The Elegant Variation: L.A. EVENT & SPECIAL GIVEAWAY: JOSHUA FERRIS

TEV DEFINED

The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

March 26, 2008

L.A. EVENT & SPECIAL GIVEAWAY: JOSHUA FERRIS

Twcttepb Joshua Ferris's superb debut novel Then We Came to the End no longer needs any real introduction - it's been a National Book Award finalist, landed on the front page of the New York Times Book Review, has won a slew of awards and been on more Best of lists than we knew existed. But we were early fans of the book, bringing it to your attention back in December of 2006, and TEV readers have fond memories of Ferris's guest blogging stint last year.

So it's with considerable pleasure that we alert you to his one Los Angeles area reading in support of the newly released paperback edition of Then We Came to the End. Ferris will be reading and signing this evening at 7 p.m. at the Santa Monica Barnes & Noble, and we'll be in the audience and hope many of you are there, too. Come check out the novel that moved two steps closer to Rooster-hood in recent days, first when Maud Newton advanced it, calling it "insightful, expansive, and often hilarious," and then when Gary Shteyngart praised it - quite accurately, we think - as "one of the most humane and sympathetic books of the last decade."

Now, for those of you unable to make it this evening - which means this special giveaway is closed to L.A. residents, that's right closed (just get in the car and come to Santa Monica) unless you've got a doctor's note or a damned fine excuse - we are offering not one, not two but three signed copies of Then We Came to the End. As ever, as always, drop us a line, subject line "GET ME ON THE FERRIS WHEEL" (sorry, Joshua) or, for select L.A. residents "HERE'S MY TRULY EXCELLENT REASON FOR NOT BEING IN SANTA MONICA TONIGHT." Include your full mailing address, please. We'll take all comers until precisely 7 p.m. PST, when the reading commences, and then the Random Number Generator will anoint three winners.

As for the rest of you, hope to see you there.

UPDATE: Congratulations to winners Walter Biggins, Benjamin Percy and Alex Yera.

Posted by TEV at 12:01 AM in Giveaways | Permalink

Comments

Weird coincidence. I finished this book just yesterday, and absolutely loved it. Trouble is, I live in Minnesota, not California. Tell Joshua Ferris to come to Minnesota, please.

Posted by: Patrick Stephenson | March 26, 2008 at 06:20 AM

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March 26, 2008