Exactly, yes. Part of why I’ve been burning out on teaching/client work is that once I can tell someone doesn’t have the juice and is unlikely to cross that threshold into finding it, I utterly lose interest. Feels like AI will cull all but the most unique thinkers and voices.
I like the "joining of minds" notion for when a reader really connects with a piece of writing. This is something the reader has to be ready for. In the context of More Than Words, it is one of the things that feels threatened by AI's capacity for summary and synthesis. I think (hope?) these fears are overblown, but it does suggest how important it is that humans read with a mind "braced by labor and invention," as Emerson described it.
I saw the book is back-ordered on bookshop.org, which I take as a good sign.
After reading your column in the Chicago Tribune for the first time, I knew you had "the juice." An apple for the teacher, if I was a student in your class!
Based on your recommendation, Percival Everett is next. His intelligence is unique and amazing and engaging—trite, but I can't think of a better word right now.
In my long list of books to read, I will read yours immediately before writing my next book for inspiration so that my words will touch others as a unique voice.
I just finished reading The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt and I’ve never felt quite the same way reading a book as I did with hers. Filled me with joy at being alive to have read it.
Elizabeth Strout. When I finished My Name is Lucy Barton, the first book of hers that I read, I immediately began reading it again, and I said, this is the book I wish I could write. And the writer of Njal's Saga. It was many decades ago, but I remember the amazing feeling of seeing through another person's eyes, although that person and I were so far separated by time and space.
One interesting characteristic of the juice, in my experience, is when you pick up a book about a topic or characters that you normally wouldn't find compelling, read a bit, and realize that you're going to finish the book as soon as you can, it's just that good. My Brilliant Friend was that sort of novel for me - I was going through the NYTimes top 100 list, realized that I'd read pretty much everything else in the top ten, and decided that I should give it a try, and wow, while it's not my very top favorite of the 21st century, I really enjoyed it and read it very fast (overdue status at the library being a secondary motivator).
Miriam Toews. All My Puny Sorrows was a novel that touched me so deeply and was about such a difficult subject yet her ability to find humor, humanity and hopefulness completely had the juice.
Richard Powers's THE ECHO MAKER, Cynthia Ozick's THE PUTTERMESSER PAPERS, and Paul Beatty's SLUMBERLAND were among the "juice"-iest novels I've encountered in my reading.
And I agree completely about Gyasi's HOMEGOING. I liked CHEMISTRY a lot too, but it didn't grab me to quite the same degree.
It seemed obvious to mention that a Booker Prize-winning novel (THE SELLOUT) demonstrates the juice, but that book had me juice-hooked from that epic opening paragraph:
"This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I’ve never stolen anything. Never cheated on my taxes or at cards. Never snuck into the movies or failed to give back the extra change to a drugstore cashier indifferent to the ways of mercantilism and minimum-wage expectations. I’ve never burgled a house. Held up a liquor store. Never boarded a crowded bus or subway car, sat in a seat reserved for the elderly, pulled out my gigantic penis and masturbated to satisfaction with a perverted, yet somehow crestfallen, look on my face. But here I am, in the cavernous chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, my car illegally and somewhat ironically parked on Constitution Avenue, my hands cuffed and crossed behind my back, my right to remain silent long since waived and said goodbye to as I sit in a thickly padded chair that, much like this country, isn’t nearly as comfortable as it looks."
Fran Ross's OREO, which Beatty has loudly lauded, did much the same thing to me as well.
Always so smart. Thank you.
Exactly, yes. Part of why I’ve been burning out on teaching/client work is that once I can tell someone doesn’t have the juice and is unlikely to cross that threshold into finding it, I utterly lose interest. Feels like AI will cull all but the most unique thinkers and voices.
I like the "joining of minds" notion for when a reader really connects with a piece of writing. This is something the reader has to be ready for. In the context of More Than Words, it is one of the things that feels threatened by AI's capacity for summary and synthesis. I think (hope?) these fears are overblown, but it does suggest how important it is that humans read with a mind "braced by labor and invention," as Emerson described it.
I saw the book is back-ordered on bookshop.org, which I take as a good sign.
After reading your column in the Chicago Tribune for the first time, I knew you had "the juice." An apple for the teacher, if I was a student in your class!
Based on your recommendation, Percival Everett is next. His intelligence is unique and amazing and engaging—trite, but I can't think of a better word right now.
In my long list of books to read, I will read yours immediately before writing my next book for inspiration so that my words will touch others as a unique voice.
That's incredibly nice of you to say. I don't have the juice like these people, but I have hung my hat on doing my best to cultivate my unique voice.
I just finished reading The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt and I’ve never felt quite the same way reading a book as I did with hers. Filled me with joy at being alive to have read it.
Great example. She definitely has the juice, and all of her books are so different from one another. It's sort of amazing.
I just finished The English Understand Wool a novella by her - also has the juice!
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese was one of those for me
Elizabeth Strout. When I finished My Name is Lucy Barton, the first book of hers that I read, I immediately began reading it again, and I said, this is the book I wish I could write. And the writer of Njal's Saga. It was many decades ago, but I remember the amazing feeling of seeing through another person's eyes, although that person and I were so far separated by time and space.
One interesting characteristic of the juice, in my experience, is when you pick up a book about a topic or characters that you normally wouldn't find compelling, read a bit, and realize that you're going to finish the book as soon as you can, it's just that good. My Brilliant Friend was that sort of novel for me - I was going through the NYTimes top 100 list, realized that I'd read pretty much everything else in the top ten, and decided that I should give it a try, and wow, while it's not my very top favorite of the 21st century, I really enjoyed it and read it very fast (overdue status at the library being a secondary motivator).
Miriam Toews. All My Puny Sorrows was a novel that touched me so deeply and was about such a difficult subject yet her ability to find humor, humanity and hopefulness completely had the juice.
Yes, indeed! A great book. And I thought Women Talking was even better.
The David Mitchell of Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.
Richard Powers's THE ECHO MAKER, Cynthia Ozick's THE PUTTERMESSER PAPERS, and Paul Beatty's SLUMBERLAND were among the "juice"-iest novels I've encountered in my reading.
And I agree completely about Gyasi's HOMEGOING. I liked CHEMISTRY a lot too, but it didn't grab me to quite the same degree.
All excellent examples. Paul Beatty is at the top of my list. I should’ve included him.
It seemed obvious to mention that a Booker Prize-winning novel (THE SELLOUT) demonstrates the juice, but that book had me juice-hooked from that epic opening paragraph:
"This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I’ve never stolen anything. Never cheated on my taxes or at cards. Never snuck into the movies or failed to give back the extra change to a drugstore cashier indifferent to the ways of mercantilism and minimum-wage expectations. I’ve never burgled a house. Held up a liquor store. Never boarded a crowded bus or subway car, sat in a seat reserved for the elderly, pulled out my gigantic penis and masturbated to satisfaction with a perverted, yet somehow crestfallen, look on my face. But here I am, in the cavernous chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, my car illegally and somewhat ironically parked on Constitution Avenue, my hands cuffed and crossed behind my back, my right to remain silent long since waived and said goodbye to as I sit in a thickly padded chair that, much like this country, isn’t nearly as comfortable as it looks."
Fran Ross's OREO, which Beatty has loudly lauded, did much the same thing to me as well.
The Sellout is unbelievably brilliant. Its relevance has only increased over time too.
Given that opinion (with which I wholeheartedly agree), I strongly suggest you read OREO if you have not already done so. Fran Ross is sui generis.
Oh, I’ve read Oreo. Brilliant. I think I have an old Tribune column about it.
Can (just now) confirm -- https://www.chicagotribune.com/2015/10/08/the-biblioracle-lucia-berlin-fran-ross-getting-their-due/