The Elegant Variation: Chris Adrian is the new Renaissance

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March 04, 2007

Chris Adrian is the new Renaissance

Chris Adrian. Just your average pediatrician-novelist-Harvard Divinity school student. Amazing, this guy. What's next, Chris? Something at the UN? MLB? The Obama-Adrian ticket? You'd have my vote.

I was at the University of Iowa as an undergrad when Adrian was getting his MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. When word went around that one of his stories was up for discussion, there were several of us who would steal up to the 4th floor of EPB and snag a copy. Black-market Xeroxes. I read him above Barbara's Bakery, across from the Englert movie theater, in manuscript form, and I don't know that I have a more romantic college memory. I remember a story set in hell which I think was about one of Satan's step-sons. Although that could be wrong. Point is, the guy's been ballsy for years. The Children's Hospital comes as no surprise.

Posted at 09:52 PM in Guest Bloggers | Permalink

Comments

I totally should have spent money on your book and his book instead of a rejection letter from the Writer's Workshop.

Posted by: j h | March 05, 2007 at 06:37 AM

The plot concept behind "The Children's Hospital" is one of those dreams you wake up from in the middle of the night thinking, Oh my God, I have to jot that down in the morning because that could work up into something incredibly unique. That's just... Just wow. Adrian's secret is he actually remembers to make a note of it in the morning.

Posted by: janitorman | March 05, 2007 at 06:46 AM

Nice to hear about other UI alums who would steal the graduates stories. Too bad Adrian was before my time.

Posted by: Ray Mattson | March 05, 2007 at 07:09 PM

Oh now I'm disappointed. I just read the plot synopsis. "When the world is submerged beneath seven miles of water, only those aboard the Children's Hospital, a working medical facility and ark built by architect turned prophet John Grampus (who was ordered by God "to save the kids") survive."

It's intentional. I thought instead it was the sublime plot idea. That it was accidental, random. That it was, without particular explanation, a real children's hospital that was all that was left. Not an ark. That's just a retelling of the Noah myth. I don't discount that Adrian is probably a fine writer, but boy what a let down on the plot angle.

Posted by: janitorman | March 06, 2007 at 07:21 AM

What a grand testament to the wonder of Adrian's short stories. I remember the day that I was electrified by a New Yorker story, googled the (to me) unknown author, and pre-ordered TCH, which then couldn't arrive fast enough.

TCH is immense, and I list it with The Thin Place and The Lost Thoughts of Soliders as my fave 2006 publications. Must say, however, that the torte occasionally collapsed from a delicious density of detail, image and allusion into congealed, stolid fudge. A novel like TCH requires Straussian orchestration.

Posted by: Julie Martin | March 06, 2007 at 09:07 AM

Adrian has an interesting story in this quarter's "All-Story" (www.all-story.com).

As for the Noah angle in TCH - the book is hardly thin Christian allegory. Yes the main plot points are the same - end of world, boat in water - but that's about where the similarities end.

I'm not quite done with it yet, but have found it immensely enjoyable even as I find the main character to be a bit lacking in depth.

Posted by: Jason | March 17, 2007 at 10:37 PM

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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."

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*Now in Paperback*

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

March 04, 2007

Chris Adrian is the new Renaissance

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

March 04, 2007

Chris Adrian is the new Renaissance

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism