big bang
October 26th, 2009 | Uncategorized
My friend Lucy Jane Bledsoe is coming out with a new book in the spring. I love Lucy’s work, and have been following it over the years from her short story collection Sweat to the novels Working Parts, This Wild Silence, and Biting the Apple, to her recent collection of true adventure stories, The Ice Cave. I think Big Bang Symphony: a novel of Antarctica is her best yet.
Antarctica is like a vortex that draws you back, season after season. The place is so raw and pure, all seal hide and crystalline iceberg. The fishbowl communities at McMurdo Station, South Pole Station, and in the cold and remote field camps intensify relationships, jack all emotion up to a 10. The trick is to get what you need and then get out fast.
“Pound for pound, Bledsoe’s books are hard to beat….Bledsoe, who seems incapable of a false or unwieldy sentence or motion…takes us there to the end of the journey one unflinching page at a time.” — Kevin Killian
If any of you are reviewers and want an advance copy, email her at her website.
9 Responses to “big bang”
This blog often turns me on to writers with whom I’m unfamiliar. It’s just another benefit of participating here.
Speaking of creators we admire, I heard Lynda Barry speak this past Friday night. She’s every bit as smart and funny as one would expect!
Am I first? Um .. not much to say except that I had one of those irritating dreams where I found a book that had comics in it, specifically an excerpt from AB’s book about working in offices .. which I’d never heard about .. I read as much of it as I could before the cat put her feet into my abdomen to wake me up.
Hey, thanks for the recommendation! This looks goooood. I’m way overdue to buy some books – I tend to buy several at once to last me a while.
Just FYI to anyone in/around Chicago who’s a Margaret Atwood fan: on November 6th, she’ll be at DePaul’s Merle Reskin Theater on her promo tour for The Year of the Flood. At various cities on this tour, she uses local actors and singers as she does a reading from the novel. (You can read more at http://www.margaretatwood.ca – there’s a link there to buy tickets, which are 20 bucks a pop.) She also does a signing as well. At her website, she’s also started to blog as she’s on this tour – it’s interesting to read how she’s trying to minimize the carbon footprint of the tour.
I just realized that Lucy Jane Bledsoe is one of the artists supported through the National Science Foundation’s polar program. A while ago I was rooting around the NSF website and discovered the polar program (unfortunately, not even remotely connected to what I do). Who would have thought that some of our tax dollars would go to fund such a cool thing like artists in Antarctica?
Thanks for the recommendation, I am really looking forward to reading this novel!
Alison/Mentor, serious troll alert.
I’m trying to keep my blood pressure under control right at this very moment.
/alert
I’d love to hear Margaret Atwood speak! Sadly, it’s a bad time for me to be away from home, or I’d travel to NYC or DC to hear her.
Hmmmm….I knew about Margaret Atwood being on tour–she came to L.A., but I *never* hear about animation-related stuff going on in L.A.
Alternative Press Expo was in S.F. a few weeks ago, and I read about stuff going on in Vermont and the East Coast from this blog….just wish I could tap into the comics/animation stuff going on in L.A., or what stuff there is going on here….
Donna:
Start following Mark Evanier’s blog. He knows all, and tells much.
http://www.newsfromme.com/
Thank’ee!