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| photo: Madeline R. Fleischmann | |
Raymond Fleischmann's debut thriller, How Quickly She Disappears, was just released by Berkley Books. Fleischmann's short fiction has been published in the Iowa Review, Cimarron Review, the Pinch and the Los Angeles Review, among many others, and he has received fellowships and scholarships from Richard Hugo House and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. He earned his MFA from Ohio State University and lives in Bloomington, Ind., with his wife and three daughters.
On your nightstand now:
The Relive Box and Other Stories by T.C. Boyle: I love short stories, and Boyle's short fiction has been consistently amazing for more than three decades. His collection After the Plague was one of the books that made me want to be a writer, and his latest collection is just as good.
Patience by Daniel Clowes: Before I wanted to write novels and short stories, I wanted to write comics, and my love of that medium persists to this day. Daniel Clowes might be my favorite graphic novelist--let's call it a tie between him, Chris Ware and Adrian Tomine--and my wife recently bought me a copy of Clowes's latest book.
Favorite book when you were a child:
All of the Calvin and Hobbes collections by Bill Watterson. It's a bit strange to admit now, but I wasn't much of a reader when I was a child. Far from it. But the few books that loomed large in my early life were my Calvin and Hobbes books.
Your top five authors:
J.M. Coetzee: I didn't encounter Coetzee's writing until graduate school, but his work had an immediate and lasting impact on me. I pulled his novel Slow Man off the library shelves at random and was instantly hooked.
Alice Munro: An unparalleled master of the short story, Alice Munro's work is near and dear to me. There's so much to learn from her stories, reading after reading after reading.
Ian McEwan: I've read almost all of Ian McEwan's novels, and each is incredible in its own way. For years, I've told people that he's the writer I want to be when I grow up.
Annie Proulx: Have I mentioned that I like short stories? Well, here's another master of the medium. I started reading Proulx's work in college and, like T.C. Boyle's short stories, the vividness and emotional heft of her work made me want to be a writer.
Truman Capote: There's a rhythm and musicality to Capote's prose that appeals to me immensely, and I think that Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood are two of the greatest works of prose I've ever read.
Book you've faked reading:
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace: I've started it about four or five times, and I'll admit that I've never gotten past the first 100 pages. I'll read it someday, I swear. Honest.
Book you're an evangelist for:
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell: like Alice Munro's work, this 1980 novella by the late William Maxwell is one of those books that's rewarding to read over and over again. It's delicate and heart-wrenching all at once, and it's sorely under-read. There's also an audio version of the book read by Maxwell himself, which is very cool to listen to.
Book you've bought for the cover:
What You Have Left by Will Allison: perhaps my favorite book cover of any I've encountered. It captures a moment that's instantly relatable and recognizable, but then you look a second longer and notice that all is not well. And isn't that how good fiction works, too?
Book you hid from your parents:
I never hid any books from my parents. Again, I wasn't an avid reader when I was a kid, and so I think my parents would have been thrilled to see any book in my bedroom.
Book that changed your life:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: A lot of books have changed my life, but this is the one that comes to mind most immediately. I read this for the first time when I was in seventh grade, and it was the first book that truly took my breath away. That final scene with George and Lennie--you know the one. I get choked up just thinking of it.
Favorite line from a book:
"Too many conflicting emotional interests are involved for life ever to be wholly acceptable, and possibly it is the work of the storyteller to rearrange things so that they conform to this end. In any case, in talking about the past we lie with every breath we draw." --from William Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow
Five books you'll never part with:
I don't like parting with any of my books! But if I had to narrow it down to five that mean the most to me, personally and artistically, it'd probably be the following:
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates: from start to finish, I think that this is one of the best novels I've ever read. It's difficult to say if I have a single "favorite" novel but, if I do, this is probably it.
Selected Stories by Alice Munro: 28 stories you could spend a lifetime reading and still find new things to admire.
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: I'm not much of a fantasy guy, but Tolkien is in a class of his own. I read this complete series--footnotes and all--right around the time I was finishing the first draft of my novel, and I have warm and fuzzy associations with it.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: apart from how much I enjoy and admire Capote's famous "nonfiction novel," the copy that I have is a first edition that my aunt once gave my grandfather, complete with her inscription from 1966.
Waiting by Ha Jin: this is one of my wife's favorite novels, and I read it on her recommendation very early in our relationship. Later, she bought me a signed copy, and so it's another book that I value emotionally as much as I do artistically.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris: Sedaris is one of my favorite living writers, and Me Talk Pretty One Day is probably my favorite collection of his. All of his work is such a joy to read, and I'd love to encounter him for the first time all over again.
The best book you've read this past year:
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh: I don't think I've ever read a book quite like Eileen. It's uncomfortable to read in the best way possible, and it's a book I wanted to read again immediately after finishing it.