Berkeley Book Festival(year 2) Sessions
The first session at the Magnes Museum I attended was : Confronting the Past: Time and Memory in Contemporary Fiction. Jean-Philippe Blondel, who has a best selling novel that takes place on a commuter train(which he used to ride every day) where two people sit next to each other and realize they once dated and broke up; neither speaks to the other(in French fashion) but the novel documents their internal narrative as they reflect on what took place, what they were like then, how they have changed...and how they feel about each other, now. The result is that they do not want to pursue anything with one another! The session was sponsored by the Pro Suecia Foundation, Norway House, the French American Cultural Society and the Consulate General of France in SF.
Pedro Carmona-Alvarez, Jonas Karlsson, and Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold, whose book I bought; she was reading her book on a square in a public place, and then got a call from and actress at the National Theater, and they succeeded to adapt and produce a play based on her book. I bought her book, as she read beautifully. I love the title: THE FASTER I WALK The Smaller I am. "Is it really possible for a woman to disappear so completely that the world won't notice her passing? An ironic twist on the notion that life "must be lived to the fullest". A first novel and winner of the Tajei Vesassa First book prize in 2009 in Norway. A Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Pick. .
The session focuses: "The past waits to ambush us even as time hurtles us toward future unknowns. Four international novelists will describe how they exploit this universal truth while fleshing out their fictional characters, setting up scenes, and plotting their stories."
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The other session was Love: Falling into it, Losing it and Finding it again: Jean Philippe Blondel(again), Pedro Carmona-Alvarez(again) Belinda McKoeaen, moderated by Erick Tarloff Sponsored by Culture Ireland, The Pro Suecia Foundation, Norway House, the French American Cultural Society of France in San Francisco. How does love grow, what happens when it is lost, and how do people survive the grief? These writers help us navigate love' stormy seas through novels set in France, Ireland Norway and the USA.
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Another stellar section: Adam Hochshild on "Spain in Our Hearts: Hope, Failure and the Spanish Civil War. I heard this author at the Mechanics Institute and got the book. He chooses as his main characters a young couple from Berkeley (UCB) who go off to the war and he is killed, but they have an interesting life while there, making friends with Hemingway; he is the model for Robert Jordan (not Jordan the female golfer in Gatsby! ) in "The Sun Also Rises" -- I hope I have that correct. Texaco is indicated as financing Franco! Read the book for all the revelations; Hochshild spent 30 years? interviewing people who had gone to fight in this revolution and this book evolved...quite an accomplishment. Hochshild teaches at the School of Journalism at UC Berkeley.
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Pedro Carmona-Alvarez, Jonas Karlsson, and Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold, whose book I bought; she was reading her book on a square in a public place, and then got a call from and actress at the National Theater, and they succeeded to adapt and produce a play based on her book. I bought her book, as she read beautifully. I love the title: THE FASTER I WALK The Smaller I am. "Is it really possible for a woman to disappear so completely that the world won't notice her passing? An ironic twist on the notion that life "must be lived to the fullest". A first novel and winner of the Tajei Vesassa First book prize in 2009 in Norway. A Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Pick. .
The session focuses: "The past waits to ambush us even as time hurtles us toward future unknowns. Four international novelists will describe how they exploit this universal truth while fleshing out their fictional characters, setting up scenes, and plotting their stories."
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The other session was Love: Falling into it, Losing it and Finding it again: Jean Philippe Blondel(again), Pedro Carmona-Alvarez(again) Belinda McKoeaen, moderated by Erick Tarloff Sponsored by Culture Ireland, The Pro Suecia Foundation, Norway House, the French American Cultural Society of France in San Francisco. How does love grow, what happens when it is lost, and how do people survive the grief? These writers help us navigate love' stormy seas through novels set in France, Ireland Norway and the USA.
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Another stellar section: Adam Hochshild on "Spain in Our Hearts: Hope, Failure and the Spanish Civil War. I heard this author at the Mechanics Institute and got the book. He chooses as his main characters a young couple from Berkeley (UCB) who go off to the war and he is killed, but they have an interesting life while there, making friends with Hemingway; he is the model for Robert Jordan (not Jordan the female golfer in Gatsby! ) in "The Sun Also Rises" -- I hope I have that correct. Texaco is indicated as financing Franco! Read the book for all the revelations; Hochshild spent 30 years? interviewing people who had gone to fight in this revolution and this book evolved...quite an accomplishment. Hochshild teaches at the School of Journalism at UC Berkeley.
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