Dan Rhodes and J Robert Lennon
Wednesday October 15
Two very contrasting young novelists, who had clearly developed a friendly rapport in their travels, came to Durham on October 15th when Jo Colley introduced Dan Rhodes and J ("for John") Robert Lennon.
Dan Rhodes began at the beginning, reading what he described as an "unpublished story" written in 1978, complete with the teacher's comments at the bottom: "This is very silly, Daniel". And it was...
That was a short piece: next came some even shorter pieces, selected from Anthropology - a collection of precisely 101 stories each of precisely 101 words - then on to his latest Timoleon Vieta Come Home . People who had already read the book and were hoping for enlightenment as to how to pronounce the title were disappointed: Dan Rhodes confided that he didn't know how to do so either and explained that it came from the Encyclopedia Britannica seen in the library of the school where he was teaching - one of the volumes spans the alphabet from Timoleon to Vieta.
Dan Rhodes's selection of readings was varied and entertaining: it reflected the multi-faceted nature of his writing, with its episodic narratives. J. Robert Lennon provided a contrast in both respects. He read two substantial passages, both from the same work, his latest novel Mailman, the story of a man who in his youth thought himself destined for an academic career but who, after a nervous breakdown, took a temporary job as a postman and never moved on. "Over here," he told us, "people comment 'Oh he's no Postman Pat, then.' In the States they remember a number of incidents when postmen shot their co-workers, and ask 'Is he going to go postal?'
The second extract describes Mailman (as he is referred to throughout the book), newly returned from the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan, bewildered by the abundance on sale in the American supermarket, finally cracking up clutching a packet of "Serenity, the cereal for a woman's needs". This clearly struck a chord with the audience who embarked on a lively discussion during which J Robert Lennon answered that the cereal existed, he had changed nothing but the brand name.
The Random House website has four of Dan's stories from Anthropology and there are more on this web page (a PDF) on the website of the Swedish magazine Kraus99.
The first extract that J Robert Lennon read has also been published byLitrag Magazine Online and you can read it here.
Dan Rhodes' and J Robert Lennon's books are available from the bookstall throughout the Festival:
