The City's First Gang Fugue

Family Fugue...wait, what does that word even mean??!

That was the question on pretty much everybody's mind at the start of this event. The authors, and host Anne Giardini, couldn't do much to clear it up, finally deciding that whatever it is, the audience is about to witness a massive simultaneous one. In case you're still wondering, I urban-dictionaried it and got "A state which is entered after the mass consumption of a reality changing substance". Hmm...how does this relate to family-based literature? Who knows...

In any case, everyone was definitely conscious and sober throughout this event. It was interesting to see the authors' very different takes on family life spanning generations and countries, although the readings they gave were a little too short to get a solid idea of the family issues that are central to each story.

Perhaps the most crucial and engaging part of Family Fugue happened when the discussion turned to the cultural differences in each family in the authors' stories. It must be understood, according to today's event, that different cultures around the world value family in a different way. That can provide for great writing material as long as the values are well understood. For example, Ashok's book involves family values changing in the shift from India to North America, while host Anne Giardini's novel, Advice For Italian Boys, touches on Italian family life.

The writers also talked about how their own families influence their writing and the stories they feel compelled to tell. Michael Crummey's father was a storyteller, so Michael tried to tell the stories in an earlier collection through the voice and tone of his dad. At the launch, MIchael says, "people would come up and get me to sign the book, then go over and get my dad to sign it." He thinks of the stories as gifts that were passed from his father to him, and back to his father through the book.

Ashok Mathur also talked about his familial influences. His mother, before she died, wrote memoirs about her life and experiences. Reading them, says Ashok, he realized that "chronology was not important to her". Thus Ashok was inspired to write in circular narrative form.

As for Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, she says simply that her family "sort of set me free and ignored me." Harsh as that sounds, she continues that "that may be the best education a writer can get."

No matter what an individual's family is like, the general concensus of this event seemed to be that family changes who you are. It gives each person in it a role and enforces the fulfillment of it.

As Ashok poetically put it, "Family is full of wisdom, full of depth." Basically, these authors prove to future writers that they shouldn't worry - that complicated, messed-up family drama might provide some good material later on.