Books & Bakes Preview: From Discworld to Immigrant America
Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters is a perfect intro to his satirical world, while Viet Thanh Nguyen is a preeminent chronicler of the Vietnamese immigrant experience
This month I’m previewing some of the books I’ll be reading for the Books & Bakes read-a-thon to benefit Cake4Kids. Grab yourself a copy so you can read along and join in the discussion this summer.
Back in my editor days, I would occasionally gift books to younger writers I worked with, reflecting things that I saw in their work and (I hope) encouraging new explorations on their part.
One day I handed a copy of Terry Pratchett’s Men at Arms to one of my critics. With a small derisive sniff, he handed it back. On the bright side, that did reduce by one the number of people I would be giving books to in the future.
For those unfamiliar, Pratchett is the late and legendary author of the Discworld books, a series of fantasy novels set on the titular Discworld — a flat world that flies through the universe atop four elephants standing on a giant space turtle. A master of absurdist satire, Pratchett blends nearly every genre trope into a rich stew of linguistically nimble and deeply humanist fables that reflect our own fractured reality.
Take this quote from Men at Arms, which over the years has become a staple of studies and think pieces on poverty:
“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
“Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
“But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
“This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
The Atlantic recently published a piece lamenting Pratchett’s lack of prominence in literature writ large — he’s a legend in fantasy circles but does seem scarce when the topic turns to “mainstream” masters — with the unfortunate hot take that expensive movie adaptations would bring him to the masses. I disagree, in large part because so much of what makes Pratchett special is wordplay, puns, and wry observation that is hard to see translating to screens without massive amounts of voiceover narration. In which case, it would be more efficient to listen to an audiobook.
I prefer the more traditional way of promoting an under-read author, recommending them to everyone I possibly can. So, I’ve chosen Wyrd Sisters as one of my Books & Bakes reads. This was one of the first Discworld novels I read and one that made me into a lifelong fan. Wyrd Sisters is part of the sub-series of Discworld focusing on three witches led by one of his greatest characters, Granny Weatherwax. It’s been a long time since I’ve visited with her and I’m eager to dive back in.
Remember, don’t sniff at genre. No one likes a snob and you’ll miss out on some truly great work.
Leaving behind the storied fields of English humor, I’ll be returning to the States for a classic American literary tradition: the immigrant’s memoir. Given the lamentable state of our country at the moment, now would be the time to do so.
I first read Viet Thanh Nguyen when his debut novel, The Sympathizer, won the Pulitzer Prize. Given that I married into a Vietnamese family, I’ve always kept an eye out for authors who can teach me more about that experience and who I can share with my nieces and nephews — I always want them to have at least some writing in their lives that comes from authors with shared background and experience.
And Nguyen, whose family came to the U.S. as Vietnamese refugees, is the guy to do it with his memoir, A Man of Two Faces. He has been an astute commentator on our current national nightmare in the New York Times and other outlets. Sharp, funny, and exceptionally dapper — a quality not related to literary talent but I still enjoy seeing it, given that I myself am exceptionally un-dapper — he’s well primed to examine America from the inside and out. I’m really looking forward to this one.
I have not set an order for the books I’ll be reading, though these two will likely be in July. I’d love it if you joined me in reading so we can chat about it here at The Back Half. If you’re weaning yourself from the Bezos bullshit, go to Bookshop.org where you can both buy the book and support your local independent bookstore.
The Books & Bakes read-a-thon starts on July 1 and runs through Labor Day. You can make your pledge at seanbuggrealtor.com. All your pledges will go directly to Cake4Kids and help them bring birthday smiles to underserved and at-risk children.
