One of the surprises of Marianne Wiggins’ bold, invigorating new novel The Shadow Catcher is that she imagines the photographer Edward S. Curtis being happiest in a longterm affair with a (fictitious) man named Enrico. This revelation, at the end of the book, is given great emotional importance yet only a few lines of narration. Maybe the brevity makes it more potent. Asked last night at a bookstore in Chelsea to elaborate on the relationship, she said she had not always known Curtis’s story would end there; she had discovered it mid-writing. It came to her from looking at a particular photo and from reading Curtis’s letters which highlight his love of a certain kind of masculinity.
Wiggins should be best known for her masterpiece, John Dollar, or her previous novel, Evidence of Things Unseen, which was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
She described the new novel as a “braided river” whose two strands are story of Curtis becoming a great Western photographer and the story of “Marianne Wiggins” whose discussions with Hollywood about her new novel about Edward Curtis are interrupted by hospital calls from Las Vegas where a dying, comatose man has stolen her father’s identity. The dying man is looked after by a Native American who has connections to Curtis. All stories in the novel reflect different variations on the twin themes of heading west and fathers who abandon their families.
A generous author in every aspect, she said her favorite thing is when readers begin to feel they know her characters better than she does and argue with her about the choices they make.
The Los Angeles Times ran a fine interview, which can be read here.
Metacritic is shamefully behind in their books section. They still haven’t even added Haruki Murakami’s After Dark, published May 8, or Don DeLillo’s Falling Man, published May 15, so they certainly don’t yet have The Shadow Catcher, published June 5, but reviews have been very strong: here, here, and one by Jane Smiley here.
If you want more information on the works of ES Curtis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKJJnBsWbNs
Posted by: Jay River | July 01, 2007 at 05:37 AM