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Original Essays | December 12, 2009

The Courage of Others

0 comments By Alexander McCall Smith

I have recently written a novel about life in England during the Second World War. I felt some concern before I tackled this theme — the War... Continue »

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   $16.76 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

   La's Orchestra Saves the World

   Alexander McCall Smith

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poetry12, December 9, 2006

POETRY READING FROM THE LOST

Daniel Mendalstam?s reading from his book, ?The Lost? was an interesting event. Beyond the reading itself, there was much to be learned from the experience. To me, this reading had three main components: Daniel?s introduction of the book, the reading, and the Q&A. Each of these was a different way of experiencing Daniels work, but each was very helpful in fully comprehending his message.
Before Daniel began the reading, he gave a significant introduction to his book it the material it discussed. He described it as being the chronicle of his search to discover the fate of his mother?s relatives during the Holocaust. This seemed to be the surface level of the book, but on a deeper level he described it as being the story of ?how one becomes interested in one?s family and gets in touch with their own history.? Hearing this helped me to understand what Daniel felt was important about it own search and what it really meant to him, and also what he was trying to relate to other people. His comments in the introduction outlined themes and ideas that would be prevalent in the reading itself, and I found this information very helpful in terms of interpreting the actual reading. Having a preconceived notion of the themes he was writing about helped me to concentrate on how he was achieving this, rather than simply what he was trying to say.
There were several things the struck me about the reading itself. The writing had a strong sense of the stream of consciousness style, as if his writing was just thoughts pouring out of his mind. This was an effective way to illustrate many of the scenes he read, and forced me as a listener to pay very close attention so as not to miss any pivotal details. He was very descriptive in narrating scenes such as family gatherings, and being forced to kiss old people, occurrences that are common and easy to relate to. This was important for creating visual representations of the scenes, which was critical for comprehension and keeping track of the story, given that I didn?t have the pages in front of me. Another thing that struck me was his use of different accents in his reading. When he read a quote of his grandfather?s or some other relative, he would skillfully reproduce to accent with which the statement was originally made. I found that this really helped in bringing the characters to life, in a way that I could not have achieved reading the book on my own. I also noticed his use of repetition of certain key phrases, such as, ?unknown and unknowable?, and ?old Jewish people who cried at the sight of my face.? He would introduce the phrase, and then it would come up again in the reading, often with a great deal of space in between. These repeated phrases helped to tie the story together and draw strong connection between seemingly distant aspects of the story.
When the reading was finished, Daniel opened the floor to questions. This segment of the reading allowed me to understand more about Daniel himself, and also how others in the audience had reacted to the reading. I found it interesting that two of the aspects of Daniel?s reading that struck me, the stream of consciousness style, and the phrase repetition, had also been noticed by other audience members, enough so that they asked questions about these specific components. In both cases, Daniel noted that his use of these devices in his writing was conscious, and he explained the reasons for his use of each. Hearing his explanation for his choices gave me an even greater appreciation for these stylistic components, which even initially, had been very powerful to me. There were also questions about how Daniel?s literary background and training in the classics had affected his writing. Hearing his answers to these questions were very helpful in further understanding Daniel?s style and grasping his use of forms, such as the Greek practice of chronological storytelling interwoven with loops of the past to tell the complete story. It was Daniel?s opinion that being well read in the classics allowed him to have good perspective on the nature of the Holocaust and helped him in deciding how to deal with it in his writing. Hearing Daniel?s opinions on these matters gave me a deeper understanding of were his writing was coming from and for me, added a great deal of validity to his message.

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