Tracy Kidder's nonfiction works Strength in What Remains (2009) and Mountains Beyond Mountains (2004) have firmly affixed him to #globalhealth #socialjustice and #hero in my recollection.
Strength in What Remains tells the story of a medical student who survived genocide in Burundi to open a medical clinic. Mountains Beyond Mountains tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer whose practice of empathy and compassion leads him to hold dear the lives of many. The book helped clarify for me that the organization Farmer co-founded, Partners in Health, deserves a percentage of my annual income.
At his lecture in March at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Kidder reinforced his other obvious mental marker #writer. He offered bon mots on the craft of the type that anyone who has spent a significant amount of time at the dull work of filling a blank page can attest to — it just sounds more solid coming from a Pulitzer Prize winner.
A graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Kidder shares the classic writerly insecurities and obsessions. He tells funny stories about callous writing instructors and writing workshops (the writer who rebelled and defended her story, "I have written a book about beautiful people with beautiful things going down."). He quotes Borges, "If you are writing about 'time,' the one word you cannot use is time." He peppers his talk with interesting vocabulary: "nebbish," "locution."
He's currently assisting his longtime editor Richard Todd with a book about writing — so the craft is at the forefront of his thoughts and his latest obsession.
Nonfiction can appear a relatively easier task than writing fiction, especially imaginative fiction. Fiction offers all the same challenges plus the additional effort of world building. However, as Kidder makes clear in his talk, there's nothing easy about finishing a book.
He has written no fewer than 10 drafts of each of his books. He dithers over organization and structure, elements to include and what to exclude, and each sentence. No matter how fascinating the subject, this work of artful writing makes the difference between a slog of a book and memorable, engaging storytelling.
Ah, for an editor! While Kidder attested to the drudge of furrowing out his first drafts in solitary, the companionship of his editor through the process of sorting and rearranging the resultant pages sounded idyllic. Great American writers Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe all shared the benefit of William Maxwell Evarts Perkins' attentive editing, Kidder said.
All in all, it was a welcome, if strange, experience to stare down from a third story balcony at a single writer standing in front of a giant organ in a crowded auditorium. Somehow the TEDxRainier conference at Benaroya managed a more egalitarian feel to the lecture format. Still, I'll be tempted to attend more Seattle Arts & Lectures perhaps 7:30 p.m., Mon., April 18 with Joyce Carol Oates — (I recently read Zombie) billed as the Grand Dame of American Letters (How might it feel to have that title attached to oneself?).
Kidder said he is still searching for his next writing project to be based in the United States. Since he mentioned how hard struck he was by thoughts of mortality when his editor, Todd, wound up in the hospital, maybe he will consider writing about hospice care and perhaps one of the heroic women in the movement. It's timely. Fear of death and misunderstanding of the aims of hospice can prevent humanitarian treatment at the end of life and nearly resulted in the removal of palliative care from our health care coverage.
Strength in What Remains tells the story of a medical student who survived genocide in Burundi to open a medical clinic. Mountains Beyond Mountains tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer whose practice of empathy and compassion leads him to hold dear the lives of many. The book helped clarify for me that the organization Farmer co-founded, Partners in Health, deserves a percentage of my annual income.
At his lecture in March at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Kidder reinforced his other obvious mental marker #writer. He offered bon mots on the craft of the type that anyone who has spent a significant amount of time at the dull work of filling a blank page can attest to — it just sounds more solid coming from a Pulitzer Prize winner.
A graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Kidder shares the classic writerly insecurities and obsessions. He tells funny stories about callous writing instructors and writing workshops (the writer who rebelled and defended her story, "I have written a book about beautiful people with beautiful things going down."). He quotes Borges, "If you are writing about 'time,' the one word you cannot use is time." He peppers his talk with interesting vocabulary: "nebbish," "locution."
He's currently assisting his longtime editor Richard Todd with a book about writing — so the craft is at the forefront of his thoughts and his latest obsession.
Nonfiction can appear a relatively easier task than writing fiction, especially imaginative fiction. Fiction offers all the same challenges plus the additional effort of world building. However, as Kidder makes clear in his talk, there's nothing easy about finishing a book.
He has written no fewer than 10 drafts of each of his books. He dithers over organization and structure, elements to include and what to exclude, and each sentence. No matter how fascinating the subject, this work of artful writing makes the difference between a slog of a book and memorable, engaging storytelling.
Ah, for an editor! While Kidder attested to the drudge of furrowing out his first drafts in solitary, the companionship of his editor through the process of sorting and rearranging the resultant pages sounded idyllic. Great American writers Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe all shared the benefit of William Maxwell Evarts Perkins' attentive editing, Kidder said.
All in all, it was a welcome, if strange, experience to stare down from a third story balcony at a single writer standing in front of a giant organ in a crowded auditorium. Somehow the TEDxRainier conference at Benaroya managed a more egalitarian feel to the lecture format. Still, I'll be tempted to attend more Seattle Arts & Lectures perhaps 7:30 p.m., Mon., April 18 with Joyce Carol Oates — (I recently read Zombie) billed as the Grand Dame of American Letters (How might it feel to have that title attached to oneself?).
Kidder said he is still searching for his next writing project to be based in the United States. Since he mentioned how hard struck he was by thoughts of mortality when his editor, Todd, wound up in the hospital, maybe he will consider writing about hospice care and perhaps one of the heroic women in the movement. It's timely. Fear of death and misunderstanding of the aims of hospice can prevent humanitarian treatment at the end of life and nearly resulted in the removal of palliative care from our health care coverage.
Shel, nice review/blog post. We received a GoogleAlert to your posting of this. We have an audience review blog here:
ReplyDeletehttp://storybehindstories.tumblr.com/
With your permission, I'd like to repost this to that blog and offer you two patron level seats to Joyce Carol Oates. email me at marketing [at] lectures.org.