Last week I finally got around to reading my advance release copy of Being Written (now that it has come out in stores…)
I was favorably surprised.
All too many of the advance release novels I have encountered are…well…not to mince words…bad. To the extent that I will occasionally actually stop reading them halfway through (if you aren’t aware, something I never do. I start a book, I finish it.) I will often find myself fighting through the chapters, trying to get to a place where SOMETHING happens.
This is not to say that all early releases are BAD…I mean, I would imagine that most books have a pre-release of some kind sent out, especially if the writer is new. I have read some great ARCs, (The Gargoyle, e.g.) but the odds just aren’t in their favor. I approach them with a certain level of trepidation.
I acquired Being Written at our publisher representative meeting this spring. My attention was gained when the book was referred as “Stranger Than Fiction, if it were written by Patricia Highsmith”. Seeing as I love both the movie and the author named, I decided to give it a try. For months it collected dust while I contemplated taking the leap. Finally, this past week I picked it up, figuring that if nothing else, it wasn’t a very long book, so if it was dreadful, it wouldn’t be so for long.
As I mentioned above, I was favorably surprised.
From the first page or two, my interest was peaked and I wanted to know what happened next, as I traveled along with Daniel — a socially awkward man with unique ability to hear the scratching of an author’s pencil when someone’s actions are being written into a novel. Daniel is desperate to become a leading role…he has encountered main characters before, but has always himself been just a warm body, an extra, the man at the next table, or a jogger passing in the park that no one really even notices because something pivotal is happening in their own story. He has become determined that he will find a way to make himself at least a little noticed the next time he hears an author writing.
When he walks into his local bar one evening he gets his chance, as the scratching of a pencil hovers around a pretty young bohemian woman at the bar. He asks her if he can borrow a pencil and ends up going home with her.
Once he has gained a fingerhold in the novel, he becomes even more determined not to loose it, to try to find out what the novel is about, to make himself important to these characters — Delia and her close circle. He struggles with his lack of social grace, analizes every situation to figure out just what kind of novel they are in, and does whatever it takes to make sure that he, too, will be written.
A short read, a bit of a psychological drama, enjoyable and just a tad disturbing.
