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Tayari's Blog: "I don't Worry About Fiction or Non-Fiction..."

Posted by TayariJones on March 31, 2007 04:31 AM
Filed under Bookshelf

Richard McCann visited George Washington University last week and read from his excellent prose debut, Mother Of Sorrows. My students were in attendance, as we have used his work in our Advanced Fiction Class. The reading was wonderful-- with material like that, how could Richard go wrong?

(Journalistic note: on the photo to the right, I begged him to strike that Mark Twain pose.)

One of the many interesting things that Richard said was, "I don't worry about fiction or Non-fiction. I just think of it all as prose." He said this in response to a question about the autobiographical aspects of Mother Of Sorrows.

The chapter of he read dealt with the brothers-- both gay, one closeted-- on a visit with thier disapproving mother. There is a passage in which Richard describes the characters physical features and it is as though he is staring into a mirror describing what he sees.

This is not to say that Mother of Sorrows is memoir. Richard mentioned the most significant diversion from the "truth" is thatthere is a third McCann brother, but in the novel, there are only two. He said what he feared most was that this brother wouldn't approve of the book-- not just because the third brother is very religious and might not like the gay themes, but also because the third brother was sort of erased from the history created by the novel.

I tend get really irritated when readers spend way too much time trying to decode the autobiography in my work. It makes me feel like they are looking under my clothes. When the first student asked the question, I cringed for Richard, but he seemed to be energized by the discussion.

If you haven't read Mother of Sorrows, you should. It will break your heart, in a very good way.

March 31, 2007 10:58 AM