Book Fever
Checking in with fiction findings
By Marcia Loy July 18, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

The importance of novels and short stories in our society is great. Fiction supplies the only philosophy that many readers know; it establishes their ethical, social, and material standards; it confirms them in their prejudices or opens their minds to a higher world. The influence of any widely read book can hardly be overestimated. If it is sensational, shoddy, or vulgar our lives are the poorer for the cheap ideals which it sets in circulation; if, as so rarely happens, it is a thoroughly good book, honestly conceived and honestly executed, we are all indebted to it.

—Dorothea Brande

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, 1999. This book was a National Book Award Finalist and won several prizes for young adult fiction, but I found it as good as any book geared for people my age—old. Anderson knows how to portray the agony and the angst that are high school years for many of us. The only time in my life worse than high school was junior high. The main character that narrates the story is charming and memorable.

Excerpt:

The First Ten Lies They Tell You in High School

1. We are here to help you.

2. You will have enough time to get to your class before the bell rings.

3. The dress code will be enforced.

4. No smoking is allowed on school grounds.

5. Our football team will win the championship this year.

6. We expect more of you here.

7. Guidance counselors are always available to listen.

8. Your schedule was created with your needs in mind.

9. Your locker combination is private.

10. These will be the years you look back on fondly.


My first class is biology. I can’t find it and get my first demerit for wandering the hall. It is 8:50 in the morning. Only 699 days and 7 class periods until graduation.

The Emperor’s Children, Claire Messud, 2006. A novel of 30-somethings in New York. The Los Angeles Times called it “A robust, canny and surprisingly searching novel [told] with a light-handed irony that is, by turns, as measured as Edith Wharton’s and as cutting as Tom Wolfe’s… Dazzling.” As usual, my favorite character in this novel was a very troubled young man.

First Paragraph: Darlings! Welcome! And you must be Danielle? Sleek and small, her wide eyes rendered enormous by kohl, Lucy Leverett , in spite of her resemblance to a baby seal, rasped impressively. Her dangling fan earrings clanked at her neck as she leaned in the kiss each of them, Danielle too, and although she held her cigarette, in its mother-of-pearl holder, at arm’s length, its smoke wafted between them and brought tears to Danielle’s eyes.

Peace Like a River, Leif Enger, 2001. A first novel by a talented new writer from Minnesota, this is a story of the Land family. The father works as a janitor at the school and raises 16-year-old son Davy, Reuben, the 11-year-old narrator and their little sister, Swede, one of the most likeable children in fiction in recent years. Not a flawless work, but an impressive debut.

Excerpt: Let me say something about that word: miracle. For too long it’s been used to characterize things or events that, though pleasant, are entirely normal. Peeping chicks at Easter time, spring generally, a clear sunrise after an overcast week—a miracle, people say, as if they’ve been educated from greeting cards. I’m sorry, but nope. Such things are worth our notice every day of the week, but to call them miracles evaporates the strength of the word.

Marcia Loy is a member of the steering committee of the Authors’ Sala and a volunteer at the Biblioteca Pública. She can be contacted at marciabookfever@hotmail.com.

A dozen questions about Tom
By Nancy Hooper and Teresa Shepro

Summer Literary Festival
Authors’ Sala
Tom Robbins, Alan Rinzler
Tue–Thu, Aug 19–21
Hotel Real de Minas
Ancha de San Antonio and Stirling Dickinson

Test your knowledge of his novels and revisit once again the irreverent political and philosophical landscape of Tom Robbins, a one-of-a-kind American genius. It would be hard to imagine another author who loves and understands his characters more than Robbins, who says, “There is no such thing as a weird human being. It’s just that some people require more understanding than others.”


Some say that everything you will ever need to know about life can be found in a Robbins novel. How much do you know about his outrageous and magical world?


1. In Skinny Legs and All, what are Ellen Cherry and Boomer driving cross-country?

A. A large roast turkey
B. A stolen mustang convertible
C. A van full of illegal aliens


2. In Jitterbug Perfume, the goat god Pan begins losing his powers as the world embraces: 

A. Christianity
B. Plastic surgery
C. Antibacterial soap


3. In Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, the character Switter’s most private secret is: 

A. His love of show tunes
B. His desire for gap-toothed women
C. He secretly campaigned for Ralph Nader while dressed as a nun


4. In Still Life with Woodpecker, Queen Tilli’s favorite saying is:

A. Oh-oh, spaghetti-o 
B. Why don’t ya try shaking the thing
C. Splendid yes, but I like it too


5. In Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, the character Sissy Hankshaw is a woman born with what mutation?

A. Enormous thumbs
B. A sexual desire for Karl Rove
C. An inability to see her own reflection


6. In Still Life with Woodpecker, Bernard is known as:

A. The Woodpecker
B. A really cheap date
C. King Tut


7. In Villa Incognito, the character Tamuki’s two great lusts are:

A. Sake and women
B. Jelly Beans and cheap dog food
C. Tupperware and S&H green stamps


8. In Jitterbug Perfume the true meaning of the line “and then you’ll be bluer than Indigo” is:

A. The pupil can exceed the master
B. Life is not a bowl of cherries
C. Dive vacations rock


9. In Still Life with Woodpecker, the object prominent in Leigh-Cheri’s solitude is:

A. A pack of Camel cigarettes
B. Thomas Jefferson’s secret manifesto
C. Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, tomato, on a sesame seed bun


10. In Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, the character Switter is in:

A. A wheelchair
B. A really bad mood
C. An iron lung


11. Tom Robbins will be in San Miguel August 19–21, for:

A. The Summer Literary Festival
B. The limpiar at the bibliotecca
C. Research on a new book entitled Ex-pats and the Dogs that Love Them



12. The correct answers to the above questions are:

A. All “A”
B. All crazy enough to be in a Tom Robbins novel
C. Not important if you want to attend the event
D. All the above

Show and tell with local author
By José Luis Mendoza

Book Presentation
Roland Salazar Rose
Mon, July 21, 3pm
Fri, July 25, 5pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25

Long-term San Miguel resident, artist Roland Salazar Rose, will launch his E-art books, Mexican Vibrations (Vibraciones Mexicana) and Twenty: A Magical Number, at a Biblioteca presentation.

His “show & tell” program, with a Q&A at the end, will interest artists, art lovers and writers. Salazar has exhibited extensively in Mexico and the US and is represented by galleries in Mexico, France, Italy and the US. His website is divided into “Gallery Rooms” with images and writings about art. At the book launch, he will read selections and display images of the paintings shown in the two books.

It is nearly impossible for an artist to publish art books on his/her work unless that artist is a “household name.” To get around this problem, Salazar formatted the images and text so the E-art book can be printed in full color, and to provide the book as a download from his website. He converts the high-end Corel Draw file of his book into a PDF file. The download is free to “read only,” with a charge if you wish to print it on your own computer. If someone would like a hard copy of the book, payment is made on the internet on a secure site and the book is mailed to the customer.

For six months, he tested how a memoir he wrote in San Miguel, My Father’s Room, would be received as a free download. On average, people download the book 40 times a month. A downloaded synopsis of the book also is free. Part II of the book, The Four Seasons of the Master Myth, with 100 images in color and a slide show, requires a fee to download. If Only, a collaboration with Bill Pearlman, also is available on his website and at the Biblioteca’s La Tienda.

He says, “It is far too early to say if any of this effort is worth the time and expense. I have received praise for the book design and printing quality. As for sales? Art is not a ‘hot’ selling item.”

Books can be purchased at the event, at La Tienda, or online at www.salazargallery.com.  His painting studio is Montitlán 6, Los Balcones, 152-0995; hours posted.