matt Briggs is the author of five books, including Shoot the Buffalo, a novel published by Clear Cut Press and winner of a 2006 American Book Award. His second novel, The Strong Man, will be released on March 1st 2010. Recent work has appeared in Spork, First Intensity, Seattle Magazine, and The Clackamas Literary Review.

Matt Briggs has written 78 articles for us.