On Jan. 31, Visiting Assistant Professor of Letters Dani Shapiro and Assistant Professor of English Matthew Sharpe kicked off this semester’s Distinguished Writers/New Voices series with readings from their upcoming novels. Shapiro read from her latest novel “Black and White.” Sharpe read from his upcoming novel “Jamestown.”
After being introduced by Adjunct Professor of English and Director of Writing Programs Anne Greene as a “deceptively natural” and arrestingly honest new voice, Shapiro chose a passage that exemplified her focus on character, art, and the human condition. “Black and White” chronicles the aging and deterioration of photographer Ruth Dunne and her tense relationship with her grown daughter Clara. In the passage, Ruth and Clara go downtown to visit some galleries at which Ruth used to show.
“The photos in the galleries were overly-stylized…of heightened acid-trip Technicolor,” Shapiro read.
She went on to read more from her book: the starving art students, carrying black portfolios and smoking cigarettes on the street, all appall Ruth. As it follows the decline of Ruth as an artist and a person, “Black and White” provides an intense look at maternal responsibility, familial psychology, and the complications of motherhood for an artist.
Sharpe’s reading was a stark contrast to Shapiro’s wrenchingly personal inner commentary. With a distinctive voice, the witty writer read from “Jamestown,” an eloquently quirky and sharply funny book.
“[It is] a meditation on free enterprise in America,” Sharpe said.
Main characters John Rolfe and Pocahontas are living sometime in the near future and conveying their thoughts through diary-like e-mails. Rolfe, on a bus from recently-destroyed Manhattan, displays an unemotional indifference toward violence: Pocahontas – impersonated by Sharpe as a ditsy teenage girl who speaks in run-on statements and generously peppers her speech with multiple ‘like’s – provides a very different look at the state of the world.
“What makes the future good is that it’s the future…isn’t life sometimes complicated and sad?” read Sharpe, narrating for his character Pocahontas.
Though both technologically savvy and clearly products of their society, Rolfe and Pocahontas are anomalies, reflecting the early Americans after whom they are named.
Sharpe prefaced his reading with a sarcastic description of historical Jamestown.
“The contemporary settling of Jamestown as a refuge from the self-destructing world, based on the historical events from 1607 to 1617, exemplifies the timelessness of history and its disorienting ability to repeat itself,” Sharpe said.
The reading provided a darkly funny look at the parallels between early and contemporary America.
The event was well attended and well received by audience members, whose reactions ranged from pleasantly surprised to cautiously appreciative.
“Dani Shapiro was melodramatic, but her tone worked with the subject matter,” said Sarah Tracy-Wanck ’10. “Her imagery was really impressive. Sharpe’s was somewhat difficult out of context but definitely entertaining.”
“The readings were a lot more captivating than I expected,” said Matt Larkin ’10. “I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series.”
Leave a Reply