Richie's Picks: WRITING NAKED by Peter Gould, Farrar Straus & Giroux, June
2008, ISBN: 978-0-374-38483-8
"Líbranos de aquel que nos domina en la miseria
Tráenos tu reino de justicia e igualdad
Sopla como el viento la flor de la quebrada" -- Victor Jara, "Plegaria A Un
Labrador"
" 'Victor?'
"Oh my god.
"How does she know my name?
"You know how when you're playing hide-and-seek, you hear your name called,
and you can tell by the angle of the sound that it's aimed right at you, they
found out right where you are, no matter how good you thought your hiding
place was?
" 'Are you gonna come down, or should I come up?'
"My mind races. Wait a minute; are these the only two possible choices?
Surely there must be more, like, couldn't i just lie still and pretend i'm not
here? Maybe she would miraculously not come up the ladder, just do whatever
it is she came here to do, take as long as she needs, i wouldn't watch, and
then she would leave? Or, better still, she and her dog could head back down
the trail right now. Or: she could shut her eyes and let me slip out of the
cabin. Dog shut his eyes too. None of these seems actually reasonable,
though, so i have to admit she has pretty much summed up the options available to
both of us at the moment. It's on me. i have to answer. Still flat on my
back but trying to sound casual, mature:
" 'i guess i'll come down.' "
How does the teenager named by his ex-hippie mother in honor of the martyred
Chilean folk singer end up in such a position? Actually, he has been making
like Thoreau and heading for the deep woods near his Vermont home. Taking
advantage of his uncle's empty cabin in the middle of nowhere, Victor is
testing out the admonition found in one of his mom's old books from her commune
days that, "You have to be naked to write." He is also trying to stay under
the radar (That's why the lower-case "i."), by employing the old Royal
typewriter which has fortuitously come into his possession:
"Don't get me wrong. i like computers. There's not much i haven't tried on
a computer. i've done digital editing. i download some music. i like to
check out webcams, i've played most of the games some of my school friends
have. i've done some stuff i wish i hadn't.
"But it's hard to shake the feeling that someone in there is watching me,
tracking what i'm doing, writing, or thinking, 24/7. i know they do that. And
even when i'm not online, just typing on a computer, i still feel connected
to that whole world of plastic, electric circuitry, global corporations,
shopping, advertising, pollution.
"So if i go way off the grid and punch these antique keys up in a cabin
somewhere, i'll be connected, but it'll be a whole different world -- a world
that never went away -- of iron and steel, mechanical type, printer's ink,
paper, silence, the woods, water running in a stream."
Victor thinks nobody is watching him. But he is wrong. Rose Anna, the
wonderful teen who interrupts his writing process and then comes to be the most
important part of that process is a home-schooled daughter of another communal
graduate. Victor's and Rose Anna's moms, in fact, have some vital history
in common.
"A salamander scurries into flame to be destroyed.
Imaginary creatures are trapped in birth on celluloid." -- Genesis
WRITING NAKED is the story of a boy and a girl; a cabin and a dog; a
typewriter and an old fountain pen; intertwined stories, a shared journey, and the
future of our planet.
"i stopped at the kitchen mirror on the way up. Did i look different? i
mean, could anyone tell by looking at me what was going on? It's funny to
think that what you're absolutely sure everyone can see may not show at all."
Hysterically funny and achingly honest, Victor's internal monologue is
something that has got to be experienced. I'm always into learning something
about the author of a book I've really enjoyed, but with his creating such an
amazingly sensitive, innocent, (and terrific big brother) character like
Victor, Peter Gould -- like his endearing protagonist -- is now someone whom I'm
dying to know.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
Moderator, _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks)
Caldecott '09
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