Swimmer - a new kind of author/reader event
by Val Page, Branching Out Librarian, North Tyneside
Author Bill Broady met with members of Newton Hall Library Readers' Group to discuss Bill's new novel Swimmer. The event took place at Newton Hall Library at 7.30 pm on Tuesday, 25 January 2000 and was attended by Rachel Van Riel, Director of Branching Out, Guy Pringle and Kelly Edgson-Wright from HarperCollins, and Maureen Robinson and Val Page, both Branching Out librarians.
This page also includes extracts from the question and answer session with Bill Broady, the participants' feedback form and some responses, and some reader reviews of Swimmer by borrowers from North Tyneside Central Library.
This was the first in what we hope to be a series of similar events born out of the new Publisher partnership initiative involving Branching Out and HarperCollins. These events aim to break with the traditional format of author events by making them more of an opportunity for dialogue between authors and readers; a chance for readers and authors to share their thoughts on books and reading; a two-way exchange of views and ideas.
If the first event is anything to go by - we are onto a winner! The evening was a great success and proved to be very fruitful for the 16 readers' group members, HarperCollins, the author and Branching Out. Rachel Van Riel, acting as facilitator for the evening, began with some ice-breaking questions to be discussed in pairs:
- Where do you read?
- When do you read?
And then more specifically about Swimmer:
- What drew you into the book?
- What made you draw back from the book?
Results of the animated discussions which followed were fed back to the whole group after about 10 minutes.
Suitably relaxed, we moved on to a more focussed discussion of Bill's new book Swimmer. Members of the reading groups had been given the chance to read the proof copies prior to the book's publication on 5 January 2000, so all were familiar with the novel. Bill began this part of the evening by reading the first 7 pages of Swimmer to set the scene. Although the questions were directed to Bill, they also drew comments from others in the group eager to share their perceptions and Bill himself commented at the end of the evening that he felt he understood his own book better having listened to the views of the readers!
Q How did you understand/get into the mindset of a teenage girl? Did you do extensive research on just what it takes to be a dedicated athlete at that level of competition?
A We learned from Bill that a close personal relationship had influenced his writing although he wrote the book at first as if by instinct, he did set about doing some research afterwards to make sure he could trust his 'gut feelings.'
(This opened out into a wide-ranging group discussion on the heroine; her relationships; her father; her mother; teenagers in general; sportspersons in particular; the demands placed upon any 'gifted' child. Would it appeal to teenagers? One reader told us that her teenage daughter had 'absolutely devoured' the book.)
Q I found all the relationships in the book lacking in any warmth, was that deliberate?
A Bill agreed that his narrative 'went into the dark places' but he hoped that it did 'shine a light.'
(More general discussion this time centered on the father/daughter/mother and other relationships in the book. One reader suggested that the fascist imagery was deliberate. This caught the group's attention and led to further discussion on the 'inevitable fascism of sport' having to push youngsters to get up to snuff!)
Q The girl had no personality, no name. Why?
A The intention was to convey a sense of universality an 'everyman' approach.
This led almost immediately on to the next question:
Q Who is the narrator? Was it the girl herself? A counsellor, therapist, partner, friend?
A The novel had begun life as a lyric poem and so the style was suited to that medium. As it developed into a novel, Bill was happy to leave the impersonal voice although he did almost change the very last line which would have answered the question - he decided to leave it open for the reader's own interpretation.
Q Do you consider your heroine to be a success or a failure? Was she mad? Was she always mad?
A Bill talked of how he believed that people who are 'damaged or hurt' in some way can achieve 'other realms, other feelings' to compensate for their apparent 'differences', and that they can 'go a lot further than us ordinary folk.'
(Again, those questions led to a range of opinions on 'how do you measure success?' 'What constitutes failure?' 'Was she emotionally damaged as a child, as an athlete, as a woman?')
During the course of the evening we learned that Bill has been writing for 25 years and has written novels before, but he had been unhappy with the others as he felt they were often 'pastiches of other authors' styles' and he felt that with Swimmer he had finally 'found his own voice.' His next book to be published soon will be a collection of short stories Tale of Golden Bath Tubs, the title story of which he considers to be 'the best he has written.' He is currently working on his next full-length novel which is set in the early years of the 20th Century and takes as its theme the characters and events of a young Labour Party. He is eager that each new work explores very different themes and forms.
There was some discussion about the way Swimmer had been presented. Was it a novel or a novella? One reader said he thought the cover made it look like a teenage read. The double line spacing and choice of font did not find favour with some of the group, although those who liked it felt quite strongly that it 'suited' the book. Many readers commented on the 'speed' of the book, saying they felt as if they were being swept along by the pace of the text, someone commented that the rhythm of the writing made her feel 'as if she were swimming.'
The evening drew to a close after over two hours with Bill signing copies of his book.
Questions from the participants' feedback form prepared for the event
Have you attended an author event before? If so, how was this one different?
What did you enjoy/not enjoy about the evening?
What did you learn?
What did you think about the structure of the evening and the balance between: talking in pairs about your own reading; talking in pairs about Swimmer; talking as a whole group with Bill Broady?
Would you have liked more/less time on any of the above?
Would you have liked Bill to read from Swimmer: more/less/about right?
What difference did it make to your enjoyment of the event that you had read the author's book before you arrived?
What difference did it make that the rest of the audience had read the author's book?
Will you be interested to read Bill Broady's second novel?
Would you attend another event like this one?
Comments on the evening with Bill Broady taken from participants' evaluation forms
How was this event different from author events you've attended before?
'It was far more personal and rewarding because there was a sense of real discussion with the author.'
'Much more interactive and informal.'
'A significant difference in terms of feeling included in the event.'
Reader reviews of Swimmer from North Tyneside Central Library
'It was a frightening insight into human emotions, very explicit and moving. I cried at the end for what she had missed.'
'It made me think about so many things - ambition, competition, expectations of women. In literary terms it is very effective - use of second person singular, for example, to provide distance, lack of volition. But in the end it suffers from the very coldness it is evoking. I don't think many readers would enjoy it because of its hopelessness.'
Val Page comments: 'We don't usually get such prompt or articulate replies to requests for book reviews, these two turned up after only three days - must tell us something!'
