I recently received an awfully kind email from one of my readers, John Dunbar, who advised me that he wanted to make a contribution to a TEV giveaway. A devoted William Trevor fan, he'd recently received a gift copy of Trevor's latest, Love and Summer. Being the diehard that he is, however, he'd already done what I do with John Banville - he'd ordered the earlier UK release. As a result, he asked if I wanted to use his spare for a TEV giveaway. (For those who are wondering, Dunbar has already read it, loved it, and shares the ire of the many who feel the Booker committee shortchanged Trevor.)
It's worth mentioning, by the way, that Dunbar, a songwriter, has actually worked to turn a number of Trevor short stories into pop songs. The result is Excursions in Trevorland. There are some warm reviews here, and he talks about the project's genesis here. (He also cites another TEV favorite, the band Squeeze, as an influence.)
Anyway, back to the book, I've been a Trevor fan since the wrenching The Story of Lucy Gault, and look forward to reading this new book, about which the New York Times called 'a thrilling work of art."
For more than half a century, the 81-year-old Trevor has written of the passions churning beneath the surface of a world where the parlor clock endlessly ticks and the fat on the plates is always congealing. In book after book, he has somehow turned the nondescript and the habitual into the exceptionally vivid and particular: “Farmers brought in livestock on the first Monday of every month, and borrowed money from one of Rathmoye’s two banks. They had their teeth drawn by the dentist who practiced in the Square.” The real dramas in this world go largely unspoken; they reach the reader in thought balloons of suppressed desire that the author launches, stealthily, above the idle chatter and run-of-the-mill action. Trevor doesn’t even need to start a new paragraph when shifting from one to the other, when showing us that the hand putting on makeup or threading a needle is being operated by a nervous system aflame with anger or shame or longing: “In the crab-apple orchard she scattered grain and the hens came rushing to her. She hadn’t been aware that she didn’t love her husband.”
So, thanks to John Dunbar, we're happy to offer a copy of Love and Summer to one lucky TEV reader. Y'all know the rules - send an email, subject line "THANKS, JOHN!" and make sure you include your mailing address. Entries will be accepted until 10 p.m. PST on Wednesday, October 7 (since I got a late start), and then the Random Number Generator will speak its mind. Until then ...
Thanks, John.
BELATED UPDATE: Congratulations to winner Clara Boza!
Comments