“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”
— Louise Erdrich, from her novel, The Painted Drum
How can you read this quote and question the power of a novel? Well-written novels not only entertain but carry great truths within their pages. This is one of the reasons why I am a novelist. For me, to be a storyteller carries a great responsibility. When people read my books, I want them to feel like they have read something real. Something that makes them feel understood and like they are not alone.
Have you ever felt broken? I know I have. We’ve all been “betrayed, or left, or hurt” or had death brush near. But have you tasted as much sweetness as you can? This is our calling, too.
Comments? Questions? I’d love to hear from you.
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> When people read my books, I want them to feel like they
> have read something real. Something that makes them feel
> understood and like they are not alone.
I understand exactly. That’s why I don’t get the popularity of all the fantasy lit that’s consumed, even among very smart people, these days. Not that you can’t have truth in fantasy, but today’s Star Wars/Twilight/Hunger Games/Whatever give us comic book heroes and villains and plot situations, dumbed down to the point almost of self-parody. It seems amazing that not that long ago the more gray-area writings of Dickens and Fitzgerald were read by everyday people.
I guess writers have to ask themselves what is more important: trying to write a book that might sell to the masses? Or writing something that perhaps doesn’t make a ton of money, but is true to the artist. And I do believe that writers can be artists.
I agree that a well written prose takes you to another place and this particular quote did that. Ironically, when I read it I thought of all the reasons people should write. All the emotions and life events that should be put on paper even if for nobody but yourself. Maybe it hit me more that direction because of the apple tree reference…my grandparents had an orchard and originally that is where I went to write alone.
This is beautiful, Travis. Spoken like a true writer. Thanks for commenting!
Great choice. It’s wonderful to uncover elegant writers in unexpected places and why I often ignore heavily-hyped books by big names.
Thanks, Jane. You are wise to ignore the heavily-hyped books of big name authors. Unless someday one of us ends up in that position. Yes? 🙂
I posted, as I always do, this blog post on Linked In, and to a group I belong to called Fiction Writer’s Guild. Here is a comment by Anthony E. that I wanted to share with you. His take is slightly cynical in that we are “fooled” at the end, but see what you think:
Agreed, Louise Erdrich isn’t Dostoyevsky but she is hardly a small name in the publishing industry. She’s a prolific writer of novels, short stories, children’s books and, I think, a memoir or two. But also agreed I don’t believe a resume represents credentials on wisdom.
With that said, in my opinion, the quote is bittersweetly written enough but it is not an original sentiment. It’s been said many times before in many different ways. Of course, so has everything else been said many times before in many different ways. Perhaps we read who we read because the writer says what has already been said in a way that touches us in important and personal ways.
As for the impact of novels and writers in general I believe it is less than we think. The resonance of a novel is felt, to be sure. But I think when stacked up against everything else that happens to us in our lives it is, in the long run, slight and ephemeral. Its greatest impact is in the moment of the reading. And that moment is a deeply satisfying experience emotionally and intellectually. It is unmatched by any other art form. And maybe that’s why we are fooled into thinking it has so much influence on us.
Oh, I do think we are influenced by what we read, at least I have been. Especially by what we read when we’re young. As we get older, I suppose all a good book does is confirm (or fail to confirm) the influence of the books and other experiences that have formed us, but isn’t that because as we get older we become more set in our attitudes and less open to new influences?
And the reason there needs to be lots of books in different genres and styles saying what has already been said elsewhere, Anthony, is because books aren’t “one size fits all”. The quote Susan gave is meaningful to her, but doesn’t appeal to me at all. I expect one that strikes home to me might not appeal to you or Susan. So there is need for lots of different kinds of meaningful books.
The quote is beautiful. It’s unimportant that it covers too much territory, it has an effect on the psyche that can’t be measured. And as far as the effect on our National scene, The Grapes of Wrath turned our entire body politic onto the plight of the “Oakies and Arkies.” Novels evoke the spirit of most countries and bring change that would have lay dormant otherwise.
> Oh, I do think we are influenced by what we read, at least I have been.
> Especially by what we read when we’re young. As we get older,
> I suppose all a good book does is confirm (or fail to confirm)
> the influence of the books and other experiences that have formed
> us, but isn’t that because as we get older we become more set in our
> attitudes and less open to new influences?
This may be so, but it needn’t be. I make it a point to read books I don’t necessarily agree with, or to reread books from long ago to see if my feelings still hold. I’ve read everything from Mein Kampf to Soul on Ice to Marx and Engels. I’ve read Slavoj Žižek repeatedly and own four of his books–even though I admit I don’t yet get a word printed in them. I frequently relisten to performers I don’t like, to see if my opinion still hold (sometimes they don’t) and have more pieces of music in my collection of works I *don’t* like than those I do, because I am “done” with the ones I do like but am still trying to come to terms with the ones I don’t. This has resulted in me finally “clicking” with Robert Schumann’s solo piano works but still not digging the piano concerto. But there’s still may be hope…
You are a rare bird, John. The world is lucky to have you. But does this mean that some day I may “click” with Brussels sprouts, and I must keep trying them until I do? I suppose it would be good for me, but still….(insert gagging noise) 🙂