Books: October 2007 Archives

Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel laureate for literature, spoke Thursday night at Claremont McKenna College, and it was yet another count-your-lucky-stars moments, to get to hear a world-class thinker and writer expound so close to home, and free of charge.

Pamuk read excerpts from two of his essays, one describing Istanbul, the other constituting a monologue from his daughter's point of view on all the reasons she didn't want to go to school. (Among them: "The teacher gives me a nasty look, and she doesn't look too good to begin with.") He talked about why he writes, listing a series of explanations: he "can't do normal work," he likes to be alone, he likes the attention, he likes the smell of paper and ink and he wants to read books like his. He also spoke of representing Turkey to the world through his work.

Pamuk, as you may know, faced prison for speaking openly about the Armenian genocide, which his government refuses to acknowledge. After an international outcry, he was instead accused of "insulting Turkishness," a charge that was quietly dropped. He didn't talk about that directly on Thursday, nor did he say anything about the faltering move in Congress to press Turkey on the genocide issue.

"If your country is troubled, as mine is, those troubles find their way back to me in journalists' questions, and then I cannot shut up my mouth," Pamuk said. Other than that remark, he did a good job of shutting up his mouth.

Afterward he signed books. "Snow," his most popular novel, sold out right before I got to the sales table. Instead, I picked up "The Black Book," a novel whose back cover notes that one of the characters is "a popular newspaper columnist." Maybe I can pick up some pointers.

Gustavo Arellano, who writes the "Ask a Mexican" column for the OC Weekly, came to Pomona Saturday afternoon to talk about "Bless Me, Ultima," the Rudolfo Anaya novel that everyone in Pomona is asked to read as part of an NEA-funded program, the Pomona Big Read.

Calling it "an amazing book," Arellano told an audience of 50 in the Cal Poly Pomona Downtown Center that he first encountered it in English class in Anaheim and was won over -- first by its profanity ("That was the first time I had ever seen curse words in a book") and then by its power. He said the novel, about an immigrant boy growing up in New Mexico during World War II and torn between his mother's desire that he become a priest and his father's that he become a laborer, is "as American a novel as you'll find."

During the Q&A, nobody asked about "Ultima." Instead, they wanted to know about his column. He said he gets 50 to 60 questions a week and has a backlog of several hundred, enough to keep him going six years if no one ever again asked one.

"People are just fascinated by Mexicans," he said with a smile. Aren't we, though?

I hope to write about the various city-reads efforts (Pomona, Claremont and Rancho Cucamonga) in print this week or next. Meanwhile, I've gotta get back to "Ultima."

I'm a bit late in noting this, but Kem Nunn's 1992 novel "Pomona Queen" has been optioned for a movie. According to a Variety article forwarded by Derek Deason, Shoreline Entertainment has hired Jeremiah Chechik to direct the film, with Christopher Doyle as cinematographer and with shooting to begin before the end of the year.

As Variety summarizes the plot: "The book revolves around Earl Dean. He is a broken-hearted door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman who happens to knock on the wrong door. Before he knows what happened, he is embroiled in a stranger's manic quest to avenge the death of a brother. The story takes place over the course of one night."

It also takes place in -- where else? -- Pomona, with mentions of such local spots as the Midway bar, Golden Ox hamburgers and Buffum's department store. After I recommended the book in print a few years ago, readers were divided on its merits, with its grittiness turning off some and delighting others. For my money it's an entertaining way to learn the darker side of our local history.

Nunn, a former Pomona Library page, has gone on to write several well-regarded "surf noir" novels and he created HBO's recent "John From Cincinnati" series.

Incidentally, the Pomona Queen of the title was a real-life orange crate label. Now it's the name of a local brew by Dale Brothers. That probably means something, but I'm not sure what.