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Great question Derrick.
It also makes me wonder about the role that identities, or self-identities and self awareness play. Malcolm considers himself an artist, largely based on his father possibly, but he hasn't really done much beyond the attempted modelling career to achieve this identity.
Yeah, they wanted that intuitive understanding of each other, but they don't get that at first. It's only after they spend time together that they have those sparks of connection.
He's trying to shape his identity according to his parents' desire for him to be this artistic soul (and redeem their failures) but also strike out on his own in a way that makes them pay attention to him.
Do you think Malcolm's vanity limits him and his potential development (re: not acting like a child and more like a partner)? He can seem stagnant and at times oblivious to reality and himself.
Hi Kevin!
Welcome to babble's book club :)
I found the relationship between Malcolm and his parents' a fascinating one...I was intrigued by their desire for their son to explore his artistic side and then his decision to become a model....
I also really liked the wry humour in the book...I was curious about the unique choice of Malcolm's career as a male model - how did you go about researching this? I don't think I've read another Canlit featuring a male model protagonist and one who's Chinese too!
Yeah, I think so. He can be very observant about others but lacking self-awareness.
That makes sense, Kevin. It's not that the romantic relationships are irrelevant, but that his thinking about them seems obscured or muddled because he's working through the issues about his father. It's a great hook into the story - the scene of him up there scanning her break-up letter and then composing himself to speak is dramatic and memorable...
I know this is a typical, and fairly banal question, but how much of you went into the protagonist? For me he was not always a likeable character, but definitely a loveable one. His flaws seem also to be his strengths, and you seem to have a talent for building a complex character that is both unlikeable but very ... redeemable.
Thanks, Derrick. Rebecca, I think quite a bit of my sensibility (and much of the self-absorption) went into him but not much of my actual biography. The parents are from Hong Kong, as are mine. And I'm glad you find him loveable... I can understand when some people don't!
This question comes from you pal @Catchfire who was unable to make it today because he is in the skies! He would love to know:
How did you manipulate time for the protagonist? He jumps sharply and quickly around his memories, from what happened the day before to what happened years ago. How and why did you develop this techinique?
Being a self-absorbed writer is pretty much a qualification for the job. You're among the few who admit it ... very cool.
Haha Rebecca.
An english teacher once told me all writers have to have a bit of an ego in the first place, in order to even think people would want to read your writing or start writing in the first place.
Kaitlin, I tried to tie flashbacks (which can tell you about the character's back stories) thematically to stuff happening in the present-day timeline. So scene about Malcolm's shittiness with relationships in the present day will be connected to a flashback that might help explain that. It might clearer to me, the writer, than to the reader... for better and for worse.
Yeah, I think some writers are able to transcend their self-absorption a bit more about writing about grand casts of characters over vast social landscapes. I've always been drawn to writers who reflect the world through their only self-obsessions and tics.
Speaking of which, Catchfire again, was wondering how was/is the jump between being a fiction writer and a non-ficition writer, especially in such eclectiv topics as Neil Young and horse-racing, neither of which appear in your ficition?
note: Catchfire decribed this topics as "hipster-y"
I'm not sure there's any other way to write. We observe, we navel-gaze, we write, but tend not to be movers and shakers. Hemingway aside ... but he was an asshole by any measure of the word.
I also put Updike in that 'really talented asshole' writer category.
@ Kaitlin ... lol ... agreed!
ETA: I'd like to think that I'm not enough of an asshole to be a great writer, but the fact is I could be the most accomplished asshole in the world and still be average. Not that I'm not the most accomplished asshole ...
Hipster-y wouldn't be completely incorrect. It depends on how you treat those subjects. Most people don't self-identify as hipsters, but I definitely growing up tried to like things that were cool. I'm like that, though maybe not as preoccupied with that. On one hand, it's poseurish, but on other hand there are many young people who are choosing to define themselves by their refined tastes instead of their bank balance or the rims on their cars... so I don't think it's all that bad.
Time for one more question? Building on @Catchfire's question re: your writing...what projects are you working on next? Non-fiction? Fiction? Set in Vancouver?
True -- sometimes I think Vancouver breeds a different type of hipster or at least connotation. But I suppose hipster is not always in the eye of the beholder.
As for my transition, I like the fact-finding element of my memoirs, as well as meeting people. The nonfiction books I've written both deal with strange communities (rock fans, racetrackers) with their own very esoteric language, and my attempt to break into those worlds. The novels deal with relationships (parent-child, boy-girl). I find fiction harder, mainly because the nonfiction books were commissioned, and the novels were on spec.
Oh, and building on Alex's question, I'll slide this one in: was Vancouver has a setting just happenstance because you don't rely on the common exploits of the city -- trees, mountain, oceans -- but rather the obscure media culture, or , er, hipster culture?
Alex: I'm trying to write a novel this summer... but that summer is quickly slipping away. I have a nonfiction proposal I'm working based on a conversation I had with an editor while on a last-second trip to Toronto. Also, I'm writing a magazine article for Vancouver magazine about anti-Chinese racism.
Sounds like some interesting projects you have underway...looking forward to reading your next novel. I read Baroque-a-Nova years ago and was excited when this last novel was released. All the best with your writing!
Looks like time is up for this Babble Book Club discussion!
BIG thanks to everyone for coming out today and joining or listening to the conversation and thank you to Kevin for taking the time to join us and answer all our questions. It was a pleasure and good luck with all your future projects as well!
Thanks, Alex! To answer your question, Kaitlin, my parents are from Hong Kong. I didn't grow up going on hikes. Being a child of immigrants also made me culture-obsessed because growing up I wasn't bred with an understanding of western culture... listening to obscure Lou Reed was in some ways a kind of compensation for that.
Thanks for setting this up, Kaitlin and Babble. And thanks for all the thoughtful posts and questions!
oh thanks for your answer about Vancouver! I definitely appreciate your representation of Vancouver and its dichotmous landscapes.