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Originally Posted by -Insert Witty SN-
Black Swan green is terrific. Mr Mitchell can sure spin a good yarn iidssm.
Is he speaking on anything in particular? Its part of a book tour I'm assuming? Or as part of a bigger event? I'd like to hear more about it once you go. I've really enjoyed just about every interview/talk I've watched or read of his.
He spoke very briefly: I had a sense that he was feeling tired. He was on tour for the new book and had apparently worked this event into an already busy schedule. He mentioned he was only in Toronto for 14 hours and had been in a meeting in the morning. (Perhaps with his Canadian publisher?)
The event was a dinner (a local restaurant that has occasional literary evenings), which was itself pleasant -- and a signed copy of the book was thrown into the price of the evening. He has a very personable air but is perhaps not entirely comfortable as a speaker. That would follow from what he fictionalizes in
Black Swan Green regarding his stammer-inspired shyness. He had no stammer while speaking but I thought I could see how he still depended on some of the tricks he talked in his novel about having learned.
The most interesting thing he said was that he believed that the five features of the novel are plot, character, structure, style, and ideas, and that first two are impulsive, moving things ahead; that the last two are ******ing, useful for slowing the pace down; and that structure is what keeps everything from happening all at once.