Beyond Page One of Evison's WEST OF HERE

After writing my Page One analysis of West of Here by Jonathan Evison, the next thing I did was to do some research about the author. My Sneak Peek class members like to know about the author and since, according to the publisher’s description, the author is “a major new voice in American fiction” and the book is “storytelling on the grandest scale,” I was curious about him as well.

Turns out there’s a lot to be found about Evison online (see very cool book website at http://www.westofherethebook.com/, and I watched all of the many video interviews that exist of him online. The more I listened to him talk, the more I liked him. He’s smart and has a wry sense of humor, and he’s earnest and passionate about writing. He seems very knowledgable about his peers, i.e. other contemporary American novelists, and he seems to want to give them what they call in elementary school a “put up” (as opposed to a put down) whenever possible. Having watched him time after time in his pin stripe suit and jaunty Blues Brother-esque fedora, either with martini, beer, or bunny rabbit as prop, Evison comes across as a good guy who, after a life-time of odd jobs, is pleased as punch to be making his living as a writer.

Another notable thing in the promotion of this book is the way the role of the editor is played up. Editors in the book biz tend to stay behind the scenes, and reviewers only tend to bring them out from behind the curtain if they think they’ve not done their job well. The publisher, Algonquin, interestingly, is using the editor as part of their promotion for the book. The reviewer’s copy of the book has a letter from the editor, Chuck Adams, saying “I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about a novel than I am by Jonathan Evison’s West of Here.” And Algonquin makes sure we know that Adams knows whereof he speaks, having edited well-received books before, most notably Water for Elephants and also including A Reliable Wife and An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England. Between the heavy editor hype and the incredibly elaborate online presence that has already been created for the book, I wonder if this book’s bestsellerdom is already preordained? Is anyone going to wait for the reviews? Please do. Stop! Wait! Because while I’d love to say all this preamble is going to lead me to a rave, that ain’t necessarily so. . .