vanart

It’s funny when I think about how much it took for me to read this book. I was basically prodded and yelled at and asked repeatedly to read this book for the better part of a year before I did. A friend of mine was like, “You’re a writer! It’s about writers! You have to read it!” Eventually, I broke down and did. And man, were they right! I read the book right on the heels of Richard Russo’s Straight Man (which, interestingly enough, the two books make wonderful book ends to each other and should be read back to back if you haven’t read either), so I was already thinking about writers and not wasting time. If Straight Man is about looking back on your lost potential and seizing it, Wonder Boys is about being in the thick of it (read: writing) and understanding that you come from a long line of fucked up people who are the of the same breed: writers. It was rather amazing to read this book. I had so many “Holy shit!” moments as Chabon basically bared his and Grady Tripp’s soul about why writers do the dumb ass things that they do. When all was said and done, I couldn’t help but wonder if being a professional writer is something I really wanted to do. Of course, that I was a writer already made it impossible to just walk away from. All in all, Wonder Boys is a wonderfully complex rollercoaster of a ride through a man’s life as everything that he has ignored begins to unravel. With a cast of characters that is a vibrant as an orchid room, Wonder Boys is an intense examination of the people who bare their souls and try to tell the stories that are within them... and in turn destroy the lives of those around them.

2022-11-14 17:28